Slats: bowed vs. flat?

Hi, this is my first time posting and I'm hoping to get some advice. We live in Cincinnati, OH and there aren't a whole lot of stores that stock modern furniture. So I've been doing a lot of searching online. But I'm having a hard time finding a bed that, 1. we like, 2. has storage drawers, and 3. fits in our bedroom.

I've found a cheap Ikea bed that might do the trick if I build the drawers (the MALM bed) but I don't know what kind of slats it has. There isn't an IKEA near me so I can't go look. Some friends of ours have an IKEA bed and it has straight, wood slats to support the mattress.

But when I look at more expensive beds I see their foundations have bowed, wood slats. For example, the DWR Cosmio bed (http://www.dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=2449) or the Limo bed (which we actually found at a local store but it's too big http://www.boconcept.com/Default.asp?ID=10406).

Will the bowed slats really make a difference? There's one more store in town I haven't visited yet, Abode in Covington, KY, maybe I'll find something there

Try bludot. They have a bed with drawers.

bludot

If you vist, click on the text that says "click here to relaunch site"

Since the wood slat is going to flex when you lay down on it, the bowed slats will flatten into a horizontal position, as opposed to starting flat and going concave, pushing you into the center of the bed over the course of the night. Bowed is better.

the flat slats of the ikea beds are essentially 3/4 slats spanning 2'- 6 or so. They don't flex very much at all. The bowed slats are thinner flexed peices of wood, and since they are thinner will flex and flatten out when loaded.

Yeah, I found that bed last week. But it's too expensive and I'm not very fond of the colors

Why don't you check in with a local custom furniture-maker? I bet you could get the bed you really want for <$1000. Or, better yet, talk to LM member Ian Maclean. I bet he could build it and have it shipped to you for less than the cost of a nice store-bought bed (but probably not as cheaply as Ikea).

link to Ian's Photo Album

i am down your way every few weeks visiting my friend / CNC guy in washington court house. so as for shipping, i could hand deliver it to you. let me know if you want to look into working something out. BTW, i have a guy making hairpin legs for me now and plan on making some fun new stuf. a twist on the case study bed would be sweet with some type of storage...

-ian
216.244.0751

We've got a king-size Malm bed and don't have any issues w/ the slats flexing, however, if you're looking to put drawers underneath, I don't know if I'd recommend it. There is not much clearance under the sides (less than 6 inches), so you'd have pretty shallow drawers.

Thanks for letting me know about the MALM bed! It was hard to tell from photos alone how much clearance there was.

Thanks for the offer on the bed! We bought a bed we found at a local store, but without storage. Hopefully and can concoct a slide out shallow tray (on wheels) for underneath it. I'm thinking the tray will have a smaller footprint than the bed, so I don't have to worry about making it match up with the side rails and legs exactly. Then as long as the stain matches the bed, it won't look so bad. I just don't want plastic RubberMaid bins underneath

I certainly keep you in mind though when we start on the basement renovations. I like the work in your photo album. We've been thinking of lining at least one of the basement walls with cabinets.

I want to thank everyone for all the info. We decided to get the B2C Queen Platform bed from EQ3 ( http://www.eq3.com/cat-eq3/3030-416-2.html ). I was able to get bowed slats for it and two 24 night stands that won't make the entire thing to large for our room. Plus they have pillows for the headboard that I can re-cover to match our duvet. We found it at Abode in Covington, KY. It's a great shop ( http://www.abode4me.com/ ).

As for storage, I'm going to try to build a shallow slide-out tray (on wheels) for underneath it. When I'm successful, I'll post a follow-up

dorcasgood,

we bought the same bed a few months ago for our guest room from a store here in Orlando.

I'm very interested in seeing your follow-up!


(I originally planned on one from IKEA, but just couldn't come to terms with almost paying as much for shipping as the cost for the bed. Such is my conundrum with singular large IKEA purchases.)

Good luck

- emily

got a job to reproduce ONE bed slat the other day... made a nice big form to do large runs when i get around to building the next bed...

it got me thinking about this post when it first started. by the way, after building the bent slat i would say they work much nicer than the flat.

have a good one.
-ian

I bought the leggero bed from dwr. the slats aren't bowed until you insert some plastic peices that bow the slats. It is amazing how much rigidity the system adds.

I just loved when the guys that came to deliver the bed and to put it together kept asking me if this was the entire bed...and then had no clue how to put it together (so much for white glove service). I got it together just fine.

Hello, we live in Cincinnati area too.

Believe me, we've hit all the modern places we could find.

We bought the slat system (deluxe) from Abode in Covington (with the EQ3 upholstered bed). Guess what - it's CANADIAN HARDWARE! We do not have the tools to assemble the screws - they actually have a square cut-out in them (not like our Phillip's or regular screws). No instructions came in the box. We are not rocket scientists but one of us does have a PhD. Go figure...can't make American tools work for Canadian hardware - duh! Funny thing is, hubby use to be Canadian but came to the States for graduate school. So, he had a square adaptor but even his heavy-duty drill with the Canadian bit would not work - they must use air-compressed tools to assemble the wood pices onto the upholstered bed which is secure but we cannot get close enough to assemble the center bracer (we are going to use American nails for that.

We are happy with the bed but were not happy with the fact we have to assemble this product ourselves. We thought the slat system would be one piece assembled. This was not the case at all. I've never seen so many slats of wood in my life.

Our decision to buy other furniture at Krispin's towards Dayton is justified now. The price is higher but the white-glove delivery is just that. Could not be happier with the one large piece (sideboard) we bought from them.

There is Voltage, and other places for furniture downtown as well. They all carry a hefty price tag - you would spend at least $4,000-$6,000 on a bed alone and no drawers! We walked out thinking they really loved their furniture - because they are going to end up keeping it a long time.

Abode has some very nice things at reasonable prices - bring a truck and hope what you are buying is assembled and does not have to be ordered. It took forever for us to get our bed (fabric choice was a faux suede that is very rich looking). And remember, it's more difficult to get good customer service these days (and if you are dealing with another country, you may as well give up).

Good luck on your search (we are attempting to put the slat thing together as I type - but have given up for the evening and will be sleeping on our old bed).

Ann Brian

The square-drive (also known as Robertson) system was indeed invented by a Canadian (whose name was--you guessed it--Robertson), but compatible tools and fasteners have been available and in use in the U.S. for at least twenty years. They have become very popular with cabinetmakers, and you can find a selection of both the drivers and the fasteners at any decent hardware or big-box store. Note that as with Phillips, there is more than one size of square drive, but #2 is by far the most common.

And don't worry about a Ph.D. being an impediment. I have a Ph.D., and I've never had any trouble using square-drive screws. :grin:

-Steve