When Kyle and I decided to replace our old mattress, we assumed we would just get another queen size bed. Our bedroom is a little less than 11’x12′, so a queen size bed seemed like the natural decision. But the more we thought about it, the more we realized that we both REALLY wanted a king bed. A queen bed was fine, but the boy is pretty tall and we both take up a lot of space when we sleep. I felt like I wasn’t sleeping very well as a result. We also want to have this mattress longer than we’re in this house and would rather get something that works well for us long-term rather than purchasing a temporary solution. Basically Kyle said, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could get a king size bed instead of a queen?” and I said, “let me take this to AutoCAD and get back to you.” From there, I evaluated our options.
The Original Plan. When we originally set up our bedroom, we positioned our bed so that it was looking out the windows. We had narrow marble end tables for nightstands that allowed us to just barely squeeze the bed and two nightstands on the same wall as the door, which also gave us space to position two dressers against the window wall. Obviously the king bed, which is 13″ wider than our queen, wasn’t going to fit in our current bed position.
Another Queen Option. When we planned the original furniture placement in this room, we explored the idea of putting the bed on the wall opposite the closet. The room was staged that way during the open house, but adding a dresser in the room created some awkwardness on the window wall. From that experience, I knew that a king bed would have the same problem, and there definitely wouldn’t be enough space to pass between the bed and dresser.
King Bed Plan Using Existing Nightstands. As you can see, I quickly determined that if this bed would fit it would have to be on the window wall. I put the bed in the plan and determined we had enough space to fit the bed and two nightstands on that wall, but our current nightstands could be a challenge. They are long and narrow (18″ x 28″), and the nightstand on Kyle’s side was interfering with the closet door. I thought about turning them, but that would’ve looked awkward because of a shelf underneath the table that opened to the sides. I was also ready to ditch them from the room because the lower shelf was getting super dusty and cluttered, and I welcomed the opportunity to get some more drawers in our room.
New Bed and New Nightstands. The nightstand decision resulted in the floor plan above, which reflects my decision to use an end table I got from my grandparents’ house for my nightstand and a smaller washstand-type pieces for Kyle’s side of the bed. We still need to maintain two dressers in the room, and like we had done in our previous plan, we placed them at the end of the bed. It’s a tight squeeze between the end of the bed and the dressers, but it was the best we could do to include the storage we need. In an ideal situation we could figure out some kind of built-in configuration there that is shallower and feels more integrated with the wall, but that would be an over-improvement for our house and outside of our budget right now.
Don’t let the asymmetry in this floor plan throw you. When thinking about symmetry and balance in a room, always think about that angle from which you will view it most often. In this room, that angle is in the corner at the door. As a result, that end table that looks deeper in plan than the washstand actually doesn’t read all that different in person. I will get more into that wall elevation when I show you the design board for our room next week.
This bedroom is one of those situations that as a designer, I would have a hard time suggesting to a client. I feel like we’re cramming too much furniture into one room. I try to create a minimum of 2′ for circulation around furniture, and prefer 3′ when I can make it work. But we need the dressers because we don’t have very much storage in this house, and so I am willing to accept an imperfect floor plan that includes the pieces we need.
I actually prefer the new configuration over our old floor plan. I like that I can walk into the room and access the dressers without having to walk around the bed, and I like seeing our bed when I walk into the room as opposed to the mess that is our dressers.
As you may have noticed, blog posts have ticked up around here a bit. Since I started the earliest iteration of this blog, even when I did post more often I struggled with consistency. My goal now is to post at least once a week. That should be doable and I’m excited because I finally have a little more to blog about when it comes to our house. On the weeks that I don’t have any house updates, I plan to post sources to my favorite finishes and furnishings and share some of the design advice I’ve picked up in my day job. Check back next week for a more colorful (literally) post about how I’m furnishing our new bedroom.