Help me buy a bed! Any reason not to buy a so-called "kid's bed"?

July 9, 2024 9:29 AM

I'm looking for a queen-sized bed that will fit in a smallish room with a fairly low knee wall (37"), and have been having trouble finding one I like. While searching, I've found a few advertised as kid or teen beds that look like they would work--is there any reason not to buy one of these?

I like simple, modern designs, prefer wood, and would probably buy the West Elm Mid-Century bed if it weren't too tall. I'm ok with something that's a few inches taller than 37, but would like to keep it as close as possible to that height at the edges--a taller curved headboard could work, as long as the slope was less than the slope of the ceiling. Very happy to hear any other ideas for good quality options that meet these criteria and aren't wildly expensive or involved (I will not find a local carpenter to make me a bed).

posted by dizziest to Shopping (14 answers total)

You'll have a harder time finding some variety of good-quality sheets for kids beds.
posted by mhoye at 9:40 AM on July 9 [1 favorite]

This Etsy seller made an all-walnut queen bedstead to my measurements (I needed a bed that was taller than average) and shipped it to my home for what I would have spent at Crate and Barrel. Highly recommended.
posted by minervous at 9:42 AM on July 9 [2 favorites]

You'll have a harder time finding some variety of good-quality sheets for kids beds.

Could you elaborate? It looks like these "kids" beds take standard size mattresses (i.e. full and queen). Is there a reason a standard-sized sheet (and in turn a quality standard-sized sheet) wouldn't fit them because they're kids beds?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:45 AM on July 9 [14 favorites]

Check the weight limit but otherwise it is probably that it coordinates with some other kids furniture or is lower to the ground then a similarly styled bed for a grown-up would be. But you find the latter point desirable, so...
posted by jacquilynne at 9:59 AM on July 9 [14 favorites]

Neither of these bed frames say how much weight they can hold - adult queen beds are generally designed to hold the weight of two people, and so go overboard a bit to make sure they hold steady during sex. That they don't list the weight capacity seems to be at least a yellow flag, since when I was shopping for bed frames a few years ago that was a pretty standard measurement.

On preview, similar to jacquilynne's point.
posted by coffeecat at 10:01 AM on July 9 [2 favorites]

I think what you actually may want to search for is a platform bed. They tend to be lower to the ground. The headboard on the ultra cheap IKEA Nieden for instance is under 26" tall, and plenty of very nice platform beds don't have any headboard at all.
posted by phunniemee at 10:11 AM on July 9

Response by poster: Just to head off the platform bed question: I prefer the look of a more traditional bed, definitely want a headboard, and need at least 8" of clearance under the bed (so it turns out the PB Teen one wouldn't work anyway!).
posted by dizziest at 10:19 AM on July 9

I have this ikea plain wood frame with a generic queen mattress, no box springs.
posted by j_curiouser at 10:53 AM on July 9

Wayfair allows you to filter beds by height. This gives 2,721 results, and you can likely also filter out headboard-less beds.
posted by CharlesDeP at 11:11 AM on July 9

Thuma?
39" inches with headboard and 9 inches of clearance under the bed.
posted by XtineHutch at 1:06 PM on July 9

Perkins Spindle (38" high, 750 lb weight capacity), Colfax (38" high, 8" clearance, 750 lb weight capacity), at Rejuvenation
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:45 PM on July 9

To answer your question about using a bed designated as a kids design:

I’ve had this queen bed from C&B Kids for about a year and we—two average-sized adults and a teeny dog—love it. Sturdy, comfortable, identical in size to a “normal” queen bed.

(I know it isn’t the style or measurements you’re looking for, but I share this because buying home stuff from kids’ collections is one of my personal decor strategies! I tend toward modern and minimalist design but I also need color and pattern. When I find furniture or rugs or curtains that are sorta-but-not-quite my style, I go straight to the kids department.)
posted by perpetual color at 8:36 PM on July 9 [3 favorites]

Dania Furniture's Bolig Bed, in walnut or driftwood; headboard height is 35.5", and per customer questions from 2022-2023, on the walnut bed page, it's an 11" clearance under the bed, an "880 total weight limit," and the manufacturer has corrected the leg issue. (Found in this similar 2013 AskMe.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:36 PM on July 9

I don't have a suggestion but I stopped in to say that the Etsy seller linked above has some seriously beautiful furniture.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:07 AM on July 10