Gold Carved King Size Bed - Pierced Openwork Headboard and Footboard

Cutting Away Instead of Cutting In

India has an old tradition of pierced screen work, where stone and wood are cut clean through into patterns so that light and air pass while the surface still reads as ornament. The technique long predates the European furniture forms Brown Rabbit works in, and this bed is what happens when it is applied to one. The headboard shape, the scroll vocabulary and the cabriole feet are all European; the decision to remove the material rather than carve into it is not. It is the reason this piece behaves so differently in a room from a relief-carved bed of the same size.

The craft consequence is severe. In relief carving, a mistake takes off a little more wood than intended and can usually be worked around. In pierced carving there is nothing behind the cut, so a slip breaks a bridge, and a broken bridge on a component spanning a king width means starting that component again from fresh stock. The carver is working with no margin across a very long run. It also doubles the finishing: with light passing through, the reverse face is visible from anywhere in the room except directly in front, so the gold is laid and burnished on both sides rather than one. All of it is done by hand by master Indian artisans, and the photographs on this page show the actual bed.

Specifications: Pierced Openwork Gold Teak Bed

The bed as photographed is described below. Since it is made to your order, every line here can be changed.

• Frame and carving: solid teak wood, hand-carved and hand-finished by master Indian artisans
• Carving type: pierced openwork, cut clean through the timber on the headboard crest and across the full footboard
• Finish: gold, hand-applied and burnished on both faces of the pierced sections
• Headboard upholstery: two small ivory deep-buttoned panels at pillow height
• Footboard: fully pierced openwork panel running the width of the bed
• Feet: scrolled cabriole feet
• Supplied with: two matching bedside chests in the same gold finish
• Options: a solid backing panel can be fitted behind the headboard openwork on request
• Upholstery options: ivory as shown, or leather, velvet, silk, linen or a fabric you supply
• Finish options: gold as shown, or antique gold, champagne, rose gold, silver or a painted colour
• Size: custom sizes made to order; final measurements confirmed in writing before production
• Storage: box or hydraulic base storage available on request
• Warranty: 20 years on solid teak frame and joinery; lifetime cover against termite damage
• Delivery: free across India with guaranteed dent-free arrival

Shipping a Bed That Is Mostly Holes

Conventional furniture packing works by pressing padding against a surface. That approach would destroy this bed, because there is very little continuous surface to press against and a great deal of narrow, unsupported timber that would simply snap. So the pierced components travel suspended rather than padded. Each is registered into a foam bed cut to the outline of its solid perimeter frame, so the frame is supported around its edge and the entire openwork interior hangs in a void with nothing touching it at all. No strap, no packing material and no weight comes into contact with the lace itself.

Because the gold is finished on both faces, the reverse is protected as carefully as the front, using a non-abrasive facing that cannot scuff burnished gilding. Rigid guards are fitted around the full perimeter of each pierced panel, since any impact will travel through the frame to the bridges. The two small upholstered panels travel with no strapping across the buttoning, and the two bedside chests are boxed separately with drawers immobilised. This is the most specialised packing operation in our range and the cost is entirely ours. A broken bridge in openwork cannot be repaired invisibly, which is why the guarantee matters: it arrives intact, or we make it right.

Free Delivery in India, and a Note on Handling

Delivery is free anywhere in India with no distance surcharge. Build time on this design is longer than almost anything else in the range, because pierced carving cannot be rushed and cannot be recovered from a mistake; a broken bridge means restarting the component from fresh stock, and the footboard spans a full king width in a single piece. Gilding then has to be applied and burnished on both faces. We give you a realistic completion window once your specification is confirmed, and if you have a fixed date we will say honestly at enquiry whether it is achievable.

The bed ships in suspended-frame packing under our dent-free arrival guarantee, and we keep you informed from dispatch to arrival. Our team assembles it in the bedroom and we ask you to inspect the openwork on both faces with them present. Once installed, treat the pierced sections as decorative: do not use them as handholds when moving the bed and do not hang clothes or bags from the footboard. If your staircase, lift or bedroom door is tight, tell us at enquiry so the frame can be engineered to break down into sections that will pass through without stressing the panels.

Warranty on a Pierced Frame

The solid teak frame and joinery are guaranteed for 20 years from delivery, and termite damage is covered for the life of the bed with no expiry. On a bed with this much material removed, the warranty conversation is about where the strength actually is, so it is worth being clear: the load-bearing structure is the solid perimeter frame and the rails, not the pierced panels, which are decorative and carry no weight. Those perimeter joints are cut and pinned and covered for the full term. The pierced sections are covered against manufacturing failure, not against impact damage, which is a fair distinction and we would rather state it than let you discover it in a claim.

The gold finish, the two upholstered panels and their foam sit outside the structural cover, as they wear with use. We re-gild and reupholster our own beds at any point in their life at an honest price. On this design that service matters more than usual, because pierced openwork gilded on both faces is not something a general furniture repairer can restore convincingly, and we can, since we cut and finished it. Keep the bed indoors, away from prolonged direct sun, do not hang anything from the openwork, and do not modify the frame.