My girlfriend would like to upgrade from sleeping in a twin bed to sleeping in a queen size. My own magnanimous nature, and for no self-serving reasons, I would like to help that plan along.
Money is a little tight, and so the thought of a box spring and mattress seems beyond the means at the moment. I thought to myself, “Self, you’re a handy guy. A box spring doesn’t look that complicated. I could build one of those.”
After wasting several hours at work today perusing the web for information about whether a box spring is important for a good night’s sleep with a mattress, and reading THIS thread, I still have a couple of questions.
The mattress sellers say that a box spring enhances the life of the mattress over putting the mattress on the floor or on a platform bed. Is this true and significant?
The platform beds are often made of wood slats going across “so the mattress has air access?” Is this important, and if so, how does a box-spring accomplish that?
Does anyone know of “do-it-yourself” plans for a box spring that might provide some/most of the benefits of a store bought box spring (softer feel of mattress, improved life of mattress) at a fraction of the cost?
Otherwise, I am just going to take some 2x4’s and make a frame like:
_____
|_|_|_|
and put some plywood over the top. To air the mattress, I’ll just tell her to flip it every six months.
Thanks for asking this question and posting the link to the other thread. It’s helped me
Most of the furniture stores here will only sell matresses in “sets,” meaning with the box spring. I’m curious mostly because I’m convinced I absolutely hate box springs. I bought a great, brand-name mattress at the firmest level they sell it, and it still sucks.
Whenever I get to a hotel/motel, they have great, hard as a rock beds, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a box spring (and I made it a specific point to check on the hotel bed two weeks ago in Toronto at a decent hotel).
My wife’s family has no box springs at all, and she says they’re strange to her – of course that’s Mexico, where they use English and call 'em Twin, King, Queen, and (finally Spanish) matramonial. And I sleep really, really good there, too.
So it seems like you’ve help me (sorry I can’t return the favor!) – I’m going to persue converting my bed to a “platform bed” (I din’t know how to call it).
Mrs Geek decided to get a waterbed, despite the fact that I said beforehand I hated waterbeds. Still, we tried it, and I couldn’t sleep on the darn thing. But, it’s a really nice bed and has a nice headboard and we like it. So we ditched the waterbed matress and put in a normal one. It actually is very comfortable as long as you use a decent quality matress.
The thing is, if money is tight, you may not buy much of a matress. A cheap matress and box springs feels a whole lot better than a cheap matress over plywood. If you go too cheap on the matress, your gf is going to hate you for making her sleep on an uncomfortable bed.
