Most headboards are a flat panel behind your head. This one comes forward at both sides and holds the pillows between its wings, so the top of the bed stops being a surface and becomes a place. The Italians have a word for what that does - abbraccio, an embrace - and it is a more accurate description of a wingback than anything in English. Inside the footboard, behind the same channel tufting, a television rises on a remote and disappears when you are done with it.

The lift is motorised and remote-controlled, built for screens up to 55 inches and 40kg, with the mechanism, power feed and cabling routed inside the frame. No bracket in the plasterboard, no cable down the wall, no stand in the corner.

What wings actually do

Three things, and only one of them is decorative.

They cut side draughts, which matters if your bed sits near a window or in a period room with a cold wall. They block peripheral light, so one of you can read with a bedside lamp on without lighting up the other person's side of the bed. And on a television bed specifically, they give you something to lean sideways against - which sounds minor until you have spent two hours propped on an elbow watching a film, and realised there was nothing to rest against except a stack of pillows slowly migrating onto the floor.

They also do the obvious thing: in a large room, a winged headboard stops the bed looking marooned. A flat panel in the middle of a big wall reads as furniture placed in a space. A winged one reads as a made bed, which is a different feeling entirely.

Building them is the part that costs. Each wing is its own shaped and upholstered section, angled forward and joined to the main panel, and the channel tufting has to carry round that angle without the spacing jumping at the join. Get it wrong and the eye goes straight to the corner. Each is set out and hand-finished in our Liversedge workshop over a hardwood frame - which matters more on a television bed than an ordinary one, because a moving mechanism puts load through the footboard every day of its life.

The footboard repeats the channels and closes with a soft rolled top over the screen housing, so the whole bed reads as one enclosed object rather than a headboard with a separate machine at the other end.

What makes the Abbraccio work

• Deep wing returns - shaped sections angled forward at both sides, with the channel tufting carried cleanly round the join
• Practical enclosure - cuts side draughts, blocks a partner's bedside lamp, and gives you something to lean against while the screen is up
• Motorised footboard TV lift - remote-controlled, for screens up to 55 inches and 40kg, fully concealed when down
• Channel-tufted throughout - foam stacked in vertical sections from the base up, so the ribbing holds its shape rather than flattening
• Hardwood internal frame and concealed cabling - the structural work that keeps a moving mechanism feeling solid and the room looking empty of wires

Choosing your fabric

The Abbraccio is upholstered to order in any of our 15+ designer fabrics. The mid-grey velvet shown here is the most useful choice at this scale: dark enough that the wings read as depth rather than as bulk, light enough that an enclosed headboard does not make the room feel closed in. A very pale fabric flattens the wings visually - you lose the shadow that makes them read - and a very dark one turns the bed into a single heavy mass. Order a free fabric swatch before you decide, and see our guide to weave, wear and feel for what changes between a velvet and a flat weave.

The questions people actually ask

• How much floor space do the wings add? They project forward from the headboard rather than sideways, so the bed is no wider - but it is longer overall than the mattress length, and the wings need the headboard wall free of radiators, sockets and switch plates at pillow height. Measure the wall, not just the floor.
• What size television fits? The lift takes screens up to 55 inches and 40kg. The television is not included - the mechanism, the mounting bracket and the internal cable routing are.
• Does a wingback make a small bedroom feel smaller? It can, and it is the one shape where that is a fair worry. In a small room, keep the fabric mid-toned and the walls light. In a large room a wingback is almost always the better choice, because it gives the bed presence a flat headboard cannot.
• How long does it take? Every Abbraccio is made to order in Liversedge, so please allow 15-30 business days from order to delivery.
• Where do you deliver? Free delivery to mainland UK addresses (England, Wales and mainland Scotland), kerbside as standard. White Glove delivery to your room of choice is available as a paid upgrade at checkout.

Complete Dimensions

Handmade to order, which is why we ask you to allow 2-3cm of variance across the range - the mark of a bed actually built by hand rather than stamped out.

If the Abbraccio is close but not quite

If it is the wings you want without the television, our wingback bed collection takes the same idea across the range. If it is the television you want in something more open, the Onda keeps the channel tufting and drops the wings entirely, the Riflesso trades them for bevelled mirror, the Luminosa goes wall-height with a gold inlay, and the Aureo moves the lift into the headboard instead of the footboard. They sit together in the television bed collection, and the Luxe and Eleganza collections share the same fabric range.

Order your swatches, choose your fabric, and we will start cutting. If you would rather spread the cost, payment options are available at checkout.