Tuesday, December 13, 2011

the Framboise Manor monster bed!

we have a confession to make...we are bed hogs. like hogs. it is almost sinful!

however, when we first got together almost 11 yrs ago (our 11 yr anniversary is Jan 19!), i was 30 and jambaloney was 36. we had both spent our adult lives up to that point sleeping in large beds - by ourselves!!! prior to living together, jambaloney had a queen-sized futon and i had a king-sized waterbed.

when we moved in to our first place together, we tried for over a year to learn to sleep together in a king-sized bed. neither of us was getting any proper rest. i roll around in bed all night long and often end up sideways or upside down when i wake. jambaloney doesn't roll around so much...but he does have a thing about having blankets and with me rolling around so much i tend to steal the blankets. so we sat down one day and had a frank conversation - we needed 2 beds!!!

it was the smartest thing that we have ever done! we each got a queen-sized platform bed and mattress, pushed the two beds together in the middle of the room and have slept happily that way for the last 8+yrs. we each have our own bedding as well so there is no chance of someone waking up shivering all the time - teehee!

anyway - here at the Manor we only have 2 small bedrooms. and we gave away one of our beds and mattresses before we left the city. for the first few months of being at the Manor we were sleeping together on one queen-sized mattress on the floor. but at least we had our own duvets. because of the shock of getting here, near freezing to death and all of the other craziness that happened last winter - our bedroom was not at the top of the list of things to worry about.

but we eventually got around to dealing with the "bed" problem and created a ton of extra storage in the process! i told you that we are bed hogs so don't be surprised to see this:




here's a bit of a better shot:



yep - that's a hand-built platform bed that spans the width of the room. on jambaloney's side (window side) is a queen mattress and mine is a double. but as he is not a roller, we often wake up with him squashed against the window and me laying sideways across the two beds - it's awesome! we love our "bed" room....pun intended. yep it is a room full of bed! and it is also an awesome place to go and flop during the day and yak and make plans. you can find us sprawled on that monster at just about any time.



the great news about building your own platform bed is that you can choose the materials and build storage space into it - something we are severely lacking at the Manor. have a peak:



we built the base of the bed using 2 X 12s, like rafters, and then covered them with 1 X 8 slats about a half inch apart. the bed is 9ft wide and 7ft long. underneath the bed there are 8 compartments - 2 small ones of 4 inches wide on each end of the bed, and then 6 compartments that are 12 inches high, 14 inches wide and 7ft long. you can stuff a lot of stuff in a 7ft long compartment...and the compartments are big enough for me and jambaloney to climb under to retrieve stuff.

this is an excellent place to store preps! and because we don't want to broadcast our preps to the world, i cleared our preps out from under the bed, and just put some stuff there to show the height and what you can store and whatnot. we have plastic bins and buckets with lids and can store much stuff in those and put them under the bed.



yep - a monster bed and an excellent, hidden place for preps! what could be better?

(we also plan to build a headboard with shelving and shelves all around the room. we just haven't gotten to it yet!)

32 comments:

  1. Now that is one decadent bed!

    By the way, being American, I'm lost as to the meaning of preps?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm looking forward to the other three posts about your bed.... It _is_ a four-poster, right? *snort* Oh I need more coffee...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Smart, I like it....and, there's enough room for children when they arrive.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Whatever works. Just keep them tight together so you don't fall through the crack between them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very nice. I need to do the same because I like to wake up early and make my bed. I guess I get the feeling of organization before I even head out the door. The wife on the other hand balls the blankets up twisting them into knots somehow and then fights to get them straight the following night. Completely two different sides of the coin there. So now we use two different bedding for one king sized bed. In the mornings, I still make my side and laugh when I see hers hanging half off and twisted around and around.

    ReplyDelete
  6. When I see the pictures all I can think of is falling into the crack and getting stuck!

    That's a lot of bed for 2 people, wow.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh my I love your bed!!!!!

    Bill is so tall 6'4" that anything smaller than a queen and he has to lay angled. In the queen he touches the ends but is not as bad...this would be so amazing.

    I am seriously considering this and can't believe I never thought of it!!!!!!

    And the storage is a bonus-
    I can't imagine what a little kid would think!!? Perhaps he had made it to bouncing heaven!!

    Have a fantastic day-and now I know why you are always in such great spirits-


    xoxxoo
    Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love it...and it would be doo-able for me...but I also keep thinking about the crack in the middle? Has anyone ever slipped in to it????? : ) PS: I am back from Disney...posted pics for you on my blog

    ReplyDelete
  9. STOP IT!!! I am trying SO hard to not make a "slip into the crack" joke.

    :-P

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is a wonderful post!

    When I have suggested similar arrangements would be great, I have had discouraging remarks about it not being romantic to have your own covers. I think getting enough sleep and staying warm is very romantic.

    My daughter and her husband had a queen bed, but he had his own blanket that was folded during the day. At night, they flipped all his side back onto her and he slept under his blanket.

    Some mornings, I would awake and the husband was on my side of the bed. He said I crowded him so, moving closer all night if he moved, so he just went to my side of the bed and slept because he could hang onto the bed no longer and knew he would fall off. I called it cuddling; he called it crowding.

    The storage space is great. You made up for having a huge bed by using the real estate underneath!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Awesome! I gotta get me one of those!

    ReplyDelete
  12. How very "I love Lucy" as TV shows in those days never showed even married couples sleeping in the same bed. I like it though and i bet you could get quite a bit of the readers in that huge bed, but the question is why would you want that! You guys are still young puppies yet. Richard

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ed – it really is a decadent bed! preps is a term used by “preppers” to refer to long-term food storage, additional supplies, tools, medical and dental supplies, etc. preppers are people who prepare for a variety of emergencies, whether they be natural or man-made related disasters. i am simplifying the term just so that you will get an understanding. jambaloney and i are preppers and have long-term food storage and additional supplies and whatnot. think about having a year’s worth of kidney beans and rice. or a year's worth of toilet paper. then think about how much room that would take up in your kitchen or your pantry. if you have a year's worth or more of a variety of preps - then you need to start getting pretty crafty with finding ways to store it all.

    North - get more coffee buddy - bahahahah!

    Stephen - back when we lived in the city we had 2 queen-sized beds smashed together. kids loved that bed!!!

    Duke - this bed that we built is all one bed - from wall to wall. there is no "crack between them" to fall through. and the two mattresses are a very tight fit. there is nothing to fall through and rolling from one mattress to the other almost feels seamless because of the tight fit.

    MDR - you are sooo OCD - but i love it! and yes - having your own blankets even when sharing the same bed ensures that you always get to keep your blankets! and fold them with hospital corners in the morning all nice and neat - bahahahah!

    Max - see my comment to Duke above. the bed was built as a single unit but we had to use 2 mattresses as there is no such thing as a 7ft long, 9ft wide mattress that i know of. and if there was i am sure it would cost a fortune! so no crack to fall through! and ya - it is enough bed for 4 or 5 really BIG people!

    and speaking of Big, tall people - Jen - Bill would love this bed - he could stretch out lengthwise or widthwise and still have room. the storage underneath is such a blessing - do you know how much flour, rice and beans you can fit under that thing? and yes - now you know the secret to our high, happy spirits - we have a big giant bed - bahahahah!

    JUGM - read my comments to the others above. the bed was built as a single unit and the mattresses are a nice, tight fit...i can't even get my hand between them and use a hockey stick to tuck the 2 comforters down the middle - bahahahah! i am glad that you are back and will head over to your blog to see your pics as soon as i am done here. i hope that you guys had an awesome time!

    North - lay off the coffee - bahahahaha!

    PracticalP - this bed is soooo romantic! not to get too personal but can you imagine how many times two, entangled romantics can roll from one side of the bed to the other? i think it's about 5 or 6 times. that sure beats rolling over once and landing in an entangled ball on the floor - bahahahah! (i hope that wasn't too racey for anyone!)

    as the room is quite small to begin with...when we put just a queen-sized bed in there it ate up most of the floor space with room left only for a nighttable. this bed uses the floor space much better - we get a hug bed and a ton of storage space. win-win all around!

    Wendy - i imagine when you build yours it will be much bigger - gotta remember to leave room for the bears - bahahaha!


    Richard - not very I Love Lucy as this bed is one unit and we can roll from each mattress to the other without noticing a change in the mattress. as for readers sharing the bed - we wouldn't mind to let a few of you come and hang out for a bit - but then ya gotta get lost! cuz ya - we are young pups...and we LOOOVE that bed!

    thank you all for your comments!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. That quite the playing field you've created there.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well, this one sure put a big grin on my mug!!!

    Oh, My!!!!

    Winston

    ReplyDelete
  16. I. Love. It. This is absolutely something I am now planning for my future house. Even without someone to share it with, this bed is magnificent.

    ReplyDelete
  17. My mother gave us some of those plastic bed raisers that you put under the feet of the bed when she moved. It takes a pretty serious running leap to get into bed, but the extra storage space is great.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Some how I missed this post. I love your slumberland you call a bedroom.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Tight crack? Hockey stick? Wall to wall? Kinda sounds like when I was younger. LOL!

    That is so cool. Wait till Kathi sees this. Course, it would not be big enough for us. We have a dog that like to think that he is the king of the bed. He would go crazy on that thing.

    ReplyDelete
  20. kymber, Not too racy. Yes, I have landed on the floor only too often! Wall-to-wall bed will be all the rage now.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Love it! Sleeping space is very important :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. LOL nice bed. It still wouldn't help our situation because we have VELCRO DOG who snuggles in so tight and can somehow manage to make her small frame stick to covers even when they are hanging vertically.

    ReplyDelete
  23. CZ - yep - it really is - and we love it!

    Winston - i thought you would like it - bahahhaha! email response coming soon k? i read your emails and am really thankfull for your explanation and suggestions!

    BEB - thanks, darlin. like i said earlier - because the room is so small even with just a queen-sized bed there was no room for anything else...so we decided to go whole-hog!

    Ron - extra storage space is always awesome - how high is your bed?

    oh Rob - it is a slumberland...and napping in it by yourself is really wicked decadent!

    Flier - bahahahahah! ya i bet that combo of words does bring back memories, ya nut! and it sounds like your dog would tear it apart. speaking of pets - we have two cats and neither of them sleep on it during the day...weird?

    PracticalP - bahahahahah!

    Donna - sleeping space is incredibly important and something not a lot of people think about. we had several friends back in the city who at first thought that 2 beds was weird...then they thought about it a while...i had several friends tell me that once they tried it, they would never go back to sleeping in one bed. and like i said to PracticalP - having 2 beds to roll around in is much more romantic than one!

    PioneerP - sounds like you got a distant cousin of Flier's dog - bahahahaha!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi kymber thought id stop back here again to read the comments, and in looking at your pictures i can see there is a place under that bed for "stuff". And speaking about beds do they still make water beds? Your buddy Richard

    ReplyDelete
  25. Awesome! That's one gripe I've always had about furniture: wasted space. One reason why I love boats and RVs, they make the best use of available space (and force us to make even better use of it!). That was one thing I loved about sleeping aboard my old boat, the V-berth in the bow went from "wall to wall" with the center insert in place.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Thought id stop by again especially since you have a bed in your post, i need a little nap after visiting so many blogs today! Richard

    ReplyDelete
  27. Richard - so sorry for not commenting sooner!i am honestly not sure if they make waterbeds anymore - but i loved mine for the 8 years that i had it!

    and you are always welcome to stop by and "virtual nap" on our bed!

    Craig - you are so right about wasted space...and being in this small cottage, we really need to learn to use our space well! the bed on your old boat sounds awesome!

    thanks for stopping by guys!

    ReplyDelete
  28. What an awesome idea! Love the extra space.

    ReplyDelete
  29. What a great idea simply love it in fact it appears to so beckoning. I want one, seriously!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Very similar to our plans for the upstairs! Only our bed will be somewhat higher off the floor and not quite as wide. But we plan on plenty of under-bed storage too! Great minds think alike, right? :)
    The Anonymous Homesteader

    ReplyDelete
  31. I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
    4th of july mattress sale

    ReplyDelete
  32. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
    best rated mattresses

    ReplyDelete