Burrow Chorus Bed Review: A Sleek, Simple-to-Set-Up Frame to Level Up Your Bedroom

Getting hands-on with the Chorus Bed

Previously known as the “Circa”, the Chorus bed is designed to for easy delivery and construction — helping you to avoid the usual bed assembly troubles. The Circa frame requires no tools to assemble and the (optional) headboard, which sturdily and securely connects to the frame, has been tested for strength and stability. The bed is available in full, queen, and king size and has a capacity to hold up to 700lbs.

If you’re looking to design an entire room (like I am), Burrow’s inspiration page does a great job laying out curated rooms with themes like “Crisp & Comfortable”, “Scandinavian Studio”, and “Loft Leisure.” The room profiles are complete with links to various coffee tables, side tables, lamps, seats, benches, rugs, pillows, and blankets that would all work with the theme. Basically, it’s a one-stop shop to build the bedroom or living room of your dreams. I’ll admit to having spent far too much time the past few weeks, scrolling endlessly through Burrow-curated rooms and dreaming I could outfit my entire home just like the online profiles.

Burrow is best known for its Nomad Sofa and modular sectionals, which are very much in line with the brand’s mid-century-meets-Scandinavian aesthetic. The Chorus Bed comes in two wood finishes (Oak and Walnut), as well as three upholstered versions (Papyrus, Stone Grey, and Heather Charcoal) that are made with scratch- and stain-resistant fabric. The bed frame can be purchased with or without a headboard and you can mix and match across wood and upholstery to create various combinations. Once you know what size and materials you want, the straightforward ordering process only takes a few minutes. 

Delivery and construction

Despite the delivery delays plaguing so many businesses in this country (furniture being one of the most hard-hit industries), my bed arrived in a little over a month. Surprise! Oh, and not only is the shipping fast, it’s also free. Double win! The bed also ships directly in various smaller boxes that are easy to move around. Triple win!

I received several emails from Burrow regarding the estimated delivery timeframe (initially, 1-3 weeks), and again when the product shipped and was scheduled to arrive. My only issue with the delivery process is that the company that handled the delivery just left the three large boxes in my building’s lobby. I was home all morning and didn’t receive any buzz or knock on the door (very annoying since there’s a lot of theft in my building) so I stumbled on the boxes when I went out to run an errand. 

Though I was able to push the boxes into my apartment alone, I recruited a friend to help out with assembly. We worked together to unpack the boxes and lay out all of the materials, which included: five rails (foot, head, center support, and two side rails), two slat rolls (one for each side of the bed), four corner legs, one center support leg, and one thumbscrew. The headboard also came with four hand screws that are used to tighten it to the frame.

The assembly instructions were clear, easy to interpret, and included graphics to assist in identifying different parts and processes. While it didn’t take too long to distinguish the head rail from the foot rail (they’re the same length and look very similar), it would have been helpful if they were labeled with stickers to avoid having to look back and forth at the directions and flip the rails around several times.

After setting up the frame rails in a rectangle, you simply slide the rails together. The teeth of the head rail slide into the slots on the side rails and then the teeth of the side rails are slid into the slots on the foot rail. While I believe this step certainly could be done by one person, it was much easier having a second person hold one side in place while I pushed the other side into it. 

Once the rectangular frame is set up, it’s time to twist the four legs into the corners of the frame. While two of the legs easily screwed on within a matter of seconds, two legs gave us quite a bit of trouble. We twisted these two legs for about 15 minutes and we undid and redid the rails several times before we could finally screw them in all the way. With my friend holding the rails tightly together at the corners, I was able to eventually screw in the remaining legs. It was slightly frustrating but, ultimately, it didn’t cause too much hassle. With the four legs in place, we were then ready to flip the frame.

Per the instructions, a partner should be used to help flip the frame and I strongly agree, as there’s no way I could have flipped it alone without having the frame come crashing down onto the floor. Once the frame is flipped, the final fifth leg is then screwed onto the center support rail, which is rested into the notches of the foot and head rails. The headboard (if you get one) is then lowered into the head rail and four large, ergonomic hand screws are used to securely attach it. I expected the headboard attachment to be far more complicated but it only took a few minutes to twist all the screws into place.

The final step is to unroll the slats – one for each side of the bed frame – and hook them into the small posts on the foot and head rails. Next, we moved the bed to the desired position and, thanks to the soft, protective felt-like pads under the legs, we were able to move it around quite a bit to play with different arrangements. 

The entire assembly process took about an hour but a quarter of that time was spent twisting the legs in. Assuming your legs don’t have any issues (and you probably won’t), you should be able to assemble the bed with a partner in about 45 minutes.

Living with the Chorus Bed

This is a beautiful bed and a serious step up from my previous futon arrangement. I’m proud to have the bed in my room and having put it together and slept on it, I’m confident it’s a very high-quality frame. Because it’s so sturdy and doesn’t wobble, there’s no creaking or cracking when moving around on the bed, which is a big plus for restless sleepers like myself. I also appreciate the 7.5” under-bed clearance, which has allowed me to stuff all of my storage boxes of off-season shoes and clothing under there.

This is a beautiful bed and a serious step up from my previous futon arrangement. I’m proud to have the bed in my room and having put it together and slept on it, I’m confident it’s a very high-quality frame.

As I’m still in the process of redesigning the bedroom, I’ve been moving the bed and my mismatching furniture around quite a bit to try to determine what arrangement I like best. Though my floors aren’t the prettiest (and I know my landlord will never replace them), I really appreciate how the soft leg pads allow the bed to be moved around effortlessly and without scratching the floors. Considering how heavy the boxes were for me to push alone, I worried it would be difficult to move the bed around once it was fully assembled but thanks to the pads, I’ve had zero issues pushing it around by myself.

I really appreciate how the soft leg pads allow the bed to be moved around effortlessly and without scratching the floors.

Personally, I find the overall height of the bed frame to be a bit low but that’s purely a matter of personal preference. The height of the Burrow frame with a Burrow mattress on top of it is 23” but because my mattress is much thinner, the overall height is slightly less. I’ve had no issues getting in and out of the bed but my mother (who has arthritis and Parkinson’s) is unable to get off the bed alone, something she could do fairly easily on the previous bed. If you have bad knees or mobility issues, this bed could still work for you, you’ll likely just want to make sure you have a thicker mattress and/or leg extenders to raise the bed up higher.

The photos on the Burrow site accurately portray what the bed looks like in real life and I appreciate the wide variety of photos they provide, that do a good job showing the bed in different arrangements. The only thing I’d caution is to make sure you measure the dimensions out in your room, which is something I failed to do. Because the bed is pictured on the site next to Burrow end tables, which are also fairly low to the ground, it didn’t occur to me that the bed would be so low and I’m an idiot for not measuring it out at home. In the end, the bed works perfectly fine, I’ll just need to get a thicker mattress and/or lower end tables that are more in proportion to the lower bed.

The Chorus Bed is easy to assemble, its modular design would allow you to add on (or remove) a headboard at any point, and how effortlessly you can slide the bed around without damaging floors, I believe the bed is extremely practical for a modern home.