I might have told you …. we went bed shopping recently …
It’s kind of a big deal.
Yes, I said it. 1 single piece of new furniture is kind of a big deal to us.
Picture this: We’ve been happily married for over 4 years. Our “bed” is simply a box spring/mattress on the floor because we’ve never had the $ to spend on a good bed frame. The mattress was a hand-me-down when I got it summer of 2002 (so you can just imagine the quality). Because of the awfulness of the mattress, we’ve had a memory foam pad on it for the last few years. But we’ve never been able to find/afford sheets with a big enough pocket to fit over the mattress and the pad. Which means, every.single.morning. our fitted sheet has come off the corners and exposed the mattress. And in order to make the bed comfortably for another night’s sleep we have to YANK the fitted sheet up as far as it will go and pray the corners of the sheet will stay put long enough for us to fall asleep.
That, and the fact that – because we’re in a converted garage – there’s a couple inch-wide lip of wall all around the room at the baseboard. So the mattress is always a couple inches away from the wall. Which means a) our pillows fall back there and b) we cannot comfortably lean back against the wall (which is annoying since we live in a garage and have nowhere else to sit).
Fun, huh?
But, of course, all of this is manageable and I’ve put up with most of it for years because I was a starving college student and that’s what you do when you’re poor. You buy food, electricity, pay your student loan and have a little $ for Christmas gifts. And you put up with crappy hand-me-down furniture.
But, guess what!? We are no longer starving college students.
It may be the only piece of furniture to put in our new house when we buy it … but at least we have someplace awesome to sit/sleep in our little home.
We spent 2 or 3 Sundays driving around the area. The first place we went to …. wasn’t there any more. Someone needs to update that internet listing. A lot of furniture places are small, with maybe 6 or 8 different bed frames to choose from.
And between my taste and Andrew’s taste we didn’t tend to find hardly ANY that we would even consider.
No white wood, no metal, no sleigh beds, no 4-poster beds, nothing too ornate.
Doesn’t leave much.
The first Sunday we were out, we stopped by Crate and Barrel. Which IS a major corporation, and I would have liked to buy from an independent store, but we had already been to 3 that day and didn’t see ANYTHING …. so Crate and Barrel it is.
Immediately walked in and found a bed we both loved.
That was about 2+times what we wanted to spend.
But at least we were getting somewhere ….
and – omg – I found the most AMAZING chair. 1960s inspired, the perfect width/depth for curling up in, fantastic orange leather. I WANT this chair like I’ve never wanted any furniture.
So. You know. If everyone I know wants to chip in to get it for me for Christmas/my birthday for the next 15 years.
Sigh.
But I looooooooooovvvvvvvvvvveeeee it (she said resigned to her fate).
We actually found 2 or 3 bed frames at Crate and Barrel that we liked … but kept looking for another week or two. Spent a Sunday in SCV – man oh man those soccer moms have some awful taste. A couple BIG showrooms (out of 2 huge stores, we found 1 bed that we kind of liked).
After what felt like a lot of shopping and only finding beds at Crate and Barrel that we genuinely liked, we just bit the bullet. The Sunday before Thanksgiving we went to Sit and Sleep (walked in and bought a mattress about 20 min later – easiest sale of that guy’s day), Crate and Barrel (bought a lovely quilt on sale and ordered the frame), and went home to wait (it was all delivered on the same day a week or so later)
Building the new bed frame:
And:
TA-DA (compare to this)!!!!
and the mattress – oh, the mattress – is nice and firm. I’m hoping it’ll last us 10 years! AND something about something with the springs (yea, I don’t know the lingo), means that when Andrew tosses and turns my side of the bed doesn’t shake around and wake me up. Andrew’s been sleeping so much better on this new bed….
I can’t help it – I’m just so happy!
a closer look at the new bed frame, sheets and quilt :
It’s miraculous. …. it’s really amazing how much of a difference this bed makes. I feel like we’ve finally turned the corner from living like college students to (almost) living like adults. You know, except for the living-in-a-garage thing.
[I also want to get the bedside tables that go with the bedframe - if only because they'll definitely be the right height. But we don't have the room or the $ right now]
In the meantime …. this is where I’ll be. Blogging, christmas gift wrapping, movie watching, etc.
I like it. Although your old bed was very comfortable. Very easy to fall asleep in when you didn’t mean to.
I like the dark wood of this bed frame. Very nice.
That last photo is really adorable. Except it looks like Andrew is sleeping with his glasses on.
I think those are my sheets!! Except mine are cream colored and those look, what, celedon maybe?
Congrats on grown-up furniture! Beautiful bed!
Nice.
@Maggie: Celedon? Is that a thing?
Sweet bed Amy!
I love it and it should last you a long time! Love the quilt too. You can make it work with so many different color schemes. Don’t worry about getting matching nightstands. Decorators recommend not matching too many pieces or it looks too sterile and perfect, not lived in.
I’m trying to remember when we started getting rid of hand-me-downs and buying new furniture. It was probably 4 or 5 years too. Of course, we still have a few of them around. I just can’t bring myself to get rid of them. I have plans for fixing them up.
That chair is amazing. And a Crate and Barrel tip someone told me is that you can create a registry for whatever you want and then you get 10% off whatever’s on it, so for a piece of furniture- that could be a nice $100 discount. The bed is wonderful and I am so in love with that quilt. That is exactly what I am looking for for our guest room.
Oh- and I agree with your mom- don’t worry about the bedside stands matching unless you really want a set. David and I got a bedroom set when we got married and just sold it because I realized I hated how matchy-matchy it was. I love a more eclectic mix of furniture.
Congratulations on the adult furniture!
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Gorgeous Amy. Love the dark wood of the bedstead and the awesome quilt. Both could become family heirlooms. Great investment Amy & Andrew.
And that mattress is going to last you a LOT longer than ten years. The mattress people want you to believe that you’ll need another one in ten years, or else how will they sell more mattresses and stay in business.
And I for one am not the matchy-matchy type. I love when I see bedrooms where the guy nightstand is so him and the girl nightstand is so her.
And that chair… my oh my… love it!
Oooh, forgot to add… and you may already know this… but the way to make your mattress last longer is to flip and turn it every month. Now we don’t do it every month, more like a couple times a year.
We’ve been married three years and we don’t have an actual “bed.” But we got a new mattress/bed frame about one year into our marriage and I remember it being REVOLUTIONARY. Sweet dreams!