Sweet Dreams

So in my Feb round up I jokingly asked if I could do a post just on my new bed, then I thought why the hell not? The importance of sleep is something that 'experts' are always going on about in relation to your overall health and a good bed is a vital part of that. In fact it was Mr Owl's grumblings about our previous bed that spurred us on to finally getting a new one. To be honest it wasn't the old bed that was the problem, it was the mattress on it. We had an Ikea Malm bed and had put a new Ikea mattress on it when we moved in here. We had bought the mattress after following the in store guide as to what should suit us, rather than going with what we thought - a mistake we won't make again. After 4 years it felt soft and saggy and Mr Owl was complaining of a sore back. Annoyingly we had a very good mattress on the spare bed that was never used, but due to having gone down the Ikea route it was too small on our bedframe. We considered getting a new bedframe instead, however as our bedside tables were matching Malm and we had large oak wardrobes too, it was hard to find a bed we thought looked right. Finally Ikea came to the rescue when searching once again through their website I discovered they now do standard size beds- hurrah! Even better they had started doing a higher version of the Malm bed with drawers underneath and we all know that more storage is never a bad thing! The result of this was a slightly manic weekend where we hired a van, went to get the new bed, dismantled the old one and drove it down to Mr Owl's parents (who having just moved house needed a bed for their spare room) and then taking the van back all in less than 24 hours- but it was totally worth it!

I love the new firmer mattress and being higher up, and a few weeks on I still pretend I am in the Princess and the Pea where she has to climb up in to her bed with a ladder (ok so I don't quite need a ladder) as it is so piled up with mattresses! The underbed drawers are great too- admittedly the ones at the head of the bed are hard to access due to the bedside tables, but I have used them to put all my summer clothes away in so I'll only need to open them occasionally when I swap between winter and summer stuff. The others have been used to hide away my (too many) pairs of shoes.

These photos are how our bedroom actually looks this afternoon - apologies for the poor lighting. We like to keep it fairly minimal and clutter free with nothing to distract from sleeping (ahem!). I love the look of hotel beds, with their fancy bedspreads and hundreds of cushions, but let's be honest you end up throwing them all on the floor, just to have to pick them all back up the next morning. However I do like to buy the best quality duvet covers I can sensibly afford as they help to give that luxury feeling. The one in the photos was from Debenham's and is by Christy.

Anyway that is our new bed and I guess a mini bedroom overview. All that's left now is to find a replacement mattress for the spare room before we have any visitors!

Little Owl