Dream Home Store Review: Is This Affordable UK Furniture Any Good?

Dream Home Store is a UK online retailer selling ready-to-assemble furniture — ottoman storage beds, wardrobes, dining sets, coffee tables and garden egg chairs — at prices well below traditional showroom brands. Before you add anything to basket, though, there are three things worth checking that most reviews skip: whether the mattress size you already own will fit the bed frame, whether the upholstered piece carries proper UK fire-safety labelling, and how long assembly will realistically eat into your Saturday.

What Is Dream Home Store?

Dream Home Store, also known as DHS, is the exclusive UK retail partner of Blisswood Furniture, a furniture manufacturer the brand describes as one of the UK's leading names in the category. That exclusive partnership is the core of the pitch: by acting as the sole retail channel for Blisswood designs, Dream Home Store cuts out the usual wholesale middlemen and passes the savings on directly, which is how it undercuts many high-street furniture chains on price.

Design, production, quality control and warehousing all run out of a single facility in Boston, Lincolnshire, rather than being outsourced overseas piecemeal. That in-house setup is also what makes next-working-day delivery possible on a lot of UK mainland orders — stock doesn't have to clear an extra import or third-party warehouse leg before it reaches you.

Dream Home Store Bedroom Range and Mattress Sizing

The bedroom range is where Dream Home Store's flat-pack, budget-friendly model shows up most clearly — ottoman storage beds, the Shaker-style bedroom set, and simpler bed frames all sit at meaningfully lower prices than most UK high-street retailers. The one mistake that trips up almost every first-time buyer, on this site or any other: ordering a bed frame before confirming the mattress size actually fits it.

UK mattress sizing follows a fixed set of industry-standard dimensions. A Single measures 90cm × 190cm, a Small Double (Three Quarter) is 120cm × 190cm, a standard Double is 135cm × 190cm (4'6" × 6'3"), and a King is 150cm × 200cm (5' × 6'6"), with a Super King extending to 180cm × 200cm. Always check the exact frame dimensions listed on the product page against your current mattress before ordering — a frame labelled “Double” from one retailer isn't guaranteed to match another's cut, and gas-lift ottoman frames in particular have thicker side rails that eat into usable width.

The Shaker 4-Piece Bedroom Set takes a different approach: instead of one storage bed, it pairs a 3-door wardrobe with a 2-over-2 chest of drawers and two bedside tables, all in matching oak-effect engineered wood. It's a reasonable option if you'd rather spread storage across separate pieces than rely on under-bed space, and it's listed at around £529.99 at time of writing.

Fire Safety: What BS 5852 Labelling Means

Any upholstered furniture sold in the UK — velvet ottoman beds, fabric dining chairs, recliners — is legally required to comply with the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, tested against British Standard BS 5852. Compliant items have to pass two separate ignition tests: a cigarette-resistance test (Source 0), where the fabric must not ignite or smoulder when a lit cigarette rests in the seat crease, and a match-resistance test (Source 1), where the material must self-extinguish quickly after brief flame contact. Retailers are required to keep compliance records for five years and display fire-safety labels at the point of sale.

This matters more than it sounds, because it's exactly the corner some grey-import or marketplace-only furniture sellers cut. Dream Home Store's upholstered pieces — the velvet ottoman beds, dining chairs and recliners — are described as UKFR (UK fire-resistant) compliant, meaning they carry the required certification for the domestic market. Before buying any velvet or fabric piece from any retailer, look for that fire-safety label on the product page or packaging rather than assuming it's covered.

Flat-Pack Reality: Assembly Time and Effort

“Ready to assemble” is doing a lot of work in that phrase, and it's worth being honest about what it costs you in time. Simple flat-pack pieces — bedside tables, small shelving — typically take 30 minutes to an hour for one person. More complex items, like a wardrobe, a 4-piece bedroom set, or a gas-lift ottoman bed, run anywhere from one to three hours and are usually easier, sometimes necessary, with two people.

Dream Home Store's own product data backs this up: the Chesterfield Ottoman Storage Bed is listed as roughly a one-hour, two-person assembly. The Shaker 4-Piece Bedroom Set, with four separate items each needing full assembly, will realistically take longer — budget most of an afternoon if you're doing the whole set in one sitting. Keep basic tools on hand even though an Allen key is usually included, and clear the room first — flat-pack panels take up more floor space unassembled than the finished piece does.

Dream Home Store Product Picks

These are the pieces with the clearest specifications in Dream Home Store's own product data, spanning bedroom, dining and living-room categories.

Ottoman Bed vs Divan vs Plain Frame

Bed frame type is the decision most likely to affect your day-to-day storage, not just the look of the bedroom. Here's how the three most common Dream Home Store bed styles stack up.

Against premium UK furniture retailers with solid-hardwood construction and white-glove delivery, Dream Home Store's engineered-wood, self-assembly model is the clear trade-off — you're paying less because you're doing the labour and accepting a lighter-duty material spec, not because the fire-safety or warranty coverage is any weaker on paper.

Delivery, Returns and Warranty

Standard courier delivery to UK mainland addresses is free, with a typical 1–2 business day turnaround, and orders placed before 7am on a weekday are usually dispatched the same day. Larger furniture goes out on a van instead of a courier, with next-working-day delivery available on orders placed before 9am, Monday to Saturday. Northern Ireland delivery is the exception — it adds 3–5 days and a flat fee, while van delivery charges elsewhere vary by postcode, from free in major population centres to a surcharge in more remote areas. Always inspect large items at the door and note any damage on the delivery paperwork before the driver leaves — that's what protects a damaged-item claim.

Every order is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 1-year manufacturing warranty. Refunds are processed within 24 hours of the returned item being inspected, with funds typically landing back in your account 3–5 working days later. Items need to go back in their original packaging with all components included, and you'll cover return shipping yourself unless the piece arrived faulty or damaged, in which case that cost falls on Dream Home Store.

What to Look For Before You Buy

Confirm the exact frame dimensions, not just the mattress name

“Double” and “King” aren't universal millimetre-for-millimetre standards across every retailer, even though the UK sizing convention itself is fixed at 135cm × 190cm for a Double and 150cm × 200cm for a King. Cross-check the listed frame dimensions against your actual mattress before ordering, especially with ottoman frames where thicker side rails can shave off usable width.

Check for the fire-safety label on anything upholstered

Velvet, fabric or leather-look pieces should state UKFR or BS 5852 compliance on the product page. If a listing doesn't mention it, ask before buying — it's a legal requirement, not an optional extra.

Plan for assembly time, not just delivery time

Block out the hour to three hours a piece will realistically take, get a second pair of hands for anything with a headboard or gas-lift mechanism, and clear the room first so flat-pack panels have somewhere to lie down during the build.

Who Dream Home Store Is Not For

If you want solid hardwood construction, in-home white-glove assembly, or a multi-year warranty that runs beyond a single year, Dream Home Store isn't the right fit — that's the trade-off for the lower prices. It's also not the fastest option if you're outside UK mainland or in Northern Ireland, where delivery windows stretch out and a delivery surcharge applies. If you're not comfortable spending an afternoon with an Allen key, or don't have a second person around for the heavier pieces, factor that labour into your decision before ordering.

For furnishing ideas beyond a single retailer, see our broader home decor trends guide or our Maia Homes review for a comparison point on another budget-friendly décor brand.

References

1. Silentnight — Bed Mattress Size Guide UK
2. RISE — BS 5852: Part 1 Fire Testing of Upholstered Furniture in UK
3. Dream Home Store — About Us
4. Dream Home Store — Shipping Policy
5. Dream Home Store — Refunds Policy