Home Improvement

Any parent will tell you flies when your children are growing up. Sure it may not seem that way when you’re endlessly changing nappies, but that phase passes quickly enough, then they’re out of the crib and into their own Bed.

I have twin girls, Mary and Stephanie, and they just turned ten. Up until now, they’ve shared a room and slept in Bunk Beds. But both of them came to us a month ago and said that since they were big girls now -double digits- they wanted their own bedrooms and their own Beds. This isn’t exactly easy to accommodate; since we live in a two bedroom flat and I’m not about to give up my room, we had to get creative. We do have a small den, I decided that we’d give that up in order to make a very compact third bedroom. My wife and I have laptop computers, so the separate room with a desk wasn’t necessary any longer. Continue reading ‘Every Kid Wants A New Bed When They Grow Up’ »

The pun in the title is not intended but it succinctly encapsulates the current trend in bedroom”>http://www.furnitureline.co.uk/bedroom_furniture/beds_furniture.html””>bedroom furniture design and manufacturing. Historically Western culture has experienced an evolution in bedroom furniture that has seen advanced changes over a relatively short period of time. Our ancestors were lying on straw beds on the floor only a few centuries past; then they progressed to straw filled and subsequently horse hair filled mattresses. When wardrobes were made initially there were very roughly thrown together; resembling a large open cupboard. Eventually doors were added after some considerable time to give us the predecessor of our modern wardrobe. These would have been made from woods of whatever kind available in the locality.

There was however a two-speed development phases for bedroom furniture over the centuries. The aristocracy and wealthy merchant classes would have enjoyed quite luxurious items of bedroom furniture while the proletariat would have had to do with very basic functional rough- hewn pieces. Social class and wealth dictated the speed at which people could afford to enjoy better quality bedroom furniture but today in our affluent society the opportunity is available to everyone to acquire most bedroom furniture of their choice. Continue reading ‘Bedroom Furniture against the Grain’ »