Post by Craig Jenkins.

Here’s something that you may not always take into account when you’re looking for a new bed for your home: How tall should it be? Not the full height, but the height off the ground. Now, the distance between your bed is far and away a matter of personal preference, but we figured we’d offer you some helpful questions to ask yourself to help figure out what height works best for you.

Do you use your bed for sitting or only for sleep? If you’re the kind of person who spends any amount of time sitting on the side of your bed, for your own personal comfort you probably want to get a bed in keeping with this behavior. You might want to consider something that is sort of high off the ground. If it’s too low, you’ll constantly be slouching when you sit, and that’s no fun, is it?

Do you need storage space? Under bed storage is a valuable resource to people who have a lot of belongings but not necessarily a lot of space. If your bed sits low to the ground, you’ll obviously have less room to work with, and vice versa for a taller bed.

Do you have pets? Do they like to hide? If you have, say, a cat that likes to steal away to those hard to reach places and camp out, you might want to take this into consideration as well in your decision making process. Does it bother you when your pet curls up underneath the bed? Get something that’s low to the ground. Keep kitty at bay. If you value your pet’s inborn feline sense of adventure, maybe you wanna give em some space to roam.

These are just a few examples of what would inspire a person to choose a taller bed over a smaller one. Consider your life and circumstances, and let them be your conductor. Take care.

Tags: bedroom, beds, Charles P. Rogers, Design

Post by Craig Jenkins.

You know how we’re always advising you to try the bed out and see what works for you? Today we’re going to demystify the whole “trying out a bed” process and give you some helpful tips for taking a bed on a test run. Now, your experience with a bed or mattress will likely change over time, and it often takes days, even weeks to get fully acclimated to new bedding. That said, there are a few good tells when you’re in the showroom right in front of the thing and have a few minutes to poke, push, and prod your way to a decision.

First and foremost, if it’s the mattress you’re checking out, hop on and get into your comfort position. Is the mattress too hard? Too soft? Roll around a bit. Does it make noise? Can you hear or feel springs? Does it bother you? The ideal sound is next to nothing. Showroom mattresses tend to be next to new, so anything this is doing that it shouldn’t be should be taken into serious consideration.

If it’s a bed frame you’re looking at, give it a shake. Ideally, it shouldn’t move much, if at all. Does it wobble? Give it a tap. How hollow does it seem? Is it heavy? It should be.

If you’re looking at a bed and a mattress together, you want to take all of the above into account all of the different uses you have for your bed. Are you a TV in bed kind of person? Is that footboard going to be too high for you to see over? Is the angle of the headboard going to bother you when you’re sitting up reading by your desk lamp before bedtime?

Even though you can’t always get a feel for the way a bed and/or mattress is going to behave in the long run, you can certainly get a glimpse of how it will work in your room and how it will compliment (or in the worst case, hinder) your bedtime experience. Take advantage of the opportunity to try out a bed whenever it comes to you. You’re going to spend a third of your life there. You want it to be a comfortable time. Take care.

Tags: antique bed, brass bed, Charles P. Rogers, iron bed, leather bed, linens, mattress, platform bed, sleigh bed, wood bed

Post by Craig Jenkins.

When you’ve decided that you want to make a beautiful wood bed the centerpiece of your room, the question that immediately follows is: what color? Picking the right finish for your bed is just as important to the selection process as choosing a design, a size, or any other aspect of choosing what bed you want. It isn’t an exact science, and as always, it depends on your personal preference.

First and foremost, you need to ask yourself if you’re going to mix or match? Some people like all the furniture in their room to be of a piece, to be similar in grain, stain, etc. Others aren’t as rigid in their preferences, and those people are faced with the task of seeing what two (or more) shades really pop when brought together in the same space. Neither side is exclusively right or wrong. Some rooms with matching furniture look great while others can look stuffy because of their lack of colors. Similarly, some rooms with that blend multiple shades of wood across different pieces of furniture pass while others fail for their use of so many different colors.

As always, you are the conductor, and your own personal creativity and sense of style will guide you to the right look for your room. If you’re in the market for a new wood piece for yourself, don’t forget to ask for swatches! Take care and good luck.

Tags: antique bed, brass bed, Charles P. Rogers, Design, iron bed, leather bed, linens, mattress, platform bed, sleigh bed, wood bed

Post by Craig Jenkins.

So you’ve purchased a brand new beautiful brass bed. You get it into your house, and it looks great. Case closed, right? Nope. The battle has only just begun. Now it’s a fight to maintain your bed’s finish. See, brass oxidizes over time, which has the effect of gradually darkening the finish of the bed. These processes can be accelerated by things like constant humidity in the room the bed resides in, and a bit of hard work can help to reverse them. You want to be knowledgeable about the behavior of your brass bed over time so that you can be in control of it.

If it’s a bright, polished brass bed you’ve gotten for yourself, you’re going to maintain the finish by giving it a gentle polish from time to time and keeping it in a room that’s relatively dry. This can be accomplished through the use of a humidifier in the room.

If the bed already has undergone the antiquing process and has a rich patina on it already, lighten up on the polishing and keep from constantly brushing fabric against the bed where possible as constant bristling against the bed essentially has the effect that polishing it would. If this does begin to happen, ease off it and remember that even if you do start to kind of rub off some of the finish, remember that given the proper time and care, it will get back to where it was.

Remember that your brass bed is a long term, lifetime investment that will deliver in spades if you only learn how to keep up with it. Hopefully we’ve provided some helpful tips to keep your bed in the condition you desire. Take care.

Tags: antique bed, brass bed, Charles P. Rogers, iron bed, leather bed, linens, mattress, platform bed, sleigh bed, wood bed

Post by Craig Jenkins.

How’s everyone’s September going? Seems as if summer’s hanging on for dear life, tossing out a last blast of balmy weather to tide us over til next year. Sweater weather is just around the corner though. Hope you’ve all got your army of cardigans and peacoats in order because if weathermen are to be trusted, the dog days are over, and the long slow slide into the wintry cold is nearly upon us. Soon-to-be dipping temperatures aside, we’d like to take some time out in this space to recognize an online ally of ours who has been quietly singing the praises of our company and our products for a long time now. I’m talking about Marshall Coyle over at The Old Bed Guy.

The Old Bed Guy is a fine gentleman who has been involved in the furniture and mattress business longer than many of us have walked the earth. He’s had his hand in selling, advertising, and most importantly, manufacturing mattresses since the early 1950s, and his website is an invaluable resource to people looking for an informative, no-nonsense rundown of what to look for in ordering and caring for a bed. He has frequently championed our beds and linens in our pages, as he did recently in two posts entitled “How Can Steel Be Thinner Than Air?” and “Is Thicker Better?” both of which are chock full of his expert advice and recommendations for our lovely line of platform mattresses. Thanks, Marshall! We appreciate your kind words.

Tags: antique bed, brass bed, Charles P. Rogers, iron bed, leather bed, linens, mattress, platform bed, sleigh bed, wood bed