Monday, March 03, 2008

Beds

Elan bed, available at Crate & Barrel

Malm bed, available at IKEA

Tatami bamboo bed, available at CB2

Case study bed, available at DWR

One night a couple weeks ago I was hogging a bunch of pillows. When Hardwood came to bed he asked for his pillow back. I groggily woke up and realized that a few of them slid down between the wall and the mattress. I gave Hardwood his pillow and crankily told him this is why I hate our bed!

Our
mattress sits on an sturdy wooden futon frame. It's not your normal flimsy, cheap metal futon frame. This thing is built like a brick house with nearly two inch thick wood slats and only about a quarter of an inch between them. But it has no headboard or footboard to help keep the mattress in place, so it shifts easily from any movement. I've been trying to convince Hardwood to get a new bed frame for quite awhile. Something that looks good and will help keep the mattress stay put. I understand his reluctance, what we have now is a really well made piece of furniture, but the damn thing has got no style at all!

I took a look around and there is a definitely pattern to what I like: simple, modern, yet a little bit rustic. My favorite is the Elan bed from Crate & Barrel. I love the pattern of the wood grain on the headboard. Hardwood really likes the Malm bed and its matching side tables when he saw it in Modern Craft's house tour. I saw the Tatami bamboo bed at CB2 and loved the bamboo woodgrain. Although, I'm sure we'd be cursing after banging our shins against the metal base. Oucharific!!! The Case Study bed is a classic, but we have a rather thick pillow top mattress, so I don't think the two would work together so well. And buying a new mattress is not in the cards right now, since we purchased our current one only a couple years ago.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

oooh, it's metal down there, huh? I was liking that one the best, but,I would have to agree, the metal would make for myriad shin bruises--no doubt 8-(

Angela Schwab said...

I'm torn between the malm and the elan. But since our current bed frame is held together with zip-ties, I'd take a futon frame at this point. Perhaps I could arrange to inherit your futon frame?

Anonymous said...

That Elan bedframe is gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

my ex-boyfriend for the longest time was opposed with the case study bed from DWR. I think it is cool but, I like some of the wooden ones better.

Katie said...

inv/alt, hmmm, you might have a deal!!!!

Anonymous said...

My boyfriend and I JUST got the Tatami bed after looking at beds for ages to find the right one. My biggest concern was also banging my shins on the frame, but it's low enough that you'd really only bump your ankle. So far, no problem. It's really sturdy too and a cinch to put together.

Katie said...

Thanks for that info Susie!!!

Geemoney said...

We have a darker "wood" version of the IKEA Malm, and while it looks nice, I would not recommend it. While doing some spring cleaning, we took off the mattress and were horrified to discover that the some of the screws that were holding up my side of the bed had stripped out of the particle board. I'm a big guy, but not monstrously huge. It might have something to do with our dog sleeping on my side (hence the need for the cleaning under the mattress), but still. Now every time I get in bed and the frame creaks a bit, my wife is quick to say, "Ping", the sound of a screw popping out.

That said, there was a whole other set of holes, and we were able to move the entire bed support up a bit. Still, given my generally good experiences with IKEA furniture, this was a disappointment.

One note, I live in Germany, so I don't know if the design for the bed support is the same in the US or not.

Katie said...

Hi Glenn,

Thanks for the first hand experience with the Malm bed. All good to know. I know that Ikea offers some heavier-duty bed slats, just wondering if you have those at all? Curious how that would effect the bed and stability. But from the sounds of your experience, not sure it would.

Anyway, a big part of me is thinking we should just hold out and save our pennies to get one of the more expensive models I posted here. I'm still lusting after the bed from Crate & Barrel.

Anonymous said...

The kids are off to college and you finally get that home office or living room you always wanted. The next step is planning the layout. The important thing is to make your space function in a way that will best suit you and your families needs. You know that they be visiting on the holidays so don't settle for furniture that performs only a single function. Choose versatile dual purpose pieces like futon beds.
Try to build more than one function into each room. The best place we found to get quality futon furniture at very affordable prices is buildbedroom.com . There selection of styles is incredible and there are some great articles on their site that will help you select the futon bed that will work best for you.
Remember, combine day and night uses for bedrooms so they are sleeping quarters by night, but when the sun comes up, they easily convert to office, playroom, or den. For that, futons are your best bet.

zuo modern said...

The drawings above are only by reference to the size bed, but there are other differences between these models wooden bunk bed as well. Some beds may be attached to the bottom of the box, while others have a bed on top, but the fund has been set as the sofa. There are many models of wooden bunk beds, and allow all the children are carrying out a spacious room to sleep worthy of their duties.