Please note that this Adventure in Buying a Mattress and Storage Bed Frame post was originally written in 2013 for my other site littlebitsandpieces.com. I had to give up the bed in the divorce a year later, so I no longer can answer specific questions about it. Since I was truly happy with it, I thought it was worth resharing and I have included some of the comments along with my answers from the original blog article.
It was a Saturday in 2013, during some of the heaviest rains we had all year, when our family bought a new mattress and bed frame. I did love it, but it took a bit to get there.
We originally started our search online. We looked at Costco, Ikea, and the local Bedding Barn. Bedding Barn had no prices listed on its site, so that was useless. Costco had a nicely reviewed firm Queen (no longer available), but it was difficult to wrap my brain around purchasing a mattress without actually laying down on it first.
Buying the Bed Frame with Storage
Earlier in the week, we purchased a storage bed frame from Ikea.
The Fjell is no longer available. Based on what I found on their website, this MALM High (not a sponsored link) comes closest in style and price. If I had space on both sides of where I was putting the bed though, I would end up purchasing the BRIMNES (not a sponsored link/just my opinion).
In our store, the mid-beam for the FJELL was NOT included as stated on the site. It was $10.00. We also bought the additional slat set for $60 that supports the mattress. If you decide to purchase the MALM or the BRIMNES, I suggest that you research ahead of time so you know what you need.
Speaking of slats, you have to make sure that the slats are tightly in place.
The FJELL had two wide drawers on each side of the bed. We were impressed with the quality of the wood. We recently bought a twin-size bed frame with 2 drawers from Ikea for our daughter and we were able to put that together in a little less than 3 hours. By comparison, it did take about 5 1/2 hours to assemble the FJELL.
Here are some of my favorite parts of that bed: there were two drawers on each side of the bed, the headboard was awesome, and I was in love with the drawer pulls. They didn’t stick out like they did on my daughter’s bed and all three kids would scratch up their legs when they played near them. The drawers were not overly deep and they had a really nice width to them.
Buying a Mattress
I started that morning with research. I found a lot of help in this Lifehacker Post (not sponsored). Here were my top three takeaways:
- Always ask for the best price.
- Make sure to lay down for at least 5 minutes in the same position you sleep in.
- Always ask if they have some sort of comfort guarantee because you truly won’t know if your body likes the bed for a few weeks.
My first mistake was to go to Mattress One. It was fine at first. The salesman had helped to narrow it down to three beds. Unfortunately, our family couldn’t agree on what suited us best, so we knew we needed to look further. The salesman continued to talk up about the Beautyrest that he knew I preferred. It was $899, but the guy went back to his desk and talked to his co-worker. He came back and offered it to us for $799 if we bought it right then. I explained that we were *Thinkers* who needed time to absorb plus and I needed to get the kids something to eat and take a break.
Beware of the mattress sharks!
Instead of respecting that, he wouldn’t let us go and just kept talking. We tried politely to leave again and the salesman angrily said, “How are you going to feel when you come back later and the price of this is back up to $899?”
I didn’t even say goodbye. Gathering the kids, I walked out the door. I decided that I didn’t care if we slept on the air mattress for a week, but we were not giving a blackmailer a dime of our money.
Buying a mattress in South Florida is not an easy task!
Our next stop was the Bedding Barn in Davie. Even though they didn’t list prices on their site, the store has been there for as long as I can remember. I have never heard anyone talk negatively about them and I am pretty sure my grandmother had bought a bed there that she loved. It was there that we sadly learned that no one really makes any two-sided mattresses any longer. BUT, they had an exclusive deal with a US factory that made them for this store. We didn’t particularly like anything and then we discovered that there was no type of Comfort Guarantee which was a deal-breaker. It wasn’t that we thought that we would ever use the option, but I didn’t trust anyone who wouldn’t stand behind their product.
The last stop of the day was Mattress Firm (not a sponsored link) near the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise, Florida. There was such an amazing difference in how we were treated. We never felt pressured or like the sharks were circling. In fact, they had the Beauty Rest that I liked from the other store but with a different top which made it a family favorite. In the end, we paid $200 less for the Beautyrest Recharge Edmore Plush and they were able to deliver the next day. We were thrilled and going in person to comparison shop was completely worth the effort. We learned so much and I had a bed that I truly loved.
Times are different now.
I’m very blessed to be able to provide each of my three children with their own rooms. To achieve that means that I chose to sleep in the living in an old lounge chair. One day, I hope to update that situation with perhaps a sleeper sofa and I’ll be sharing everything I learn when that opportunity comes along.
Let me share some photos:
My plain quilt is not fancy, so I don’t have a very glamorous final photo.
Well, even though these particular items are discontinued, I hope my experiences and recommendations for replacements are something that you find useful.
Original Post’s Comments about Buying A Mattress:
The most popular question/comment that I received was in regards to the level of squeakiness of the Ikea bedframe. Honestly, it was squeaky at first and I was a bit concerned. The noise did actually go away within the first month or so of the wood settling.
The next question was: “So you have a thicker coil mattress and no box spring sitting on slats? Which type of Ikea slats are you using?”. My response was: “Correct… The mattress isn’t the most expensive but it is also not the cheapest. The slats are pine and he doesn’t remember the price. Maybe $30 to $50?”.
The last question was: “Do you have a box under the mattress (frame, box, mattress) or do you just have the mattress (frame, mattress)?” My answer is that we had the mattress directly on top of the slats and had no need for a foundation box underneath.
My personal note was that I remember it took some time to get used to having something solid at the bottom of the bed after a lifetime of using a frame and box spring. There were many stubbed toes but we eventually got better with it.