This pretty bed we spotted over at Bloesem Kids got us thinking. Why don't more parents use floor beds? Floor beds are de rigueur in Montessori households where babies often sleep in beds instead of cribs.
Once children are old enough to sleep in a big kid bed, there is always the worry that they will fall out in the middle of the night, hence the (not so attractive) bed rail market. So whether babies, toddlers, preschoolers, or beyond, Montessori or not, a floor bed makes good sense for young ones. Of course you could always use a mattress directly on the floor, but we like the look of a bedframe and headboard. You can see more photos of this child's room over at Bloesem Kids where Valentina from Design Per Bambini is guest posting.
(Image: Valentina/Design Per Bambini)
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I'd never seen these before, but I love the idea.
I suppose if one had the luxury of space, but under the bed storage is needed a lot of the time.
I like the idea once a kid is moved out of a crib- no worries about falling out of bed or needing a bed rail.
Kids can't fall off the floor!
Cute idea if you can find a comfy enough pad/matress. I'm partial to loft beds myself
wow - i sort of love this! instant higher ceilings. i feel like the transition to a normal bed for those us who don't live in tents must come at some point, but this seems like a groovy alternative to a toddler bed during the apt-to-fall-out stage.
"Why don't more parents use floor beds?" a) the mattress gets dirty VERY fast. b) There are a lot more allergens this way - mites, dust, you name it. c) It's colder. d) it's not comfortable for parents.
I like this idea too but I wonder how this would work when a child gets older. My older daughter went from a crib to a twin bed and that worked out well. I don't like the idea of purchasing something like a toddler bed since it has such limited utility but I'm not sure how this idea would translate fora couple of 16 year olds sharing a room...
we have a full-sized mattress on the floor in our daughter's room. she's still in the crib, but it's great to have the mattress there too -- a spot for reading stories that she can climb onto herself and a place for mommy or daddy to sleep with her when she's not feeling well. i love the more finished look of this bed & feel like we should do something fun like this with ours once she's ready to transition from the crib.
I'm with Nudik. A mattress on the floor is great in theory, but I like some height to sit on, to change diapers on, and to make the bed.
Nudik - I wonder how you know these things about floor beds. have you tried it? We have had a floor bed for our son since he moved out of a basinet at 8 weeks old. (he is now 16 months) We have not found that it gets dirty quickly or that it is colder. We don't have allergy problems and we find it ever so much MORE comfortable as we can lie with our little man as he is waking or for a story or a cuddle. But really we chose a floor bed for HIS benefit, not ours. His sense of self-competence and independence and therefore self confidence is what it assists most. We love it and would recommend it to anyone with a little one. Many of the parents I know who have a baby the same age are starting to deal with their children climbing and jumping in their cribs. Not safe at all!
It is nice to read that our floor bed raised such a discussion! I have to say that the most important thing for us was to let the baby become independent as soon as possible. Our baby started to use this floor bed at the age of 9 month! Now that she is 3 we are planning to screw legs to raise the bed. I have to say that dust and temperature was never a problem. We live in Rome and sleeping at the coldest air layer is always good! Moreover the matress is easy to take away from the bed structure so getting rid of dust has never been a problem!
Aw, I had already planned to use a mattress on the floor for the transition from crib to big boy bed for our little guy. I thought I was such a genius for coming up with a way to avoid ugly safety rails, limited-use toddler beds, etc! I guess I shouldn't have been that proud of myself, seeing that others have had this idea before. Still, I'm glad to hear the positive reviews about it to balance out the potential drawbacks. I do think we'll be using a real bed frame once he's certain not to fall out, but I can give up a little under-bed storage until then. (After all, we don't have any under-crib storage right now either, as we have a German crib with a low mattress. I love it, in case anyone is wondering. I'm short, and it's always been easy to put our son into the crib without waking him or struggling with lowering/raising a squeaky rail.) Anyway, getting too off-topic...I wholeheartedly approve of the floor bed. :)
it's called a futon in Japan...and they've been using them for a very long time! :).
My sister used this with my niece. She co-sleeps, but once my niece started crawling, she put the entire bed on the floor. Admittedly with my arthritus it made it more difficult to get into/out of when I babysat, but the benefits far outweighed that single drawback. With carpeting and proper insullation in the basement, there were never any problems with it being cold.
Once she got older, we could play on the bed without my worrying about a sudden impulsive decision to get off of the bed leading to a bad bump or worse! Rather than just a place to sleep, having the bed on the floor meant it was also a comfy space to cuddle and read books or play with her stuffed animals - again, all withou the worry of her falling very far. I don't know why anyone WOULDN'T consider having the bed on the floor for a while before raising it and maybe still using a bed rail. It makes it much more user-friendly for your little one.
I had never heard of babies being in a floor bed, I've been considering it because my little guy screams and seems to hate his crib but will sleep alone in a big bed. I was advised not to because of them getting out of the bed in the middle of the night....I may try it out now! Thanks for the post!
Very cute and practical. My sons have the Ikea bunk bed where the lower bed is a mattress directly on the floor. Great for my toddler, but it really is quite cold.
My middle girl has slept on a floor bed since she outgrew her cot (at her own stubborn insistence, she pulls the mattress off if you put her in a proper bed!!). It's been so successful that her little sister slept on a floor bed from 14 months. Their door has a gate on it, and the room is totally safe while the girls are unsupervised.
We've never encountered any of the problems Nudik has cited, mainly because I think they're her assumptions not her experiences. In fact I've found cleaning easier than having to get the vac under the bed frames of my boys.
Nudik I suggest you do a bit of research. There's no link between sleeping on the floor, and allergies. I actually like the mattresses on the floor as a cuddle spot, and very convenient during the night... especially as it's much easier to extract yourself from a floor bed. I admit floor bed whilst heavily pregnant is a challenge, but what's two months out of a possible ten years?
In terms of those worried about cold, we have a sheepskin mattress cover on each mattress, and a non-slip mat (STOPP FLIT designed for rugs from IKEA) under each mattress. The beds are always the right temperature and never too cold/hot. I actually think they're warmer than their sibs mattresses which are on frames/slats.
Floor beds are very common among parents who co-sleep with infants and children. It is just safer to have a bed closer to the floor.
Another advantage is that monsters can't hide under low beds. Goody!
"Floor bed"? Why does everything have to be named (i.e. commodified)? It's a mattress on the floor, people.
I wonder about using a mattress on floor with a little one, (say 9months +). Would they want to explore the room and play too much & have trouble getting or staying to sleep? (of course, the room would be childproof, but still could be distracting to a curious kid).
love the floral arrangement above, how do i find that?
Floral arrangement is a Haba one.
I did this with a double futon mattress because my daughter was a terrible sleeper. It made it easier to settle her when we went into her room at night.
My son has had a floor bed since he was 2. We used the bed base from his crib - Sniglar from Ikea - and attached four 2-inch legs. When he grew out of that we just upgraded the bed base from baby to junior - Ikea again - and got a new mattress. Easy peasy.
"floor bed" isn't a commodified name. It's a pretty old one, actually, as old as montessori.
Also, when you're purchasing LESS instead of more stuff for your child, I'm not sure your comment works.
Our daughter has a floor bed. She's four months old and we cosleep, but when she's ready to be out of our bed, she has a safe and gated room to be in.
Never seen one before but love it. I have a friend who just threw a mattress on the floor for her son - I can't wait to tell her about the floor bed.
We switched our son to a "floor bed" at 23 months when his crib was recalled, by putting the crib mattress on the floor. It was a totally easy transition for him and he was so proud and happy the day he finally realized (3 weeks or so later) that he could get out of bed on his own. When I asked other parents about this as a long term solution, I heard that not having air circulating underneath the mattress could lead to mold. So far I have not noticed any problems with this, but I'm wondering if anyone has links to studies or other scientific information on the health effects of sleeping on a mattress on the floor?
Just to be clear - we used a floor bed for some time after we moved into our house. And my sister had a floor bed for a long time. And it IS colder to sleep on the floor; and the mattresses did get dirty. (we have a carpet and a cat, so maybe we have more dust when most ppl)
My sister had removed a few bars from the crib side when her daughter was 9 months to allow her to climb in and out. We moved our daughter to a twin bed when she was 20mo or so, had a crib converted into a toddler bed before that. So, though it might be a good temporary solution, I don't see why anyone would do it long term.
A little after age 2 my daughter moved from a crib to a thinnish twin mattress on the floor. It's actually sitting on a set of Ikea slats, so there is still circulation under there. It's worked very well -- she was insisting on a parent lying on the floor next to her crib in order to fall asleep, and now we can at least lie down in bed with her. There is a body pillow on the side of the bed so on the rare occasions she rolls out, she often doesn't even notice.
Yes, she can get herself out of her bed and room (and into ours), but honestly that's less disturbing to our sleep than her yelling for help over the monitor had been.