My Grandmother’s Antique Bed
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to inherit my grandmother’s beautiful wooden antique poster bed, which she had owned as long as anyone in my family could remember. The frame itself was in great shape and went perfectly with the rustic aesthetic I wanted to cultivate in my bedroom. It even had some beautiful wildlife-themed images carved in the wooden headboard.
Unfortunately, to my surprise, my standard double size mattress did not fit in the frame at all. After some quick measuring and a bit of research about standard bed sizes online, I realized my antique bed frame would require a rare 3/4th mattress.
Finding A 3/4th Mattress For My Antique Bed
Options for getting such an uncommon mattress size were limited, and having an antique bed frame presents unique challenges to finding the perfect mattress. I didn’t want to take the risk of destroying the antique bed frame by having it altered in a risky attempt to convert the bed to a full size. I quickly realized that if I wanted a great mattress, I was going to need to get a custom made mattress for my antique bed.
When making a custom mattress for antique beds you have to take into account many factors, like your personal firmness and memory foam preferences, but also the ways your antique bed frame may be unique. “Antique beds” is an overarching term that can be broken down into very specific categories that will each require different things.
For example, my bed has a poster frame that was elevated very high off of the ground compared to the average bed frame made today. As someone on the shorter side, this meant having to consider getting a high-quality custom mattress with less height in order to make it easy to get on the bed, but I still wanted it to be just as comfortable as a regular mattress.
Another surprise factor I needed to assess was the corners of the mattress. My bed frame required that I get a mattress with notched corners in order to fit properly, which was amazingly easy to do after discussing with a Custom Mattress Factory Consultant who had a lot of experience in making mattresses with custom corners. In the end, I had a bed that was a valuable family heirloom, and a miraculously comfortable and modern feeling mattress.