Why low platform beds?

June 14, 2006 4:28 AM

Who likes sleeping only 18" off the floor? Why have box springs been eliminated from modern bed design?

After a comprehensive expedition through soho furniture stores this weekend, we returned home puzzled that all the beds we saw were platform beds. And I mean all of them. Where have the box springs gone? We prefer contemporary furniture, but we don't want to be squatting to get down into bed each night (me+partner are both quite tall). I guess it has something to do with the fact that moving a box spring up stairs to an apartment is such a hassle; for many in urban areas doing away with it has become popular. But are people actually content sleeping more than 18 inches off the floor? Why do all higher beds tend to be old-fashioned styles?

posted by saffron to home & garden (28 comments total)

One should note that all these platform beds *allow* you to not use a box spring, but they don't REQUIRE you not to use one. Personally, I don't care how far off the ground I am (during my university years, I slept on a mattress on the floor because I couldn't be arsed moving a mattress + boxspring + bed every 4 months), I don't really see what the big deal is. You only get in/out of bed maybe 1-2 times a day (if you include bathroom breaks or whatever), so what does it matter if you have to squat to do so? And I'm 6'2, so it's not like I'm a short person trying to bag on the tallies. :)
posted by antifuse at 4:41 AM on June 14, 2006

Are you really that lazy that squatting once a day is a hassle? You save money and space, that's the main benefits I see. My bed is 18 inches off the floor and I'm 194cm tall, and the only thought I had is "why waste money on this stupid frame that raises the mattress?" and the answer was "to store junk under the bed"
posted by Sonic_Molson at 4:43 AM on June 14, 2006

(1) Box springs are annoying and ugly. I've hated them since I was a child.

(2) I'm tall and I slept on my spouse's futon & frame (total height around ten inches) for many years. Never had a problem with it.

(3) Not all platform beds are low. I had one with drawers underneath and a thick mattress. It was as high as most box spring beds with the added advantage of usable storage space.
posted by D.C. at 4:46 AM on June 14, 2006

I think there may be some sampling error going on here. I recently bought a bed, and the store I went to showed mattress/box-spring pairs exclusively.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 5:07 AM on June 14, 2006

depending on your mattress, you may be voiding the warranty if you don't use the boxspring. I believe they're designed to work together. or is that corporate bs?
posted by evening at 5:12 AM on June 14, 2006

I use the box spring, but no frame. Now, I don't have to clean under the bed. I don't squat to get into bed - it's more of a practiced tuck-and-roll manouver in slow motion.

Places like "Mattress Outlet," etc, will only sell box spring combos.
posted by muddgirl at 5:15 AM on June 14, 2006

Agreeing with Steven C. Den Beste. Try expanding your search outside Soho. Also, try watching local TV. I don't know about where you are, but every city where I've lived (East Coast, West Coast, in between) has lots of ads from furniture stores and mattress stores which are eager to sell you what you want.
posted by Robert Angelo at 5:22 AM on June 14, 2006

Right, Steven, he's talking about modern furniture and yeah, everything's a platform bed when you go contemporary. If you drive to any major city and go into a standard mattress place, you will see everything with huge pillowtops and tall boxsprings. But in my opinion, those are ugly.

I am tall, and I like the look of most platform beds, but there is a limit and it depends on the room. Personally I think most Italian modern platform bed designs are too low, and they don't look right in most rooms. I found something modern and platform bed looking, without having to practically set a bed on the floor (which I think looks dumb in a room with 9' ceilings).

If you look at what West Elm has to offer, I would say their low platform bed is in the ridiculous looking category, but their wood bed frame can accommodate a fairly high mattress, even one with a boxspring if you keep your linens hanging over so that they are essentially "hidden." Since I got a Temperpedic mattress last year, it was really low profile (only about 8-9" tall and most mattresses are over a foot high) I got a custom boxspring built to fit the height of the West Elm wood bed frame's bottom section, so the low profile mattress sat on top of this short 4" boxspring and in the end, it looks in the middle between low modern platform and mattress-without-boxspring thickness in a slightly low bed frame.

So you can get the clean lines of a platform bed and still have something that isn't too low. Personally, I only get into and out of bed a couple times a day so it's not a big deal to me that my bed is about 2 feet off the ground.
posted by mathowie at 5:22 AM on June 14, 2006

Well, it makes sense that the beds you see in furniture stores are platform beds. A box spring usually goes on top of a simple metal frame. There are some more elaborate ones with headboards, etc., but overall, most of what would qualify as "furniture" (in other words, what would be worth a furniture store's while to display and sell, if they're not actually selling mattresses) would tend to be a platform bed.
posted by staggernation at 5:30 AM on June 14, 2006

The "modern" beds you see in SOHO are a European thing, maybe even more Scandinavian that has been around for a long time. The GF bought a low bed at Scandia and it is comfortable, about the same as my very high box spring bed. The only complaint I have is that the boards that surround the bed are great at banging up your shins.
posted by JJ86 at 5:40 AM on June 14, 2006

How about if you buy a non-platform bed on a plain metal frame, but design your own contemporary headboard and/or footboard? You could do wonders with a sheet of MDF and a coating of your choice (e.g., paint; batting & fabric; mirrors; whatever) HGTV has this sort of thing all the time.
posted by Robert Angelo at 5:46 AM on June 14, 2006

muddgirl: "I use the box spring, but no frame. Now, I don't have to clean under the bed."

I know this is leaning off-topic, but I feel that it should be said: Keeping your mattress on the floor is only a good idea if you do move it and vacuum under it on a regular basis. Otherwise dead skin cells accumulate around and underneath it, and you're just asking for a bedbug infestation. Which isn't necessarily terrible but it isn't fun. (Think Hep-B.)
posted by Plutor at 6:03 AM on June 14, 2006

From a recent article at slate.com:

Box Springs: I find them wholly unnecessary. Think about it: Presumably, you could put a box spring under your box spring for even more "give" and "support." Another box spring under those two. Where do you draw the line? Also, remember that box springs add significantly to your cost. One reasonable argument I heard for them is that they save wear on your mattress, but I had no way to prove or disprove this.

Many Europeans use platform beds without box springs. Do you hear them complaining? I don't use a box spring, and I don't miss it. It's a princess/pea thing. If you need 17 layers, OK. If you only need one, don't buy a box spring, unless you don't like platforms and can't think of anything better to put your mattress on. My recommendation: Put your mattress on the floor—it saves money on nightstands. Give in to gravity!
posted by EiderDuck at 6:09 AM on June 14, 2006

The box spring is a haven for bed bugs.
posted by onepapertiger at 6:23 AM on June 14, 2006

Go to Macy's. They have a wide variety of styles and (if you catch them during their twice-yearly sales) good prices. My wife and I got our Stearns & Foster there and have been very pleased with it.

And for fuck's sake, don't tell the poster not to want the kind of bed he/she wants. Jesus, people.
posted by languagehat at 6:44 AM on June 14, 2006

The box spring is a haven for bed bugs.

I guess that could be true in theory, but most Americans have a box spring and barely anybody has bed bugs.
posted by smackfu at 6:45 AM on June 14, 2006

Have you tried Room and Board? They sell contemporary platform beds too -- believe me, life without a box spring rocks -- but their beds, especially their steel beds, are very tall. The Parsons bed, in particular, is both cute, modern, and very tall, even with just a mattress.
posted by Malla at 6:50 AM on June 14, 2006

Love my box spring, hate low platform beds or mattresses on the floor. I just don't like the feeling that I'm sleeping on the floor.

And I like under the bed storage, and I've had my bedroom flood once - at which point I was very grateful there was no way for water to get to my mattress.

I think the point about the furniture stores is a good one - platform beds look clean and modern and they definitely want to push that look.
posted by agregoli at 7:06 AM on June 14, 2006

I definately prefer higher beds, both for storage and for bedroom activities where one person may stand and the other lie down.
posted by skinnydipp at 7:41 AM on June 14, 2006

The only complaint I have is that the boards that surround the bed are great at banging up your shins.

Ugh yes. If you get a platform-type (box spring or not), make sure that the frame does not extend too far outside the perimiter of the mattress. That super-low West Elm monstrosity is a good example of what not to get. Clean lines? Yeah and bruised shins!
posted by radioamy at 7:49 AM on June 14, 2006

depending on your mattress, you may be voiding the warranty if you don't use the boxspring. I believe they're designed to work together. or is that corporate bs?

Half and half. I looked into this a lot when I bought our last mattress, because we have a platform bed, and pretty much universally I found that you void the warranty if you don't use either a box-spring or a platform bed designed to be used without a box-spring. Mattress on the floor: voided warranty.

YMMV, though, so it's worth checking before you buy.
posted by mendel at 7:51 AM on June 14, 2006

I definately prefer higher beds, both for storage and for bedroom activities where one person may stand and the other lie down.


And duh, I forgot another obvious reason I also enjoy. Thank you for pointing it out!
posted by agregoli at 8:20 AM on June 14, 2006

To try to get at an answer to your question other than "it looks good to a modern sensibility", it's the futon. For whatever reason, contemporary designers have taken it as their inspiration -- the panacea of good deisgn. Maybe it was the many nights designers had to sleep on one before making it big.

The same thing happened with landline phones. Designers made the decision to skip usability altogether and try to make them look like the worst design decisions on the planet -- mobile phones.
posted by ontic at 10:14 AM on June 14, 2006

The best part of platform beds is that there's no where underneath them for monsters to hide.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:17 AM on June 14, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Lower beds make it harder to get up in the morning. I have enough trouble getting out of bed as it is, and actually having to use my legs first thing in the morning sucks.

I am a lazy bastard.

My bed has the frame, the box spring, and the mattress. I can sit up and practically pour myself out of bed and into an upright position.

So, I think the low platform beds are a European thing, cuz, y'know, in Europe, you don't have an evil MBA boss demanding his workforce be in the office by 8:00am sharp. ;-)
posted by drstein at 11:14 AM on June 14, 2006

... barely anybody has bed bugs.

After being nearly extinct in America for over 50 years, bedbugs have enjoyed a tremendous resurgence recently, at least in the metro New York area. Most people think it's due to international travelers bringing them back from other countries.

My wife and I had bedbugs 1 1/2 years ago in our high-rise Jersey City apartment and finally got rid of them by throwing away our mattress, box spring, bed frame and two nightstands. We resorted to that measure only after two separate visits by the building's exterminator failed to clear them out.
posted by EiderDuck at 11:20 AM on June 14, 2006

bedbugs have enjoyed a tremendous resurgence recently, at least in the metro New York area.

I think the "metro New York area" part is the key, as I did some reading on the topic recently, and it seems fairly limited to the area.

As to the original post, thanks for asking a question that was kind of weighing on my mind yesterday after my first trip to Ikea. Everything there seemed low to the ground, especially the beds and couches. Now if anyone can explain the latter ...
posted by anjamu at 2:10 PM on June 14, 2006

Oh my god.
*vacuums under the bed*
posted by muddgirl at 8:44 PM on June 14, 2006