When we got married, Dave and I combined furniture to outfit our new home. I brought a horrible green chest of drawers, my grandmother’s secretary, two cribs and dressers for the girls . . . and he brought the bed and matching dressers for us. Things have changed in the past 20 plus years – the cribs are long gone as are their dressers, the green dresser was stripped and turned out to be quite lovely – but the one constant was the bed. It survived the many teeth marks from the girls as they were toddlers, served as a safe space when those same girls were a little older and frightened by Balto or Doctor Who, launched many a night of laughter and other noises, held secrets only two people married for 21 years can share. It was steady and lovely and very, very old.
But one morning, a loud crack put an end to all that. Had I been doing anything remotely fun, I could handle it . . . but nothing could have been further from the truth. Asleep one minute. Sitting up in a broken bed the next. Nothing can set your mood off more than breaking your fucking bed. So what’s a girl to do if she feels like sleeping? Buy a new bed, right? That’s a problem if you have a full sized bed because you either a) are a child and must want something for a five-year-old; b) really, really love wrought iron; or c) enjoy IKEA.
Funny thing about IKEA. I’ve never fully trusted furniture that relies on both counting the hardware before you construct it and being able to decipher pictograms. But when you like having a headboard for support and aesthetics, you take what you can get. And what you can get is a full sized bed at IKEA. Screws were counted. Allen keys were deployed. Box springs were measured. Few curse words were exchanged. A bed was constructed.
And along the way, we grabbed our normal Saturday breakfast. We fixed our light that was broken last September. We comforted a nervous dog. We took a little siesta. We hustled our daughters’ cat off the new bed. We grabbed dinner. We made a pretty full day of it.
Done here? Check our Laura Louise Photography and see her 10 on 10 . . . you won’t be disappointed.
Love the shot of Livie.
She is a lover, but god was she pissed that day . . . probably because we weren’t with her downstairs.
i love to read your words….and you have some lovely light in that bedroom lady!
Why, thank you! That light is about the only nice crap that I get in our house 🙂
sweet new bed! I love that ceiling fans are a theme we now share! and I bet, although I didn’t see it, men with nice butts too! 😉
HA! Dave does have one that I would follow 🙂 I’m still leery about the bed and its creaks.
Oh shit…. I am hesitant to tell you that my crappy IKEA bed is propped up on cinderblocks because it has broken TWICE… this post hit very close to home…
No worries . . . I’m assuming that this will have a life span of about two years (tops). At some point, I’ll have to get a “big girl” bed and move up to a queen.
it sucks that your bed broke without any fun being had! LOL. Go Ikea, go!
Well, I had to buy one with a headboard because I like that kind of fun 🙂
Aw, your story about your bed made me a little sad. I totally project feelings and personalities onto inanimate objects. I call it Velveteen Rabbit syndrome. 😉 Love the shot of the dog.
The “pup” is adorable, but she was mighty depressed that day. I think she missed the old bed, too (which is happily in the attic awaiting some swanky carpenter to fix it).
we still to this day do not have a bed frame. just mattresses on the floor. we can never agree on a bed that we both like (or the one we both like is way too expensive for our budget).
i love the picture of your sweet dog, that light is beautiful.
I have a feeling that we’ll be constructing a bed box at some point in time (because this is destined to break). And I’m not too sure that Livie likes it since she’s taken to sleeping on Dave’s side of the new bed (floor, of course . . . she’s too big for the bed and too old to climb up).
So here’s the thing. I have a full sized bed too. And a 6’1 husband. And I like to stretch. I day dream of the day mine breaks and I get to buy a fully adult sized bed. Did I mention I got this bed when I was 15? Yeah.
I love that patch of light, and your puppy is awfully cute, even if he was cranky.
Woo-hoo! My hubby is 6 feet, and we both stretch out when sleeping. Plus our house is so old that I don’t think I could fit a queen sized bed in our room. I kinda love it . . . and the dog. She was a pisser that day 🙂
We just went through a bed upgrade ourselves.. but for my 3 year old.. and it broke my heart. Enjoy your bed!
Thanks! My 21-year-old wonders how we sleep in a full. She thinks we were really crazy for sleeping in a twin when we first were married 🙂
Having spent the past few days putting together IKEA cabinets, I shuddered a bit at this post. I’m glad you finally got yourself a spanking new bed though. I hope you’ve been putting it to good use 😉
Oh, yes, indeed . . . that being said, he’s in Raleigh until Thursday evening. But some nights it’s lovely to spread out just a twee bit 😉
Love your shots of the cats and of course you words.. 🙂
Thanks! She’s sacked out in my normal knitting spot (as usual) . . . not sure how I feel about her headed back to Philly in August.
It looks pretty cool! LOVE the color. I am not a fan of ikea. I am a fan of your kitty though. Cute. Cute. CUTE!
I was going to repaint the bedroom this summer, but considering I love that color, too, I can’t bring myself to do it. The cat is actually our daughters’; we’re just keeping her until they start school in August.
I had a chuckle at the broken bed… but really it’s quite sad. Love the shots of your dog and kitty. 🙂
With the girls being in college, it seems like the pets are the only “people” that I have to take photos of some days. And I’ll get the old bed fixed eventually . . . too much character to let it go.