Design

We Bought A Bed!

May 20, 2015

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Our bedroom has taken a backseat as of late while we traveled and worked on the laundry room–more updates there later this week! The damper came when we waited too long to purchase the bed we had our eyes on. It was my own fault really. You may remember in the mood board for the master (check out the original post here for links to all the products pictured), we picked out a pretty four-poster bed.

bedroom mood board copy

I had some insider information that Crate & Barrel was discontinuing their Osborn 4 poster bed in the fall and I thought it would surely go on clearance and we could score a deal on it. Well, it is on clearance, but all the king sized beds are sold out! I was a little disappointed, but we had been waffling about purchasing the bed due to the height of the top rail–it is just barely taller than Chris (barely, barely!) which did bring up some obvious head-meet-wood concerns. So, maybe it was for the best.

Actually, scratch the maybe–it was for the best. Here’s a life lesson for you: Never decide to remove a ceiling fan in the middle of a cooler season. When we designed our bedroom, it was winter time and we thought it would be no big deal to nix the fan in order to fit our dream 4-poster in. But now that the weather is warming up, we remembered how much we love sleeping with our ceiling fan on. Ha! While we definitely have plans to replace it with a more modern option, a lower platform bed was becoming more and more appealing. Here are a few we were deciding between:

Upholstered-Platform-Beds-We-Love

 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The more beds I looked at the more I discovered I loved the look of a lower mattress, (that could stem from our bed being so incredibly high for the past 6 years) so a bed that didn’t require a box spring became ideal. Also, to my surprise, ditching tufting for a more casual feel felt more like us. In the end, price definitely came into play. The Restoration Hardware bed was perfectly us, but did I love it over $2000 worth? No! (Tell me we aren’t the only ones that measure our love in $$ when it comes to products.)  On the other hand, we both really loved the warm wood legs on the West Elm option and it felt like a steal at $900. So…winner winner! We bought ourselves a bed!

I’ve shared this before, but it’s worth mentioning again–we never make a larger purchase online without a coupon. Shipping and surcharges and tax can add up like crazy when shopping online. Whenever we’re ready to buy, I search Ebay for a coupon and order the search results in order from lowest price and go from there. I prefer Buy It Now listings with coupons, but have emailed auctioning sellers to see if they would take X amount to close the sale now if I am trying to make a purchase before a sale price is gone. They’ll usually email me the promo code as soon as they receive payment so I can complete my purchase. In this case, I purchased a 15% off West Elm coupon for $3.50 and saved $134.85. Worth it!!

Screen Shot 2015-05-19 at 10.30.52 AM

The bed is still en route, but we are clearing out our old furnishings in our bedroom to make room. Selling our old bed and the jute rug and possibly the nightstands, too–they may be too high for the new low slung bed. And remember the wall-mounted lamps we originally picked for the room? They’re also on the way (eee!!) and we have started the search for a new rug. Our only hesitation about the new bed is we painted the room with a light colored wood in mind. We’re just crossing our fingers the color works well with the upholstery tones, but if not–it’s just paint and the color can be tweaked. Here’s to more progress on the bedroom front!

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What do you think?

  1. Bethany says:

    What kind of ceiling fans are you looking into/what stores (I’ve looked at Wayfair, Lowes, Home Depot, Amazon, Shades of Light)? I can not for the life of me find a modern one that actually is attractive! I need two that are the same for my kids’ rooms. I don’t want a frilly thing but modern but at the same time I don’t want one that looks like it should be in a SOHO loft. It’s hard since it’s starting to get hot.

  2. Judi says:

    I don’t know whether you’ve chosen a rug yet, or if you’re set on the classic Oriental, but we have purchased two Kilimanjaro now from TurkishKilim (you can search the seller) on eBay. Courteous, great selection, super fast (and reasonable) shipping…all the way from Izmir! I’m a big fan of Jessica Helgerson’s design sense and I swear she must shop with him, too.

    We have a platform (Room and Board) and LOVE it. Much, much better back support. Enjoy!

  3. Heather says:

    Julia – just an FYI for the future – West Elm does student/teacher discounts, so if you know anyone that has a student ID/email or if you have one yourself from college days then you are able to use that to always score 15% off. Plus the West Elm credit card gives back gift certificates for your purchases!

    • Julia says:

      Wow! That’s incredible! For online purchases, too? Is there a spot to put it in at checkout?

    • AshleyM says:

      I don’t think that is a very good suggestion. I get that the discount is awesome- they also have a military discount. But they give these discounts to those groups for a reason- to thank them for teaching or serving in the military or for students, as a way to make their furniture more affordable.

      I think suggesting that the discounts be used by someone who isn’t in those groups, on a major blog where West Elm is an advertised, is just asking for West Elm to stop offering those discounts all together.

      Maybe I am over-reacting, but it seems like we should leave the discounts to those who they are meant for (as a way to show our appreciation for their hard work/sacrifices if nothing else), and deal with the annoyances of tracking down coupons/paying a slightly higher price.

      Love the bed you guys chose, Julia!

      • Julia says:

        I agree we should reserve those special discounts for those who they’re for. Hopefully our student/teacher/military readers read that tip and can take advantage! Besides, paying $3 for a coupon really isn’t so bad. :)

      • Heather says:

        AshleyM,
        I was not at all suggesting that she use the discount wrongly. My husband and I are both teachers, as well as graduate students. We use the discount for ourselves and for gifts for family members and have once used it to help out a good friend furnishing her new place.
        I don’t know Chris or Julia or much about either, perhaps one of them is in college or one of them has a family member that is a teacher. I do not feel that either of those options are dishonest.
        Also, maybe this discount code she bought on eBay is one of these teacher/student codes. I bet that a lot of people are out to do things that are not honest. So please don’t jump all over me for suggesting that she ask a family member or good friend for help with getting a discount.

  4. Amanda says:

    Exciting! It may be my imagination, but the first thing I noticed when we got our new platform bed after having one that required a boxspring my entire life was how comfortable it was. I’m not sure if it’s something about the solid surface under the mattress providing more support or what, but there is a difference. We kept our original mattress, so there doesn’t seem to be any other explanation. Plus, I love how clean it looks! So yup, I’m a fan. Can’t wait to see how it looks in your room!

  5. Jennifer says:

    I am loving your bed choice, it was my fav too!

    I recently learned about an app called Honey (link below) that you download on your browser and anytime you check out online it scans for promo codes to use for you. Its worth checking out.

    http://www.joinhoney.com/

  6. Meagan Briggs says:

    The eBay coupon is genius!!!

  7. corine says:

    SO gorgeous! It just screams CLJ to me. Can’t wait to see the finished room.

  8. Evelina says:

    Price is definitely a factor but I really like the one you chose! I’m partial to higher beds but I know what lower ones are better for when kiddos are around.

    • Julia says:

      We’ve only ever had a high bed, so I can’t say what I’m partial to just yet. But I can say–we’re ready to ditch the high bed!

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