You haven’t seen our bedroom in a while (aside from small peeks on Instagram) because we owe you a curtain-related confession. But first: so many of you ask about our new bed and why we upgraded from our old Ikea frame, so it’s time to properly introduce the bed we bought nearly a year ago—last November.
Why a new bed? At first glance our new bed doesn’t look drastically different from the previous one. Both headboards are a light, wheat-colored linen that suits the calm, low-contrast bedroom we’ve been creating. The main difference is that this is a proper upholstered bed with headboard, sideboards, and footboard all covered in the same fabric. Before, we were working with a metal frame plus a headboard we made ourselves.
At one point we even attached that handmade headboard to an Ikea Edland canopy bed after we chopped its posts off years ago. We later swapped beds with our guest room when we wanted a more grounded, substantial look, and we also wanted a proper boxspring setup instead of a mattress sitting directly on slats.
The quick bed swap was an improvement, but an upholstered bed felt more finished than the bedskirt-plus-metal-frame arrangement. A bedskirt can work, and we use them at the beach house, but it bothered me that the skirt color never exactly matched the duvet. In a larger room, viewed from farther away, that slight mismatch becomes noticeable.
After years of swapping beds, adding skirts, and reupholstering the headboard, we finally ordered a fully upholstered bed. Of course it involved lots of research and indecision—because that’s how I operate—but it felt worth the effort.
One perk of buying this bed was that we could move our old headboard back to Ed the Bed and bring both to the empty beach house last fall. So instead of buying a brand new bed for the beach house, we got the bed we wanted for our primary bedroom and gave the older combo a new home where it fits perfectly.
Ed’s been through a few incarnations and has lived in three houses with us—nearly eight years for the bed and more than six for the headboard. They’ll soon hit the 10-year mark, which feels like an achievement in a world of fast turnover.
Back to our new (well, year-old) bed: I love it so much I almost want another one for the beach house’s main bedroom. It’s a nice, adult-feeling upgrade after years of metal frames and DIY headboards. The bed is the Sanford Linen Upholstered Panel Bed from Wayfair. We bought it last November in the “Talc” color; it’s a warm linen tone just on the warmer side of gray-beige and works well with both gray and tan walls. It comes in standard sizes and currently was on sale when we bought it, making it a good value compared to many similar-looking beds in the $1,000–$2,000 range.
The finish is warmer and less gray than the listing photos suggested, which was a pleasant surprise. The fabric has a linen-like texture and small vertical panels—or “wings”—on each side of the headboard that add detail and coziness compared to our flat DIY headboard.
The bed requires a boxspring, which we prefer—it feels like a “proper” adult bed and is better for the mattress. A heads-up: with a thinner mattress you might see a small gap between the mattress and the headboard. That space actually makes changing fitted sheets easier, so I appreciate the design choice.
People have also asked about the small black feet—online product photos can make them look clunky, but in real life they sit back under the frame and are hardly noticeable. The upholstered frame is the visual focus.
Now, about curtains—because curtains are hard. Our old wheat-colored curtains had been fine, but after installing white panels throughout the beach house I developed a craving for crisp white curtains in our bedroom too. We Craigslisted the tan curtains and picked up several sets of Ikea’s Lenda curtains. They’re heavy, affordable, and washable—$25 for two 98″ panels—so they work well in a household with kids and pets.
Full disclosure: Ikea’s product photos don’t do these panels justice. They’re sold with tabs and tiebacks in the listing, which confuses a lot of people, but they can be transformed into clean, modern panels with a bit of effort. We lived with the curtains hung but wrinkled for nearly a year—life happens—before finishing them. Getting them to look polished takes steps, but it’s doable and inexpensive.
Here’s the process we follow to get great results without custom curtains:
Step 1: Wash on warm and dry on high to pre-shrink the panels so future washes don’t leave them too short.
Step 2: Use sharp scissors to cut off the tabs just above the sewn line at the top.
Step 3: Fold the top edge over toward the back (facing the window) to hide the cut and create a neat top seam.
Step 4: Clip ring clips along the fold. We use six ring clips per panel—one at each end and then every other vertical seam, around 10″ apart.
Step 5: Slide two pre-washed, clipped panels onto the rod and decide the height. Hang high and wide so panels frame the window, typically about 8″ beyond the trim and a few inches below the ceiling.
After those steps we paused for nearly a year, but when we returned to finish the job we completed these last important steps:
Step 6: Iron or steam the curtains. We steamed them in place when possible, but for the best result with one person, take them down and iron them.
Step 7: Hem if needed. We often use a no-sew method: fold the hem to the desired length from the back, then reclip the panels on the rod to hold the fold. It’s adjustable and avoids sewing or tape. The slight break at the floor looks intentional and neat.
Are these the most luxurious curtains? No. But they are affordable, washable, and add softness and height to the room. We completed the bedroom curtain update for about $75 and ended up with six panels that look clean and liveable.
Someday we might splurge on custom curtains for a more polished look, but for now these panels are a practical, budget-friendly choice that stand up to everyday life—and they’re washable, which matters a lot in a house with kids and a dog.
Also, dogs don’t have to adult. I want to be Burger.
For those who ask about paint, the wall color is our favorite grige: Edgecomb Gray. If you want the full list of paint colors we use throughout the house, we have a whole-house rundown available.
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