Vintage, Cottage-Core Vibes are all the Rage in Bedroom Décor

It’s everywhere – that farmhouse-meets-cottage-meets-historic home design style. People are flocking to vintage furniture, bringing it back to life by refinishing, reupholstering, and repainting. But sometimes it’s hard to bring that complete look to your bedroom, because antique beds aren’t exactly easy to find. And mattresses for antique beds? Even harder. But searching out the perfect vintage bed for your bedroom makeover and upcycling it can be a fun project and leave you with a totally one-of-a-kind bed. And don’t worry – once you’ve finished that labor of love, it’s actually pretty easy to get a mattress custom made for your antique bedframe.

How to Find a Great Antique Bed and Bring it Back to Life

Some of us are lucky enough to have family heirlooms like Victorian-era beds. Or maybe you’ve bought a historic home and found some pretty cool stuff left forgotten in the attic. But if you’re in search of a vintage bedframe that will work for your needs, you’ve got to consider some things.

1. Size: How big are you going to need the mattress to be? Will a ¾ bed work for you, or do you need something bigger? If you’re sleeping single or choosing an antique bed for your guest room, two matching single-size vintage bedframes with an antique nightstand between them is a cute idea and gives you sleeping options for more guests.

   No matter the size of your heirloom bed, you can find a modern custom mattress to bring it back to its former glory. Since antique beds have unique dimensions, your best option is to order a custom sized mattress from a reputable custom mattress manufacturer. Custom beds also allow you to select mattress materials that suit your sleep preferences. From memory foam to latex, you can enjoy modern sleep comfort on your heirloom bed.

   
   

2. Shape: Once you’ve found your perfect bedframe buried at the back of an antique shop, you’ve got to put it together to see what kinds of customizations your antique bed’s mattress will need. Because historic mattresses were basically cushion sacks filled with cotton, down, straw, etc., they were much more flexible in shape than a memory foam mattress today. So, you might need the mattress for your antique bedframe to be custom made with radius corners or notched corners in order to fit the frame correctly.

   
   

3. Height: Is the frame you chose an extra tall bed? How high are the posts, the headboard, and the footboard? Will the mattress sit recessed into the frame or flat on a metal grid? Most antique beds don’t need mattresses with box springs – it makes the mattress too high for the frame. And some older beds might not even have the height necessary for a standard 12-inch-thick mattress. The good news is that you can get a custom-sized memory foam mattress made thinner for an antique bedframe. And because memory foam is so dense, you won’t notice if your mattress is only 9 or 10 inches thick.

Keeping all these things in mind and making sure you’ve got a measuring tape with you during each antiquing outing, you’ll know better what to look for. After that, it’s really all about the aesthetic. Do you want a wooden frame? A four-post? A decorative metal frame? With some washing, sanding, and recoating, you can bring any musty antique bedframe back to life. And with that handy measuring tape and a great custom mattress manufacturer, you can get a totally bespoke mattress made for your vintage bedframe. It’s the best of the old and the new – something that will transcend the current trend. And who knows? Maybe that ¾ antique bed’s new life will take it from a dusty and forgotten pile of wood to a beautiful and cherished heirloom once again.