What types of BDSM furniture are there?

Most lists of BDSM furniture sort the pieces by what each one does to a body. That's the least useful way to choose, because the first question most buyers face is a different one: what will this piece do to the room it lives in, on all the days it isn't being used?

This guide sorts the main types the other way round, by how much each one says about the room. Some pieces pass as ordinary furniture. Some are unmistakable but can share a room that has other jobs. A few only make sense in a room of their own. Knowing which group a piece belongs to tells you more about whether it suits your home than any description of what it does.

Pieces that read as ordinary furniture

These are the easiest pieces to live with. A visitor sees a bed, a chair or a footstool, and nothing needs explaining.

Restraint beds

A restraint bed is an everyday bed with restraint points built into its frame. The most common form is the four-poster, where posts and rails frame the mattress on every side, though platform beds with fixing points exist too. Because you sleep in it every night, a restraint bed earns its place more easily than any other piece on this list.

We make ours as four-poster frames in S235 steel, each with welded D-rings, with or without a patterned headboard. Our guide to what makes a restraint bed different from an ordinary frame covers the detail, and you can see every design among our BDSM bed frames.

Under-bed restraint kits

An under-bed kit is a set of straps that runs beneath a mattress, with a cuff at each corner. It adds restraint to the bed you already own, packs away into a drawer and costs far less than a new frame. What it can't do is change the bed itself: how well it works depends on the mattress, the base and how the straps sit. For many couples, a kit is a sensible way to find out whether restraint suits them before they buy anything larger.

Chairs

A chair can be ordinary furniture with a role of its own: the seat one partner takes and the other doesn't. In some dynamics it's the piece that defines the room. A few chairs are made with restraint points, but many people use a well-made armchair and nothing else. Our guide to setting up a femdom bedroom looks at how a chair can shape a whole room.

Ottomans and storage benches

A padded ottoman or storage bench at the foot of a bed reads as exactly that. Some are built with restraint points, and many have a lid that hides accessories, which makes them the most discreet way to keep restraints close to where they're used. Our guide to storing restraints and accessories discreetly covers the options.

Pieces that are unmistakable, but share a room

The pieces in this group can't pass as anything else. In a considered finish, though, they can sit in a bedroom or a spare room as objects in their own right, and the room carries on with its other jobs around them.

St Andrew's crosses and five-point frames

A St Andrew's cross is an X-shaped frame for standing restraint. It takes little floor, changes the character of a room more than its size suggests, and is the piece most people picture first. A five-point frame extends the idea with a fifth arm. We make both in steel; our guide to what a cross is used for covers the uses, and our BDSM crosses show the three forms we make.

Benches

A bench supports the person using it, where a cross holds them standing. Benches are usually padded, timber or upholstered, and lower than a cross, so they sit more quietly in a room. We don't make benches, but they're a common second or third piece, and a well-made one in a good fabric can look like any other upholstered furniture.

Horses

A horse is a padded beam on legs, named after the gymnastics apparatus it resembles. It sits somewhere between a bench and a piece of sculpture, and it's most at home in a room that already has a clear purpose.

Cages

A cage is a steel enclosure, in an upright form or a lower one. Even empty, it's the most recognisable piece in this group, which is why its finish matters so much: in a considered colour, a cage can read as an architectural object. We make upright and low forms, and our guide to what a cage is used for covers how people use them. You can see the forms among our BDSM cages.

Pieces that suit a room of their own

Some pieces ask for more than a corner of a bedroom.

Restraint tables

A restraint table is a padded platform at table height with restraint points along its edges, and some are adjustable. It's large, unmistakable and hard to use for anything else, so it belongs in a dedicated room rather than a bedroom.

Rooms planned as a set

Once a room is set aside for scenes, the question changes from 'which piece?' to 'how do the pieces work together?' Some people plan the room as a set: a bed, a cross and a cage in one finish, placed around how the room will be used. Our bespoke service works this way. You send a brief and the room's measurements, we send scaled drawings to review, and nothing is made until you've approved the drawings and the quote in writing. If you're starting from an empty room, our guide to turning a spare room into a playroom takes you through it.

Every type at a glance

Piece	What it is	What it asks of a room
Restraint bed	An everyday bed with restraint points in its frame	Nothing beyond a bedroom; it replaces the bed you have
Under-bed kit	Straps that run beneath a mattress	Nothing; it packs away into a drawer
Chair	A seat with a role, sometimes with restraint points	A corner of a bedroom or sitting room
Ottoman or storage bench	A low padded piece, often with storage	The foot of a bed
St Andrew's cross	An X-shaped frame for standing restraint	Clear floor on every side, and a room comfortable with it being seen
Bench	A padded support, usually timber or upholstered	Floor space, and a fabric that suits the room
Horse	A padded beam on legs	A room with a clear purpose
Cage	A steel enclosure, upright or low	Floor space, and a finish you're happy to look at every day
Restraint table	A padded platform at table height	A dedicated room

What they have in common

Almost every piece here depends on its restraint points, and those vary more than buyers expect. Closed rings welded into a frame ask different questions of a buyer than open hooks or fittings bolted on afterwards. Our guide to the difference between a hook and a welded D-ring explains why we use rings.

Every piece also comes in more than one material. Timber, steel and upholstery each suit different rooms, and our comparison of steel and wood weighs them fairly. And every piece, from a kit in a drawer to a room planned as a set, needs the same conversation before it's used: our guide to what to agree before using restraint furniture covers it.

Starting from the room you have

The room usually decides before you do. If your only option is the bedroom you sleep in, start with the first group: a restraint bed, a chair, or a kit to find out what you enjoy. If you have a spare room that does other jobs, the second group opens up, and a cross or a cage can join the bed. The third group only makes sense in a room set aside for it.

Two more questions settle most decisions: who else sees the room, and what do you want a piece to do that you can't do now? Our comparison of a bed and a cross as a first piece works through the most common version of that choice, and our list of questions to ask a furniture maker applies whoever you buy from.

The piece you'll use most is the one that still suits the room on an ordinary Tuesday, when nobody is thinking about scenes at all.