My husband and I had the same problem: He likes "modern" beds, which to me seems that you might as well put the mattress on the floor. (When did box springs become passe?) Plus, I also wanted some storage room under the bed (we do live in New York after all). We compromised on this bed frame from West Elm. It's inexepensive, and rises about 10" off the ground.

http://www.westelm.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?partNumber=WE-PRODf269&storeId=17001&langId=-1&catalogId=17002&viewSetCode=E&parentId=WE-SH1FRNBED&retainNav=true&cmsrc=WE-SH1FRNBED

Polina, are you using a boxspring and mattress with your West Elm Tall Wood bed frame or just a mattress? If you are using both the boxspring and mattress, do you like how it looks? I saw this pictured in the last catalog I received with just the mattress and was wondering how it would look with both.

I've been looking for exactly the same thing, a very tall, platform bed. I looked at the West Elm bed above, but even that isn't high enough for me. I ca n't wait to see what people come up with.

risers-

you can raise a bed with risers.

in college, I used one cinder block for each leg.

places like the container store, bed, bath and behemoth also sell little things you can put under each bed corner.

it won't work for platform beds; but will for standard frames

http://www.charlesprogers.com/

I slept in a version of this bed http://www.charlesprogers.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_6&products_id=47 , before I was married. Sadly, I had to upsize to a king, and now my beautiful bed just collects dust in storage.

you can also get the standard 4 post bed and use it upside down, with just a mattress, given that the upper posts are strong enough for the weight - this is what we did in college so we did not have to lug cinder blocks up the stairs to our 6th floor dorm room!

you may want to try some of the beds on storehouse.com. i've got one, and i definitely have the sensation of trying to climb up onto the bed. granted, i'm 5'2", but i definitely don't think it's a low bed.

Erin:

We are using just a mattress, but its a super thick pillow-top thing that I can't even find sheets for. It's a not a bad compromise if you have to do so, because I still get a "high" bed, and he gets a "modern" platform.

I think it would look fine with both -- the headboard we purchased (also from West Elm) is pretty tall.

Funny, but my boyfriend is the opposite. He's 6'5" and puts a mattress on the floor every evening. If his feet/legs hang over the mattress it really hurts his back. Further, in a hotel he pulls the bed away from the mounted headboard to gain a couple centimeters.

I used bed raisers on a standard frame last year since I also like a high bed. They worked quite well. I bought a new bed with wheels on the frame so can't use the raisers. I'd imagine you could hide the frames with a bedskirt and then attach a nice ornamental frame to the head of the bed. (I don't find the need for this since I move every year.) The last two years of college, the dorm bed frames could be turned over to have a bed over a meter in height (which I loved!). I'd imagine you could employ a local carpenter to make something similar.

I too have been looking for a tall, modern, climb-in-like-a-queen bed but I really want to keep the boxspring. Frankly it's hard to find anything that isn't a platform these days and I do insist on keeping my boxspring. I have to assume that the "for use with mattress only" descriptions are to keep the profile of the bed which in many cases is ruined with the extra inches..any other reason other you can't use a boxspring with a platform?

Are you talking overall height of the mattress or of the bed frame itself?

One old "visual" trick is to add box sets, 2 to 3 under the mattress. This is good only if you want an overall increase in mattress height.

We used to do this back in the day, in department store displays. I always thought it was camp until I went to a cocktail party, walked into the master bedroom of the host, only to have him exclaim, "oh, I saw it at such-and-suches" and loved the added height".

Have you tried the Parsons or Portica beds from Room and Board? They're actually quite high off the ground. http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/category.do?method=get&id=45&page=2

I bought the tall platform bed from west elm and use it with both the mattress and box spring. it make a nice compromise between modern and a bed that's now slung so low to the ground (which looks sorta strange with really high ceilings.

I'm 5'10 and have to stand on my toes to get in and there's also the added benefit of room for storage (my table extention leaves) underneath.

I second Margaret's recommendation for the Parsons or Portica beds at Room & Board.

I have the Portica bed. And like you, I'm tall (6'3") and I don't want to have to "squat" down to my bed. So, the Portica is perfect.

As a bonus, the Portica allows LOTS of storage underneath the bed. Best of all, the Portica is very "efficient" (for lack of a better word) with space. I have a small bedroom -- only 8.5 x 12 -- and the Portica has a very small footprint (about the same as the mattress itself). The headboards on some other beds really consume a lot of space, by being unnecessarily thick or by sloping back toward the wall.

The downside is that the Parsons/Portica aren't cheap. But for me, it was well worth the investment. I'm sure I'll be sleeping on my Portica 20 years from now.

The West Elm tall, full-size, is backordered until December. Boo Hoo!

You could make a plywood platform as wide and long as your bed frame, cover it with carpet, and put your bed on top of it.

I got a high platform bed on sale from bigapplefuton.com and the slavs installed it on the highest height.

cheap, not pretty solution: put the frame up on cinder blocks.

I had exactly the same desire and am of similar size.

I gave up , designed one, and had one made to order by a craftsman.

It took a while, because he was busy and took it on as "fill in my down time, no rush" project, but it's nice, has vertical 2 ft of clearance underneath, and no #$%#$% useless box spring, and completely disassembles into real wood posts, planks and panels.

Cost less than you'd think.

I'm 6 feet, hubby is 6'3", and when we went shopping for a long-coveted king size bed, we also had to deal with space constraints in our bedroom. We finally chose the baseline bed from CB2 (http://www.cb2.com/family.aspx?c=400&f=2082&viewall=1), which has the same dimensions as a king size mattress. The baseline bed has wooden slats, so no boxspring is required.

When it came time for mattress shopping, we wound up buying the "cadillac" of mattresses, pillowtop and everything. It wasn't cheap, and though we didn't intend to do this, we wound up with a pretty tall bed - in fact, when I'm sitting on the mattress my feet don't touch the floor, and that has definitely not happened since I was a kid. Of course, having a 17" thick mattress limits your choice of bed linens, but this was the best solution for us.

simple, really: have the bed made custom. what most people don't realize is that - if you look around and do some research - custom work usually doesn't cost much more than places like room and board and crate and barrell. west elm, yeah, but then you have to actually live with that stuff.

I had this same problem living in a NYC studio where storage is KEY! I bought these 15" bed risers from www.bedrizer.com are they are great! Unlike the stubby usual bed risers, these are 12" or 15" risers and becomes the actual legs of the frame. pretty sturdy too cost about $100

So do people use box springs with a platform bed? I'd prefer the look of just a mattress on the platform, but the boyfriend insists he won't be comfortable without the box springs.

Anyone care to share their experience? Is just having a mattress on a platform still comfortable? Will it look completely silly to have both a matress and box springs on a platform?

Thanks!

Candice, we just bought a frame and headboard (one of the West Elm ones) that's meant to be used without a box spring. So far, we love it and can't tell any difference at all.

If you are looking for good quality metal beds, then you must definitely check celticwroughtiron beds
www.celticwroughtironbeds.com

Try this http://www.finnwooddesigns.com/ElevatedPlatform.html