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Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
When we bought our treadmill, we had to clean out the front bedroom to make room for it. There are many “junk rooms” in our house - pretty much any room with a horizontal surface for piling stuff - but the front bedroom was the lord and master of them all. It was more than a junk room - it was an “extra” room, the place where we stored all the extra stuff.
An inventory of the room included the following:
The extra vintage light fixtures I bought cheap on eBay intending to have them rewired but never did.
The extra rugs we bought cheap at auctions and haven’t found a place for yet.
The extra Eastlake bed we’re planning to replace ours with one day when we get our master bedroom finished. Ha.
The extra fainting couch that will also go in said master bedroom in case I should need to faint or sit down while pulling on boots.
The extra clothes that haven’t fit me since 2002.
The extra clothes that do fit but are off season.
The extra curtains we took down from the living room “temporarily” two years ago.
The extra wire hangers - I hate wire hangers, don’t use them myself, yet we somehow have an enormous stockpile of them.
Besides the extras, there were some typical junk-room things - a taxidermy deer head (yes, I said a deer head); a jewelry box I crackle-painted four years ago and never finished; mismatched luggage; two boxes of stuff I keep meaning to donate; a box of cookbooks that belonged to my late uncle (including In the Kitchen With Miss Piggy); expired bottles of hot sauce from some long-ago Christmas gift basket; touch-up paint for my car; a bowling ball some friend of Darwin’s gave him; two mandolins; and a box of things from Darwin’s bedroom at his parents’ house, including a Rambo action figure, a poster from Wackadoo Zoo (a play in which Darwin starred in elementary school), and a vividly embarrassing Valentine’s Day card from me covered with a sappy collage of happy couples and containing the words “eight-month-i-versary.”
Now, most of that stuff has found a “home” elsewhere in the house. I finally put those cookbooks on a shelf, which made me happy. Darwin hung the deer head up on the wall in the bedroom, which made me less happy, but at least it’s out of the floor.
So about the same time this big empty room became available, our neighbors offered us a full size mattress and box springs. We decided that antique bed should no longer be wasted leaning against a wall - we should set it up and have an extra guest bedroom.
We rolled out one of the extra rugs, set up the bed and measured the width, and Darwin quickly cut some slats from leftover boards around the house. I found some sheets and an extra side table for a nightstand, and we were ready to go. It looked so pretty and promising!
But when we went to put the box springs on the bed, we ran into a problem - it didn’t fit. We hadn’t bothered to measure it because we thought beds and mattresses were standard size. Silly, silly us not accounting for the fact that nothing is ever simple or standard with old stuff.
We almost broke the bed trying to force the box springs inside the frame. Finally we gave up and extracted the now-wedged box springs with some effort. Now we measured and discovered the mattress was 2 inches too long. Maybe this was a weirdo mattress, so we went and measured the other one in the guest room, but it was the same, too.
*SIGH*
So now the room is all cleaned out, a lovely bright rug is down on the floor … and the bed is propped against the wall once again.
Still, I no longer feel that slumping-shoulders feeling every time I walk into the room. I feel a little jolt of pleasure because this room is no longer “extra.” It is tidy and attractive, and it has a purpose.
Kristen, I am sure that you saw this, but you can get a mattress from http://www.antiquemattress.com/
that will fit the bed and they ship to the continental US! It’s gorgeous and good luck.
oh hun, you’ve got yourself a three-quarter bed. it’s an in-between size between a twin and a full–i would say 90% of antique beds are that way (wooden ones that is). getting a custom mattress isn’t too bad–i’m in fact picking one up i ordered today at original mattress factory and i got the cheapest one–around $400. mine actually is a “three-quarter short” which means it’s 72″ long instead of the standard 75″ as well as being narrower. Check out the sizes here: http://www.originalmattressfactory.com
/products/dimensions.asp
I have a bed that is very similar to yours; it was my grandmother’s when she was growing up. At some point before this bed was an antique, my great grandfather added an extra piece in the middle of each rail to make it long enough for a standard mattress. So if you knew someone with woodworking skills, and didn’t mind modifying an antique to make it useful today, you could probably do a similar modification.
Alternately, depending on how the rails attach, you could keep an eye out for a set of metal bed rails and replace the wood rails with metal ones. Then you would still have the original wood rails for the future.
I have a 50’s four-poster maple double bed bed frame. We ditched the wooden rails and put on metal converter rails that are up-side-down compared to regular rails to lay a queen size mattress on top. The queen sticks out a couple of inches on each side but is not that noticeable and is certainly more comfortable for us to sleep on. Because the mattress is extra deep we got special rails to make the whole thing lower. The rails are available online. If you do this measure carefully as we got a set that is for a king not a queen and is too long. Love your site.
I have hope now! Thank you!
We have an antique double bed that had the exact same problem. When we went to buy a new mattress the box spring was exactly 2 inches too long. We bought ours from a company local to Nashville (though they deal in Alabama too) called Capitol City Mattress. They sent someone out, measured everything for us and custom made a set for us for about $100 more than the standard sizes. Great customer service.
Kristin -
Please don’t be offended, but I just had one of the best laughs in a while reading your description of everything in the ‘extra’ room. You just described our house!!!!
We have a 3/4 bed also (its in storage). You can get a mattress for them, but they are pricey. We are going to do something similar to what Alcie suggested. Instead of having an extra piece inserted, we are going to have reproductions of the rails made, but in the modern length.
Also, hope you don’t mind, but I’ve tagged your blog to mine.
Cheers!
Larry
http://simpsonsfolly.blogspot.com/
No offense taken - it’s good to know we’re not the only ones!