Does Size Really Matter?

Recently, I overheard a discussion in a bed store while I was doing some research. There was a young couple, early twenties, who were shopping for a new bed when the young lady asked “Will this [king size bed] fit in our room?” The young man stated “Sure, our room is 11’x12’, it should fit really easy.” I walked over and introduced myself to the young couple, and offered to help them pick a bed. I learned that they were moving in together for the first time and were renting an apartment. The apartment was an economy 1 bedroom unit on the third floor. I took a few minutes with the couple to talk to them about the importance of the size of their bed.

When I explained the size of a king size bed to the young man, a light bulb came on over his head. For some reason, when you are looking at a king size bed in a 3,000 square foot showroom, the actual space taken up by the bed can get lost. I advised him that a king bed, approx. 76” wide (6 foot 4 inches) in a room even 12 feet wide would leave less than 3 feet on either side of the bed. The room would have about 5 feet from the end of the bed to the wall with any adult-sized bed. We looked at a few dressers in the showroom and, with the help of a tape measure from the store clerk, learned that a medium sized dressed averaged about 18-24 inches deep. We subtracted the dresser dimensions from the space around the bed, in a few different arrangements, and learned that this may have left the couple with as little as 12 inches to navigate around the bed on either side. In a best case scenario, the 34 inches left on each side of a king size bed in a 10 foot wide room was enough to change your clothes, but little more.

I also explained that moving a king sized bed into an apartment was a difficult task as well. The landings for external entrances, hallways for internal entrances, and stairs/elevators all needed to be taken into consideration. The young lady firmly put her foot down and said “Honey, we are not going to get a huge bed like this for that little apartment.”

While I was working with this young couple, another couple approached us (this happens to me a lot when I am researching in stores). They explained their circumstances, and had a problem which was exactly opposite from the first couple. “We inherited an antique bed, and it’s about as big as a full bed, but longer” stated the lady. “Would you recommend that we use that bed with a new mattress instead of buying a whole new bed?” I took her question into consideration, and asked a few questions of my own. I learned that the space in the room was not a big issue, since their room was about 14’x14’ and they were considering a queen size. I did notice that, although the lady was demure, her husband was not. I wondered for a few minutes if he might be a football linebacker. I estimated him to be about 6’2”, and weighing around 250-275lbs. I recommended to this couple that, rather than go with the narrower antique frame, that they should look at the larger queen size. (The wife politely leaned in and offered a quiet “thank you” and mentioned that the antique was rather unattractive in her opinion). I also let them know that a search on the internet could turn up some manufacturers which will build a mattress to fit her antique frame, but that she would need to invest more time, and possibly more money, to find a good one. I recommended that if she were going to do that, start with a simple search on “custom mattress.”

All in all, these two couples had almost the exact same problem, just from opposite ends of the issue. What we learned in this case is that size truly does matter.

Tags: bedroom, bedroom furniture, beds, furniture, mattresses

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 12:54 am and is filed under beds, furniture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.