Nursing Home Furniture: Resident-Room Bedside Cabinets, Wardrobes and Bedheads Made to Your Drawings

A resident room in an aged-care or nursing home project is furnished with a small set of pieces that are used every day by the same person and cleaned and checked by staff: a bedside cabinet, a wardrobe, a bedhead or headboard panel, and often a drawer unit or an overbed table. The set looks simple, but each piece carries details that affect use and cleaning, and quotations that look alike can leave out the hardware, the edge treatment or the fixing.

FBM Furniture works with companies only: Developers · General Contractors · Builders · Commercial Project Owners · Interior Design & Construction Companies · FF&E Solution Providers. Send the room plans, the schedule and the quantities, so we can compare the same drawing line by line.

Product scope

• Bedside cabinets and drawer units for resident rooms
• Wardrobes and robes, freestanding or built to the room drawing
• Bedheads, headboard panels and wall-mounted bed surrounds
• Overbed tables, shelves and small storage that belong to the room set

Resident chairs, lounge seating and dining furniture come from different production lines. See our pages on aged-care and healthcare furniture, aged-care lounge and dining chairs and guestroom casegoods, which share construction questions.

What to specify before requesting quotes

Schedule field	What to record
Item code and quantity	One code per cabinet, wardrobe, bedhead and accessory type, with the quantity per room type, wing or floor.
Room plan	The plan with the position of each piece, the clear space around the bed and the door swing of the wardrobe.
Dimensions	Overall width, depth and height as drawn, with the heights the operator has asked for written separately.
Carcass and surfaces	Board and surface description, edge treatment and the cleaning products the facility uses, written for the model quoted.
Hardware	Handles, hinges, runners and locks as drawn, with the model reference and a sample.
Fixing	Whether each piece is freestanding or fixed to wall or floor, and the fixings the drawing assumes.
Finish	Finish name or code and colour reference, with an approved sample against each item code.
Personalisation	Name plates, key tags or memory-display areas, if the operator wants them, and who supplies them.
Evidence required	The test or certification the operator or authority requires, with standard and edition, for the materials offered and the destination named.
Packing	How pieces are protected and marked by room type and wing, and which parts ship separately.

The table is a checklist. Add a line for anything your project needs that is not listed, such as bed-rail interfaces, call-system fittings or tilt-restraint fixings.

Bedside cabinets and drawer units

The bedside cabinet is the piece used most. Ask each maker to describe the top and edge, the drawer and door construction, the runners and the handles for the exact model, and to say how the piece is fixed or weighted. State the height and the reach the operator wants from the bed, and ask whether the cabinet is meant to be moved by staff for cleaning, because that decides whether castors or fixed feet are drawn.

Wardrobes and robes

A resident wardrobe is judged by how it opens, how it is cleaned and how it is fixed. Name the door type, the hanging and shelving arrangement, the handles and any lock, and say whether the unit is fixed to the wall. Ask the factory to show the fixing detail on its drawing and the way the carcass is joined. Where wardrobes are built to the room drawing, see our page on built-in wardrobes and headboard walls.

Bedheads and wall panels

Bedheads in aged-care rooms may be freestanding, wall-mounted or part of a room surround with lighting and services. Record how the panel is fixed, where services run and who supplies them, and approve a finished sample including the edge. Our guide to healthcare and aged-care furniture manufacturers for Australian projects covers the supply side.

Samples, approval and acceptance on delivery

Approve a finished sample of each piece, not a photograph, before bulk production, and record the approval in writing against the item code. Keep the approved sample as the reference for the bulk order. Our guide to samples, finishes and approvals sets out the sequence. On delivery, check a sample of cartons against the order: item code, size, finish, hardware and quantity of each part, and note any difference in writing with photographs on the day. Before shipment our own team checks quantities, dimensions, finish, hardware and packing against the signed-off specification, and you receive a QC report with photos and video.

Name the rules in the specification

The rules that apply to resident-room furniture depend on the destination, the operator and the materials. Name the requirement in the specification and ask each factory what evidence it can provide for the exact model offered. Our United States, Canada and Australia and New Zealand compliance pages explain how we approach the main rules. Your specifier or certifier decides what applies to your project.

What to request from the factory

• A description of the carcass, surfaces, hardware and fixing for each item code, with the sample reference.
• A finished sample of each cabinet, wardrobe door and bedhead panel, with the finish code on the sample.
• Evidence the specification asks for, issued for the materials offered and the destination named.
• Drawings showing how each piece is fixed or weighted.
• A packing and marking description by room type and wing, and a statement of any proposed substitution for approval before production.

Send the plans, schedule and quantities together. For related reading see our aged care contract furniture brief and our guide to memory care furniture. FBM Furniture is the furniture-focused team of FBM Sourcing, which manages the entire China procurement package for overseas construction projects.

Frequently asked questions

What should a resident-room furniture specification include?

Give the room plan and the number of rooms by type, the bedside cabinet, wardrobe and bedhead items with their dimensions and finish codes, how each piece is fixed or freestanding, the hardware and surface descriptions, and the evidence the operator or authority requires for the materials offered and the destination named.

Who decides what a resident-room piece must withstand?

The operator, the designer and the authority for the destination decide. Write the requirement and its edition into the specification and ask every maker what evidence it can provide for the exact model offered.

Can bedside cabinets, wardrobes and bedheads come from different makers?

They can, but finish, handle and edge details then have to be matched by your team. Give each maker the same finish codes and approve samples side by side before bulk production.

Who decides whether furniture is fixed to the wall?

The operator and the designer do, from the room plan and the care model. Put the decision in the schedule and ask the factory to show the fixing on its drawing, so that a later site change is a recorded change.

How does FBM Furniture charge for aged-care furniture?

For suppliers you nominate, we charge a 5% commission; for products we source for you, we quote a direct price. Our own team performs one inspection after bulk production is complete and before shipment, and your team is welcome to attend.