The headboard is wider than the bed. Not by a token amount - by enough that the bedside tables sit inside it, tucked between deep wings that come forward at each end, with a line of warm light running along the top edge above them. What you end up with is not a bed against a wall. It is an alcove, with the bed in it.

And the television is in the footboard, out of sight, until you press the remote.

Look at where the tufting stops

The broad vertical channels across the centre of the headboard do not run off the edges. They stop short of a plain flat rail at the top and another at the base, so the tufted section reads as a panel deliberately placed rather than as fabric that ran out of room.

That is not only a styling decision. The concealed LED sits under the top rail, and it needs a plain surface directly beneath it to land on - run channels all the way up and the light breaks into stripes before it has travelled anywhere. The flat rail gives the wash a clean start, and by the time it reaches the channels it has softened into a gradient.

The flanking sections and the inner faces of the wings are left completely plain, broken only by a single slim horizontal seam at pillow height. Against the broad channels in the middle, that restraint is what stops a headboard this size becoming a wall of pattern.

What an extra-wide headboard actually solves

Two things that bother people about bedrooms and rarely get named.

The first is that bedside tables never match the bed. You choose a bed, then you choose two cabinets, and they sit beside it looking like three separate decisions - because they are. Run the headboard out past the bed and bring the wings forward, and the cabinets are no longer beside the bed. They are inside it. They stop needing to match, because the headboard now frames them.

The second is lighting. A pair of table lamps lights two small pools and leaves the wall between them dark. The LED strip concealed along the top rail washes warm light straight down the panel instead, so the whole headboard glows softly and the bed has its own light at eleven at night without either of you reaching for a switch on the far side.

Italian palazzo bedrooms did this for centuries with masonry - the bed set into a recessed alcova, out of the draught, lit separately from the room. This is the upholstered version, built on a hardwood frame and hand-finished in our Liversedge workshop.

At the foot, the same broad channels rise into a plain flat rail that answers the one at the top of the headboard, and the television sits behind it when it is down. Both ends of the bed are finished the same way, which is what lets a very wide headboard and a normal-width footboard read as one object rather than two pieces of furniture that happen to be facing each other.

And it all lifts up

Underneath is a side-opening ottoman base on gas struts: the full footprint of the bed as storage, opening from the side, entirely separate from the television mechanism at the foot. Spare duvets, winter bedding, suitcases, the things that have nowhere else to go in a bedroom this considered.

That is worth saying plainly, because a bed that hides a 55-inch television and swallows everything a spare wardrobe would have held is doing two jobs a normal bed cannot do at all.

What makes the Alcova work

• Extra-wide headboard with deep wings - runs past the bed on both sides so the bedside tables sit within it, framed rather than parked alongside
• Floating tufted panel - broad vertical channels stopping short of plain flat rails top and bottom, so the light has somewhere clean to land and the panel reads as placed rather than as filler
• Concealed LED along the top rail - warm light washing down the panel, lighting the whole headboard rather than two small pools
• Plain wings and side sections - broken only by a single seam at pillow height, so the scale never becomes a wall of pattern
• Motorised footboard TV lift - remote-controlled, for screens up to 55 inches and 40kg, sitting behind a plain flat rail when down
• Side-opening ottoman gas-lift base - full underbed storage, independent of the television mechanism
• Hardwood internal frame and concealed cabling - power for both the lift and the lighting routed inside the frame; nothing on the wall, nothing on the floor

Choosing your fabric

The Alcova is upholstered to order in any of our designer fabrics. The cream velvet shown here is the natural choice, because a pale panel carries the LED wash further and keeps an enclosed alcove feeling open rather than cave-like - and a short dense pile is what gives the broad channels their shadow. A dark fabric makes this a genuinely dramatic bed, but it absorbs the light instead of spreading it, which is worth knowing before you commit. Order a free fabric swatch first; on a headboard this size, fabric is the room, and our guide to weave, wear and feel is worth ten minutes.

The questions people actually ask

• How much wall do I need? This is the critical one, and it is the only bed in our range where the headboard is significantly wider than the mattress. Measure the full clear wall width - corner to corner, past any door architrave, radiator or alcove return - and ask us for the exact overall headboard width in your chosen size before ordering. We would far rather answer that than deliver something that will not go in.
• Can I change the headboard height? Yes. The standard headboard is 137cm, and you can specify 140cm, 150cm, 160cm or 170cm at checkout for a supplement. Please check your ceiling, your staircase and your doorways first - custom heights are made to your specification and are non-returnable.
• Do the bedside tables come with it? No - the bed is sold on its own. The wings are sized to accommodate standard bedside cabinets, and because the headboard frames them, they no longer need to match the bed. Ask us for the internal width between the wings if you are buying cabinets to suit.
• Can the lighting be switched off? The LED is integrated into the headboard and controlled independently of the television lift. Confirm the exact control method with us when you order.
• 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 the storage still work with the TV lift? Yes. The ottoman base opens from the side and the television rises from the footboard; the two mechanisms are entirely separate and neither limits the other.
• How long does it take? Every Alcova 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. Given the size of this headboard, White Glove delivery to your room of choice is worth the paid upgrade at checkout.

Complete Dimensions

Widths above are the bed frame. The Alcova's headboard extends beyond them on both sides - please ask us for the overall headboard width in your chosen size before you order. Headboard height can be raised to 140, 150, 160 or 170cm at checkout. Handmade to order, so please allow 2-3cm of variance across the range.

If the Alcova is close but not quite

The Abbraccio is the same enclosing idea at normal width - wings that hold the pillows rather than the bedside tables - and needs far less wall. The Luminosa lights its headboard from behind a gold inlay instead of from above, and goes up rather than out. The Colonnato takes the height without the wings or the lighting, the Riposo uses the same floating-panel idea at a quarter of the scale, and the Onda softens the foot of the bed with a rolled curve where the Alcova keeps a flat rail. They all sit together in the television bed collection, and our wingback beds carry the same enclosing idea without a television. For the rest of the room, the Luxe and Eleganza collections share the same fabric range. A headboard this size is worth planning into a room rather than adding to one - our bedroom renovation guide covers the order to do things in.

Order your swatches, send us your wall measurement, and we will start cutting. If you would rather spread the cost, payment options are available at checkout.