apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I've been in the market for a new bed (old bed in guest room, new mattress on floor) and finally realized even $300 buys a LOT of hard wood from Home Depot. And I have the carpentry know-how, so now it's just getting around to it.

Meanwhile, you can't give solid antique bedroom suites away because walnut and maple are out of style.

I'll vouch for IKEA's Malm bed (and side tables... I have the ones with two drawers in them). My Malm bed has moved 3 times and it goes together and comes apart easily and in a solid fashion, so it doesn't get flimsier and flimsier with each move like some furniture tends to. It's pretty easy to put together and it looks good. Comfortable, too. Not a single negative thing to say about it other than we have no IKEA even remotely near Kansas City, but that's a complaint for the store, not the product! lol

Does anyone have experience with the West Elm narrow-leg wood bed frame? I'm looking for a new frame these days and wonder about quality (someone recently commented that West Elm's quality now isn't what it used to be).

I have the Ikea malm and love it. Wish they would create a Malm 2.0 with built in storage beneath.

It's not just low end furniture that uses particle board. I've seen a lot of furniture at Ligne Roset and DWR that also uses particle board with wood veneers.

Wouldn't particle board and wood veneer combo be more environmentally friendly, compared to, say, using wood from, say, forests hacked down in Asia or South America?

I don't see any high end, all these beds are low end. How about some really nice beds, everybody knows ikea and CB2.

"Wouldn't particle board and wood veneer combo be more environmentally friendly, compared to, say, using wood from, say, forests hacked down in Asia or South America?"

Not necessarily.

There's alot of particle board that's not very dense - such as the stuff from IKEA - making it less durable and prone to pulling apart. Particle board may also be full of formaldehyde, and veneers may from old-growth/clear-cut forests.

Although the wood from SE Asia and S America might not come from the best sources - if the wood is properly cured, the piece is solidly built and it's finished with non-toxic products - it could last longer than the other stuff and be healther for your home environment.

A friend has this Ikea bed: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50021627. The Dalselv is unfinished solid pine and $99 for the queen frame. The slats are extra but it's a great looking bed and she's had it for 6 years without any problems.

I agree with SB modern - none of these are high-end, and all are from stores we go to already.

Sorry to beat on them again, but DWRs 'American Modern' bed is junk, and basically a knock-off of Modernica's Case Study bed (which is actually well made, and has some design integrity). DWRs American Modern group is poorly finished, crudely engineered, badly proportioned, and boring. One nudge the legs will fold, and the casegoods use cheap slides and joinery I would expect to find at Resto'. Nothing 'modern' about it. DWR used to be a reliable high-end source, but now mainly sketchy mid-market products at luxury prices, and an increasing amount of under-the-radar knock-offs (example: BluDot Strut table). Anyways..

Bepsf also has good point about particleboard - there is a huge range in quality. Some is domestic/european and dense and made with formaldehyde-free resins, and others are light and flaky and won't last. But nobody ever mentions it in their product marketing so all gets treated the same. Even most high-end stuff from Europe is made with particleboard cores, but the engineering and production is perfection.

Am I boring ? ;-)

"Am I boring ? ;-)"

Not at all.

Before IKEA went nationwide, Techline of Madison Wisconsin made a great bookcase system with different heights and depths plus doors and drawers, using uber-dense particle board and high-pressure laminates - the 12" deep bookcase shelves were 1" thick so they could carry @ 100 lbs per shelf....

...but IKEA came in and sold Billy which is imported and made with fewer options and from cheaper and less substantial materials - as a result, Techline could no longer sell their more expensive but far more durable system because most folks refused to pay for the far quality item for their home since the two systems looked so much alike.