Our old bed was 20 years old and was ready for a replacement. For sure because we do have a glass headboard, which did suffer from euhm, I am going to be honest, changes in temperature. It did crack last summer during a heat wave.

Budget

Since a was 20 years ago it was hard to set a budget. The initial budget was set on €1.5K. O boy we were wrong with that budget. For sure if you want to have value for your money. €1.5K would be enough to buy a decent bed but without matrasses! And history tells us that we often go way over our budget. But with the front yard also have to be remodeled this spring, we couldn’t afford to go way over! And due to the fact that it is maybe the most used furniture in house, lot’s of factors do influence the budget.

Decisions

20 years ago, it was pretty simple. It was a regular bed or a water bed, there weren’t a lot more options. These days, there are adjustable beds, slatted bases, boxsprings, different zones and so on. Not to mention to decided if you do want a topper or not! And to be honest, the esthetical part also has a huge factor when buying a bed! You fall in love with a bed or not! The esthetical part is mostly influenced by the head board.

As far as we understand now, the most sold beds are slatted bases or boxsprings. And the choice is mostly purely based on the esthetical part. In our eyes the boxspring beds do look more robust!

The chase

We did spend 3 weekends, going to sleep centers (specialized bed stores) and furniture stores. We even did visit Ikea.

During our first shopping day, we already knew that with our budget we wouldn’t get anywhere close to our taste and likings. So the budget was increased. The first good offer we did receive from a bed which we did find beautiful was from a sleep center. They do have of course something special which does increase the price. They do measure your sleep DNA. For this you do have to lay 10 minutes on a bed, with sensors in it. These do measure your pressure points on the mattress and bed base. Based on this sleep dna, they do place all slates from the based on a different height. They also do have the possibility to do this with a boxspring, where they can adjust each row of springs. All of this should assure that your back bone stays in a straight position while sleeping. Regardless if you do sleep on your side or back. Together with these adjustments a matrass is advised. They also did indicate that maybe we should buy a little bit larger bed. At the moment we do have a so called super king size (6’ x 6’66” or 180 x 200 cm). This was probably the best advise they gave us. So after that visit is was clear that we would be going for a 180 x 210 cm bed. In the old days, we would have stopped looking around. Because although the price was above our budget, we could afford it and would have bought it. Bot not this time 😊

Next up was another sleep center (Auping). Here we did discover the comfort of an adjustable bed and due to the fact that we both do watch TV from bed our do read, this does come in handy. Bed no way we were going to pay between €8K and €13K for a bed.

So after the first 2 days. We knew that our initial budget was way too small, that we do want an adjustable bed and a bigger one.

Another thing we did learn from talking to our physiotherapist and other. That you should invest into a mattrass or into the bed base. They is no use to invest in both. Even worse investing in a bed based with different zones and into a mattrass with different zones even could be worse. Also a topper isn’t necessary, when you did buy a top matrass. If you did invest a lot of money into the bed based, probably a thicker topper is better they a more expensive mattrass.

During the second weekend we did finally see a bed to our licking which did thick all the boxes and was within the renewed budget!
But we didn’t stop there, a third weekend was added to the chase to see if we would find something even more to our liking and preferably even cheaper.
While during the third weekend we didn’t find any new gems, this proved to us that we would make a good choice with the one discover during the second weekend!

We are both glad the chase is behind us and that they offer has been placed. We now have 6 weeks to remodel our bedroom. Repainting it and replacing the remaining furniture. Probably next year, the wardrobes will be replaced!

The choosen one!

Tips

Here are some tips we did learn during our chase:

• Often as much stores as possible
• Invest into a bed base with different zone or into a matrass with different zones
• Set a realistic budget up front
• Do try the beds. Don’t be afraid to lie in it in the store. This is more important than you can imagine!
• And don't believe eveything all sellers are telling you! They do want to sell a bed, maybe even try trick into a so called healthier one!

Happy shoping!

Cheers, Peter