New beds everywhere

We have some new beds around here! First, in an effort to make the guest bed less of a literal climb to get into at night, we got a 4'' low-profile boxspring. It was build it yourself but we're getting pretty used to that these days (seriously, building that Ikea Friheten sofa was pretty awful). It was straightforward and much cheaper than buying a pre-built one. We actually struggled to find a wood-slat boxspring. Ikea doesn't sell them (yes, we pretty much just start out there by default) because their mattress are all designed for their own beds, which don't need boxsprings. And most mattress stores charge a fortune.

We also bought a new mattress, the medium firm Myrbacka latex (Ikea of course). It was an equally awkward drive home as last time, but fortunately this time we enlisted the help of friends with a bigger vehicle, roof rack, and more skill at tying knots. The new one is much firmer than the one we tried out at the store, which I guess isn't surprising given all the use the in-store one gets. Because of that, and also just to protect it, we bought a plush topper for it.

In the end, the bed is over 6'' lower than it was before, meaning that guests don't need to hop or use a stool to get in or out. And toddler spills from climbing are a bit less dangerous (yup, those have happened).

And speaking of the toddler, this one graduated from a crib with dropped sides to her very own bed! More building...yay...I honestly was willing to consider buying from somewhere other than Ikea, but the little one asked for a blue bed and lo and behold, they actually had one (yes, she is spoiled and usually gets what she wants). And while it was a bit pricy for Ikea, it was still in line with or even cheaper than most other options. And so we got her the Busing extendable bed, which sadly necessitated buying the mattress that goes with it, the Vyssa Vinka, because it's Ikea so of course that means proprietary sizing. At its fullest position, it will be a twin bed. But for now and in its middle of three positions, the size is proprietary. Right now it is actually shorter than her crib bed, though it is wider. She's tiny and keeping it at its smallest setting means less space for her to accidentally roll out or lose her toys. She's pretty pleased with it, though I think her favorite part may have been picking out sheets.

For the first time in a long time, we were missing a piece of hardware from the kit. It wasn't critical to the construction but it was an important component to keeping the side piece near her head stable (the pieces designed to keep her from tumbling out of bed). And of course because of the way it was constructed, it had to be added during the building process and not afterwards. So we followed the (new?) process of requesting the missing piece from Ikea's website. I'm pretty sure that stores used to just stock some extra pieces at the customer service desk, but that does not appear to be the case anymore.

The process was going to take 2-3 weeks. We couldn't wait. Fortunately, it's a common-enough piece and we borrowed one from our bookshelves:

And then, just about when we'd forgotten we'd even ordered a replacement, this arrived in the mail:

Yes, apparently spare Ikea parts travel all the way from Sweden...I find this both delightful and very very strange.

Small Cost Big Change

You know you're in for a trip down memory lane when you link to one of the first ever posts on the blog.

We inherited the burgundy in our guest bedroom from the decor in our old apartment, picture here, and even before that to our first apartment over 10 years ago, when we shopped exclusively the line of "What is the cheapest thing that will cover our windows/keep us warm/etc." It wasn't bad, and we made it work - the comforter cover, lamp shades, and curtains were a little worn and faded by now, but they were tolerable.

Still, we never particularly loved them. And when we finally re-installed the cordless blinds one year after taking them down to have new windows installed, I left the red curtains down and wondered whether it wasn't time to replace the outdated burgundy.

D and I decided on blue, to match so much of our house color scheme, and purple (since the accent wall already was) and I went to work. I found a really lovely organic cotton duvet cover that was so much better than the ripped-then-stitch-witchery sealed and stained burgundy cover. In perfect coincidence, they have pillow shams in a silk/cotton blend (remember, I'm weird - these things matter to me) that seemed like the perfect matched shade of blue despite being from a separate set. They have a cute tie-on look, too.

That sort of ate up our budget though, because we didn't really want to put too much money into room that we use so rarely. We tried buying a set of cheap curtains from Target but the color wasn't a good match and they looked cheap, which was exactly what we were trying to avoid, so those went right back to the store. But to our surprise, we still had some purple sheers my mom gave us as temporary window covers from back when we moved. They might not be our "forever" curtains, but they were free, which is infinitely better than cheap. We also had some lamps in the basement that hadn't quite made it to the donation bin from our first apartment that worked in a pinch, after we saw how expensive lamps are.

Finally, we removed the sad, faded 2' x 4' rug that wasn't much better than a front door mat, and dug out the second flokati rug we bought after realizing how much we loved our first one and how much we feared it would wear out quickly (5 years later, still going strong).

So besides the bed linens, this was an upgrade from random stuff we had laying around the house. Though they still had their costs.

Cost the first - apparently cheap lamps with cheap bases disintegrate into a pile of concrete, sand , plastic, and...I don't even know what else when picked up for the first time in a long time. That was a fun clean-up. Without a base, the big stand-up lamp is very unstable, but it works wedged into the corner.

Cost the second - to make room for the big and cozy rug, I had to push the bed to the left, meaning that the frames are no longer centered. It bugs me. But not so much that I want to fix it. These frames are the kind that require a nail at both ends instead of the middle, so shifting them will leave me with a visible hole to fill AND the pain of having to recenter them and re-level them. It can only be seen from inside the room, so my plan is to ignore.

My view from the hallway is nothing but cozy:

Have you had any cheap decor upgrades lately?

More of the Same

Still working on the bedroom and still really loving how it is turning out. The blues and greens are as soothing as I hoped they'd be and the Ikea Erfjord natural latex mattress is surprisingly comfortable. Here are many gratuitous pictures (and a reminder of it's previous state):

Let's see, what's worth a mention. Both the dressers are Craig's List finds (moving them, especially the massive white one, was not so fun). The rug is Ikea's Flokati (100% unspun wool). It feels absolutely heavenly in the morning on my bare feet. The reading lamp is Ikea too, as is the comforter (which is actually a long story for another post). The comforter cover is Pottery Barn's Sydney Palampore organic cotton duvet. The stars, which are in most major room in our house, are an old find from an Asian gift shop.

The closet is a pretty blue that I found for $5 at Home Depot. I think we'll be using it on the dark wood legs of a chair we might be picking up this week, to help it blend into the decor. I am absolutely thrilled that all of our clothes and shoes fit in one closet. That has never happened before.

We continue to make big strides on finishing this room off. The curtains I ordered should arrive later this week and we have plans for additional furniture and wall decor. Stay tuned!

And on a completely different note, I just have to document that I was actually able to grow violets. Not just keep the greenery alive but actually get flowers where there were none. This is so amazing for me, a complete black thumb. Mind you it's not like I did anything special. Just water it and keep it in the kitchen window:

Just an Ordinary Monday

This Monday found us in a cage match with one very large, heavy latex mattress. We bought it at Ikea 10 minutes before the store closed and struggled to figure out how to get it home. We were not particularly prepared, because we assumed that like all Ikea projects, it would be rolled up or smooshed and very portable.

We couldn't have been more wrong. Even though we got a latex mattress and not a spring one, it came in its final size in a flimsy cardboard box and weighed about 110 pounds. The mattress itself was so floppy and dense that it was difficult to maneuver. D thought we would be able to fold it in half and shove it into his hatchback, but I worried that once it was out of the box (but still wrapped in plastic), we would discover that it would not actually fit in the car and that it wouldn't be able to get back in the box.

By now the store was about to close and we had to decide if we needed to return it then and there and take on the challenge another day or somehow get it home. Delivery fees had never looked so welcoming.

But with a little rope and really minimal knowledge of knot-tying (and a short, slow drive home), this was how we arrived back at our house:

Getting it into the house and up the stairs, especially once the cardboard gave way to a dense lump of foam, was another challenge. Pushing on foam does pretty much nothing except compress the foam. We had to pull it everywhere, but without ripping any of the cover. By the time we got it onto the bed frame, we were exhausted--but too sweaty to collapse on the mattress.

We officially try it out this Friday night. In a meantime we are amassing random bedding needs: a comforter, a duvet cover, clips to hold the cover in place, mattress pads, and decorative pillows.


The mattress can be exchanged within 90 days if we don't like it. After our exciting evening, we are pretty sure that this is a scam, and that mattresses are made deliberately heavy and awkward to help "convince" people that the mattress is great. I don't think you could pay me to haul that thing back out to the car...