HOW TO CREATE A BEAUTIFUL BED
Hello friends!
Today I am delighted to be participating in a collaboration of 8 design bloggers who have come together to bring you our collective ideas on “How to Create a Beautiful Bed”.
Toward that end I have decided to introduce you to the so-called “Bunk Room” I designed in my New/Old Log Cabin. While the room does not actually contain “Bunk Beds”, it is outfitted with 3 beautiful, 4-Poster Beds where my guests will be able to “Bunk Down” in beauty and comfort.
But as you might imagine, the room did not always look as it does today. When we purchased our furnished fixer-upper log cabin this is what the room looked like.
In my effort to create a beautiful bedroom this was my starting point. Two very ugly queen size beds that were impractical for the space. Unattractive and poor quality bedding and pillows, and dirty beige carpet underfoot. These were definitely not beautiful beds, nor was the bedroom beautiful!
Beautiful beds belong in a beautiful bedroom so I started with the room itself. First project, rip up the terrible carpeting and replace it with a new wood floor. We actually built a wide-plank wooden floor by splitting high quality plywood into 8″ planks. This inexpensive flooring deserves a blog post all on its own so stay tuned for that. To freshen up the room that suffered from wood-overload, I decided to paint the floor with durable white deck paint.
I was very happy with the result and especially pleased that it cost under $300.00.
Next I designed and manufactured the black iron bedframes. My company, The Hill Ironworks, manufactures custom hand forged wrought iron furniture and light fixtures for all of my renovation projects. It was an exciting day when the beds were ready to be assembled in the room.
Once the beds were put together I added new, high quality pillow-top mattresses and excellent quality mattress pads to protect them. This cabin will soon become a vacation rental and I want my guests to be very comfortable. A bed cannot be truly beautiful if it’s not comfortable as well.
People spend about 1/3 of their lives in bed so I believe they should do it in comfort. That means dressing the bed in high quality, high thread count sheets made from natural fibers. Not only do good quality sheets feel wonderful, soft and luxurious to sleep in, they last longer and may save you money in the long run. So don’t skimp on the quality of your sheets. Believe it or not I buy my sheets online at Costco.com where they offer a variety of very good quality sheets in a range of thread counts. The higher the thread count the denser the weave, and density equals strength, thus, they will last longer. It’s difficult to find twin size sheets in anything higher than about a 300 thread count, so unfortunately my twin sheets aren’t quite as nice as the ones I purchase for my queen and king size beds. For the large beds I go with the wonderful 600 thread count sheets from Costco.
But thread count isn’t everything. The material used to make the sheets is also key, and I am a big believer in 100% cotton. I know a good deal about fabric, having spent 20 years in the apparel business. My company manufactured baby clothes using 100% Pima Cotton. Pima cotton is one of the finest cottons in the world, only surpassed by Egyptian Cotton. Both Pima and Egyptian cottons are what is known as long-strand cottons, meaning the long cotton fibers can be woven into a softer, silkier fabric that does not pill like cheaper quality cottons do.
100% cotton sheets, woven from a long-strand cotton, with a high thread count will most definitely provide the finest quality sheets. However, the one drawback to consider is that natural fiber sheets are more difficult to care for because they wrinkle. So I say iron your sheets if you wish to enjoy true sleeping comfort. And that’s exactly what I do.
I also think it’s important to make the bed properly. My dad, having spent several years in the military, was the one who taught me to make a bed, and he taught me to do it military style. That meant tucking the top sheet in just so, and making a snug and secure military/hospital fold. Don’t know how to do that? Watch this video:
Once you have properly made your bed the next step is to dress it. I’m a big believer in light, fluffy down duvets covered with a good quality duvet cover. By the way, I still use a top sheet as well. I first discovered the comforts of sleeping under a down filled duvet in my early twenties when I made a trip to Germany and slept in a feather bed. There was no going back after that, as the German’s are experts in bedding. Because this cabin of mine is a vacation rental I look for quality while keeping budget in mind. I have discovered that IKEA sells this HÖNSBAR twin size duvet for only $39.99 and it is soft and quite lofty, giving my bed the full appearance that I like.
Did you know that H & M now has a home goods section? Their home goods are only in a couple of their brick and mortar stores but can be found on their website. They have a huge variety of textile products with lots of attractive and inexpensive duvet covers and decorative throw pillows. I bought my duvet covers at H & M on closeout for an amazingly low prices. They have since sold out but H & M still has lots to choose from like the ones pictured below. The quality is decent and to insure they will always look nice, I bought 6 sets for my 3 beds. That way I always have a fresh set to use while the other set is being laundered. I refer to it as a set because the duvet cover also came with a matching pillow case.
Speaking of pillows, I also like to dress my beds with lots of attractive, fluffy throw pillows. I picked these pillows up at IKEA.
My decorative pillows are for decoration only, not for sleeping. To insure that they are used as such I provide the sleeping pillows in a basket at the foot of each bed. I ask my vacation renters to switch them out at night before they go to sleep. This way my decorative pillows will stay clean and attractive for a longer period of time. The black & off-white baskets and area rug also came from IKEA.
Another nice feature for a bedroom is to provide a small rug on the side of the bed. This is another bedroom feature I picked up while traveling in Europe. All of the fine hotels place a small foot towel or rug next to the bed so that one does not have to place one’s bare feet on the cold floor while entering or getting out of bed. I always appreciated that little touch so I decided to include it here in the form of a natural sheepskin rug.
A sweet little vase of flowers, a clock on the nightstand, and a tray for serving breakfast in bed are just a few additional ways to provide comfort and convenience to the bedroom. I also added a reading light overhead.
Rounding out my beautiful bedroom is the artwork I chose for the walls which reminds my vacationing guests to“remember to unplug”. And after a great night’s sleep in my comfortable beds they will be ready to “take a hike” in “the great outdoors” here in the beautiful City of Big Bear Lake, California. I purchased them as printables here on Etsy.
My mountain cabin will soon be ready for occupancy and will be listed on VRBO.com along with my other mountain home. You can check out my listing by clicking here.
So there you have it: my version of HOW TO CREATE A BEAUTIFUL BED.
But as I mentioned earlier, I am collaborating with 7 other very talented design bloggers who are also sharing their own unique ideas on the subject of beautiful beds. I hope you’ll click on the links below and visit each one of their websites. You’ll be glad you did!
Classic Casual Home
Kim Macumber Interiors
Maison Décor
Powell Brower At Home
Rough Luxe Lifestyle
Shine Your Light
Vintage Contessa
Thanks for dropping in! Do please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!
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