It is a meandering journey of a submit, so make your self comfy. We talked about in this facet desk submit that we traded our queen-size mattress for a much bigger king-size one. The explanation might sound apparent – as a result of it’s greater, duh! – however as for why we fortunately sailed via over 17 years collectively with out wanting one – after which all of the sudden pulled an about-face final fall… effectively, it primarily boiled right down to: “the issues we do for our canine” (extra on that in a second).
We additionally needed to rigorously plan how we’d squeeze the largest mattress we’ve ever owned into our smaller bed room. And we had a giant realization about bigger furnishings in a smaller home (it’s most likely not what you suppose!). Plus we had some enjoyable with photoshop.
After we advised one in all our associates concerning the change, they have been surprised – neigh, SHOCKED – to listen to we didn’t have already got a king mattress. Actually, we’ve heard this sentiment a number of occasions over our decade and a half of running a blog. As if two adults sleeping in a queen was akin to sharing bunk beds or one thing. We by no means actually understood that response as a result of we have been at all times completely content material in our queen mattress – particularly as a result of we shared many smaller beds in our earlier days collectively.
You see, a queen was a giant enchancment from the place we began our relationship – with me sleeping on a futon in the lounge of a one-bedroom house that I shared with 2 different guys in Queens. For those who do the mathematics, that meant 1 particular person was within the bed room and a couple of of us slept in the lounge on futons, therefore my Pinterest-worthy setup under. Sure, I gained Sherry’s coronary heart regardless of this “bed room” state of affairs:
Fairly quickly after that I moved to a special house on the Higher West Aspect the place I used to be lastly capable of improve to a full-size mattress. You’ll be able to watch a video tour of that house and see Sherry’s NYC house in The Village (which additionally sported a full-size mattress).
Buying and selling as much as a queen-size mattress in our first Richmond house collectively (proven under) was fairly a luxurious as a result of we had been sharing full-size beds for a 12 months or so at that time. These facet tables and $5 Ikea lamps, although? Not fairly luxurious.
Over many (many) years we by no means actually felt cramped sleeping in a queen-size mattress. So though a few of our associates and a big portion of the web have been like “I can’t dwell with out my king mattress”, it appeared pointless to us to spend the additional cash on a much bigger mattress/sheets/quilt since we have been completely pleased with our queen. It was frugality meets a basic case of “If it ain’t broke…”
Then after we moved right here a sequence of issues began to slowly change our minds. The primary one wasn’t a width challenge that was bothering us – it was a peak challenge. And never for us, however for our previous canine, Burger.
Like most getting old canine, leaping up and down grew to become tougher for him as he obtained older (he was 15 when he handed in 2021). He liked being on the mattress however was usually too cussed to make use of a bench or different “helper surfaces” to rise up and down (we had a flooring pouf + bench model of Doggy Steps occurring however about half the time he ignored them in favor of the kamikaze methodology).
In true “small-dog-who-thinks-he’s large” vogue, he’d try to spring from the ground to the facet of the mattress in a single chaotic soar – and most popular to get down the identical approach. He’d at all times make it (though getting up generally took just a few tries), and we might fortunately raise him up and down at any time when he’d allow us to – however we nervous concerning the toll it was taking over his legs and again.
At first we simply thought-about getting a decrease mattress body (like a platform) to shorten the space for him since we had made different Burger-mobility adjustments to the home already (like putting in a stair runner over our wooden steps) however he sadly left us all of the sudden within the fall of 2021 as a consequence of a longstanding coronary heart situation.
The entire bed-height consideration grew to become prime of thoughts once more when Penny entered our lives final 12 months. She fancies herself some mixture of a cat / ninja / mountain goat / daredevil and leaps up & down from the chairs, couches, and – particularly – our mattress with absolute reckless abandon.
She’s nonetheless younger and spry (she’s 3), however we all know that decreasing our mattress will assist her legs and again over the long term. And the explanation that our brains appeared to slowly shift from “let’s simply decrease our queen mattress” to “what if we obtained a decrease mattress that’s additionally king-size” = this canine sleeps like she’s impersonating that equals signal I simply used. Burger used to twist right into a small ball and tuck in behind Sherry’s legs or up on my pillow by my head, however Penny likes to stretch out horizontally like she’s impersonating a twizzler, and since our mattress isn’t further broad, meaning she fairly repeatedly smashes into each of us within the course of. Primarily all of us kind the letter H. Sherry and I are the perimeters of the H and Penny is the center sprint should you can image it.
It all of the sudden made a queen mattress really feel… not so roomy. And generally her arms poke out in entrance of her like this, and her face rests between them, leading to some claws and a chilly nostril to whoever is the fortunate facet of the H at that second.
Then this previous summer time we went to Mexico. At any time when we go on a giant journey, we at all times appear to take some type of home or life-style inspiration again with us. We will pinpoint the spring break journey that began our minimizing efforts, our Costa Rica journey kicked our Florida transfer into gear – and effectively, our Mexico journey made us need a king-size mattress.
In some way we managed to take zero pictures of the precise mattress that wooed us, however right here it’s under from the Airbnb listing. It doesn’t look significantly spacious from this angle, but it surely was one of many first occasions I bear in mind registering “so THIS is why individuals love king-sized beds.” Upon additional reflection, I’m positive the conclusion was hitting us as a result of it was the primary time in lots of months that we slept with no inflexible stretched-out canine poking into either side of our our bodies. It was nice. We slept SO WELL. Penny included.
You may as well see a bit extra of the area on this video tour Sherry took of the Airbnb proper after we checked in. You realize, earlier than we had suitcases and varied trip stuff in every single place (which might be why I by no means took pictures of this room).
Notice: You may as well view this video on YouTube.
Backside line: we got here house from Mexico with a particularly robust need to determine a option to make a king-size mattress work in our bed room, regardless that we nervous that we didn’t even have the room (particulars, particulars). A king mattress is 16″ wider than a queen, which felt like area we didn’t have – particularly contemplating that we would have liked to depart room to entry our closets alongside that left wall. That is the room with a queen mattress under:
As an alternative of instantly giving up, we determined to do some cautious measuring and planning – even turning our queen mattress sideways at one level to visualise the broader king mattress – which helped us decide that we may really make it work! Extra on that in a second.
The King Mattress We Selected
We thought-about loads of choices for our decrease wider bedframe and ended up with this Tessu upholstered platform bed frame from Article. We actually like how stable a mattress feels when the headboard and body are constructed as one, particularly since each Burger and Penny like to hang around below the mattress generally too – in order that additionally makes you need one thing that doesn’t really feel rickety. Are we too obsessive about our canine? The reply is: that’s not potential and canine are the very best. And sure, regardless that this mattress is a lot decrease than our final one, Penny likes to military crawl below it and assume her Twizzler-like sleeping place.
Appears to be like/function-wise we additionally preferred that the legs of this mattress have been inset from the corners in order that they principally disappear with the quilt on the mattress (particularly because the walnut end didn’t match our room). Plus, they don’t change into a toe-stubbing hazard!
We obtained it within the Taupe Clay coloration, which is a pleasant medium heat grey (it additionally is available in navy and deeper grey). We’ve been actually, actually pleased with it! Mainly goes with every thing.
How We Bought A Larger Mattress To Match Into Our Smaller Room
We lined a few of this in our submit about our DIY wooden nightstands, however I wished to reiterate it right here as a result of the “match” of this mattress was actually vital to us. Even I, who was probably the most nervous about cramping this bed room with a much bigger mattress, am thrilled with the outcome. And sure, we positively nonetheless have room to get into our closets with out challenge. We’re in them a number of occasions a day, so I used to be unwavering in my dedication to creating that not-annoying.
Primarily the important thing was that we needed to shift the mattress over and construct smaller nightstands (and the one on Sherry’s facet needed to be even smaller than mine). That concession purchased us sufficient area to make the closet entry utterly workable – and it was effectively value it to have such an enormous mattress, which makes this room really feel prefer it lives lots bigger than it did earlier than!
I can also’t say sufficient about utilizing no matter you’ve gotten in inventive methods to assist “really feel” what a room would possibly really feel like with that new bigger merchandise. After we realized {that a} king mattress’s width (76″) was just like the size of a queen mattress (80″), we knew that turning our queen mattress sideways was an effective way to experiene how it will really feel to entry our closets with one thing that broad within the room.
You’ll be able to see how every thing matches collectively within the video under that we made for the nightstand submit.
Notice: You may as well watch this video on YouTube.
Not solely does it match logistically, we each really feel prefer it aesthetically matches higher as effectively. You’ll have heard that generally the trick to creating small areas look greater is to make use of bigger furnishings. It appears counterintuitive, however generally small-scale furnishings can emphasize the smallness of a room. Plus, within the case of our mattress, the decrease peak makes the room really feel taller and airier.
I imply actually – look how the queen-size mattress simply made the entire room really feel smaller and fewer ethereal. I want this was taken from the very same POV, however you get the concept:
As for the way it feels to lastly be part of the king mattress membership, it positively feels straight-up luxurious. The 5 of us (youngsters and canine included) can all discover a spot on weekend mornings. Penny can transfer round at night time with out waking us up (and vice versa). We’re not a human-dog-human conga line. Besides apparently for this photograph:
And in case you’re nervous concerning the destiny of our previous mattress, every thing lives on (we offered the body and headboard on a neighborhood buy-sell-trade board and donated the mattress there too). Inside someday of itemizing it, every thing was picked up!
Now that the brand new mattress is in place, we’ve been considering somewhat little bit of coloration or texture on the wall behind it – particularly since extra of it’s uncovered now with the lower-lying headboard.
We love how gentle and brilliant this room is, so we don’t suppose we need to paint the entire thing, however we’re debating doing one thing with that wall behind the mattress. These are simply photoshop renderings, however we considered perhaps utilizing a muted pink…
…or a delicate blue-green to enrich the entire greenery we now have exterior the wall of glass doorways.
We’ve even debated doing one thing extra textured, like grasscloth wallpaper or a wooden slat wall. This was our greatest approximation of 1 the place we’d stain the wooden a delicate tone. Once more: that is photoshop so every thing appears jarring. Please squint A LOT.
Actually, some days we simply love how easy and expansive the white wall with the brilliant artwork feels. There’s a reasonably nice view out the whole wall of glass doorways to the appropriate of the mattress, so generally we predict: that’s the accent. Sorry, partitions – you’ll be able to’t compete.
So who is aware of! We’ll positively share if and after we do one thing. And within the meantime, we’ve already made one other practical improve to the room that we’ll share in a future submit. Spoiler: it includes incomes much more storage! Like AS MUCH STORGE AS OUR LAST HOUSE’S HUGE WALK-IN CLOSET.
For those who take one factor from this submit I hope it’s: “don’t hand over should you suppose one thing gained’t slot in a smaller room.” If we hadn’t turned our queen mattress sideways and experimented with how it will work if we shifted the mattress over and gave Sherry a smaller facet desk, effectively, our king mattress goals would have been simply that – a dream that by no means grew to become actuality.
And the whole idea that bigger gadgets of furnishings in smaller rooms can usually make them really feel greater is TRULY WILD. Actually, this mattress change impressed an upcoming sitting room change that we’re making based mostly on that discovering – so keep tuned (furnishings takes like 15+ weeks these days, however as quickly as we now have one thing to indicate you I’m positive Sherry can be on IG tales sharing all of it).
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