antique furniture and little beds

Before moving into our new house, my wife found a beautiful antique bedroom set. A large gorgeous wood bed with frame and full height (6' tall) head board and mid height foot board. Complementary chest and bureau (sp?) in excellent condition were part of the package.

What was missing was a mattress.

Now I've never worried about buying a mattress before, but the more I looked the more I learned that my regular sources of high end mattresses simply could provide a "short" full mattress. Essentially I needed a full-size mattress less 6-10" of lenght.

Apparently people really were shorter 125 years ago!

Fortunately, we found a local mom and pop mattress retailer. For a mere $100-$150 extra, one and only one of their mattress vendors could shorten the mattress. Unfortunately, you're not getting the top of the line product at $600- $900 for a full, instead you get a $350 - $450 mid-grade mattress, however, it does feel comfortable when lying in it. Perhaps that's most important.

For almost 10 years of marriage we have never had a matching furniture set (except a hand me down we don't care for). Of course this set doesn't work for us and will be in the guest room, however, anyone visiting us will enjoy a matching furniture set - a bit ironic, yes? You can get matching furniture but not use it.

If you're in a similar situation, here are some numbers:
$350 - $550 for the mattress
$100 - $150 to shorten the mattress
$2.50 for slats (these are horizontal pieces of wood that support the box spring)
5 - 10 weeks delivery time
patience

I hope this helps anyone in a similar situation.

Regards,
makingourway