Post by Kyle St. Romain.

You’ve worked hard to make your bedroom a relaxing retreat from the daily grind. You have the smell, lighting, beddings and décor just right. The whole ambience fits your qi like a favorite pair of jeans. Unfortunately, many of us are only able to enjoy this masterfully planned escape during the few moments leading up to and shortly after we go to sleep. What if there was a classic design element you could incorporate into your bedroom that also allowed you to extend your bedroom’s useful time? Well there is. Let me introduce you to the world of the bedroom seating area.

A sitting area, or boudoir if you are into the French thing, is a great design element to incorporate with your bedroom. Adding seating area transforms your otherwise single purpose room into a more functional suite, giving you additional seating to enjoy conversation with your significant other or catch up on that new best seller you’ve been eyeing.

Bedroom seating areas are a great way to reinvent your bedroom and find a new appreciation for your private space, but what exactly goes into a bedroom seating area? Glad you asked! In essence, a bedroom seating area is nothing more than a few carefully selected pieces of furniture arranged in a particular area of the bedroom. For example, in a smaller room the seating area may be as simple as a comfortable chair, soft blanket and a stylish reading lamp. Even easier, you could place a small sofa at the end of your bed to achieve the same result.

On the other hand, elaborate seating areas often include a love seat, several side chairs, a small coffee table and a couple lamps. In larger bedrooms, the seating area can be centered around a fireplace or some other architectural element. If you’re adding a new seating area to your bedroom or redesigning an existing one, don’t get caught up trying to turn your bedroom into something it’s not. The perfect seating area is the one that compliments your existing space. Remember that in the bedroom, simple is good.

Looking for bedroom inspiration? I recommend you check out Houzz.com, which also has an iPad app offering the same service. Houzz provides thousands of select interior design photographs from which you can draw inspiration when designing your new bedroom or redecorating an existing one. Do you have any thoughts on or experiences with bedroom seating areas?

Tags: antique bed, Bedroom Seating, brass bed, Charles P. Rogers, 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.

Autumn is here, finally. Temperatures are cooling, and before you know it, leaves will start to turn all variety of lovely colors, and then there’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, et cetera, et cetera. Who knows where the time goes! If you’re anything like me, you’re the kinda person who gets into the spirit of these brisk, wistful autumn days and their celebration of the harvest. Why not change your room to match the mood? We wanted to put some ideas out there for your autumn bedroom decor.

Earthy tones are best for your autumn bedroom. Think of the colors the leaves turn: deep reds and oranges. Experiment and see what looks best for you. Try not to overdo it, though. There’s more than enough foliage outside. Pallette cleansing tans and deep browns are also appropriate for this time of year. On the flashier end, you may look into some greens and yellows for your autumn bedding. Mix and match and find a scheme that makes the room pop.

Scents are another thing to consider. Whether it’s something as simple as keeping a little bowl of fruit around or it’s something as involved as oils or storebought or homemade potpourri, certain scents really bring that autumn feel to a room. Some fall favorites are apples and cinnamon, pumpkin (a personal favorite!), cranberry, vanilla, so on and so forth.

Use your creative mind to whip together a gorgeous autumn ensemble, and more importantly, tell us about it! To give you a few ideas, take a look at the picture here, which is featured on Lonnymag’s great blog, of their own Ellie Somerville’s new studio bedroom. Behind all those gorgeous drapes, linens, flowers, and candles lies one of our own beds, namely the Cairo canopy bed. Take care!

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

With peace of mind comes sweet sleep.

Post by Kyle St. Romain.

If you’re having trouble getting to sleep, your bedding is often a prime suspect. Pillows that are either too hard or too soft, sheets that aren’t properly suited for your climate, and how long have you been sleeping on that same uncomfortable mattress? Luckily, bedding is a relatively easy problem to fix to get your sleep back where it needs to be. A couple dollars, some shopping around and you can be back to your Zzz’s in no time. However, many people suffer from bad sleep even with the best of bedding.

If your bedding is fine, stress is another likely culprit. If you’re dealing with financial, marital or other problems, your mind may be under too much stress to turn off and let you sleep. If this is the case, you should try daily meditation before you go to bed. And even if you don’t think you’re stressed, you can still benefit greatly from meditation exercises.

Daily meditation is as much a technique as it is a lifestyle. Through regular meditation, you begin to learn how to put your stress, tensions and daily worries to the side. In turn, you are able to achieve a more relaxed state of mind. Don’t worry if you have never meditated before; it’s easy to learn with practice.

To begin, you’ll want to get comfortable on the floor in a quiet room, i.e., your bedroom. Next, close your eyes and take slow deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Count each breathe on the exhale until you get to 10. Repeat this process, and alternate between counting on exhales and inhales.

While you are on your mental journey to your place of relaxation, other thoughts will likely pop into your head. When this happens, gently acknowledge their presence, but allow them to drift out of your head and stay focused on your breathing. The object here is to think of nothing. It’s harder than it seems. After 10 or 15 minutes of this exercise, open your eyes and gently stretch. Feeling relaxed yet?

With practice, you will find this relaxed state of mind gets easier to attain and you’ll be able to stay “in the zone” for longer and longer. Meditating before bed helps you begin your sleep as relaxed as possible and hopefully helps you put your stresses to the side, if only for the night. You may also try coupling meditation with the benefits of aromatherapy to induce an even deeper state of relaxation.

So next time you’re having trouble shutting your mind off (going to sleep), give meditation a try. You’ll likely find it a welcomed addition to your nighttime routine.

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