Ah, the bedroom furniture. Few places in a home beckon quite like this sanctuary where we sleep, dream, steam things up with significant others, and just chill. It’s our ultimate escape.
So it makes sense that we’d want to furnish this room with finesse—and that all starts with bequeathing the proper names to all items within, right?
Bedroom furniture
This time, we present a glossary of terms for all the bedroom furniture you’re bound to add to your escape room. From funky Murphy beds for small spaces to comfy memory foam mattresses and beyond, here’s what you will want to check out while you’re furniture shopping, so you can truly rest in peace and make this space the stuff dreams are made of.
Four-poster bed
A poster bed has four vertical poles rising up from each corner, sometimes supporting a headboard or canopy above. While the style can go clean and modern, it typically has an ornate feel due in part to its rich history. The most famous one, the Bed of Ware, was mentioned in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”: “If music be the food of love, play on.”
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Sleigh bed
The sleigh bed offers up a curved, scrolling headboard and footboard. It’s big, it’s heavy, and, yeah, it resembles a sled. Or a boat. If you’re in love with the grand design, you’re in larger-than-life company: Napoleon Bonaparte banned all bed designs but this one in his palaces. And people knew better than to mess with Napoleon.
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Murphy bed
Short on space? Then a Murphy bed’s minimal footprint could help. Fold the mattress up into the frame when not in use, and voila: You’ve just gained way more room.
According to the Smithsonian, it was invented in the 1900s by a clever bachelor who was just trying to get some action: William Lawrence Murphy was “falling for a young opera singer, and courting customs at that time would not permit a lady to enter a gentleman’s bedroom. His invention allowed him to stow his bed in his closet, transforming his one-room apartment from a bedroom into a parlor.”
Lately these clever contraptions have seen a resurgence in popularity, due largely to the widespread desire to make more out of tinier spaces.
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Platform bed
Your mattress will be going solo if you’re considering a platform bed. The base is made up of multiple slats, which eliminate the need for a box spring—the mattress sits directly on the platform.
Although it’s lately become a popular Swedish-influenced style prized for its clean and modern lines, it actually has ancient roots: King Tut lay his royal head on this type of bed. And since the box spring wasn’t invented until the 1800s, platform beds had a very long reign.
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Captain’s bed
Always looking for more spots to squirrel away your stuff? Captain’s beds offer storage or drawers underneath to make use of the under-the-bed area. It’s yet another way to optimize space. It’s no wonder DIYing your own platform bed has become a popular project.
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Inner-spring mattress
Take a bunch of springs, cover them in foam and upholstery, and, presto, you’ve got a primo sleeping surface that contours to your every curve.
This mattress was designed in 1871, but its creator, Heinrich Westphal, passed away before it took off (he died in poverty). He must now be rolling in his grave—his invention is the most common mattress style out there today.
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Pillow-top mattress
This model offers an upgrade to the standard inner-spring mattress with an additional layer of upholstery or foam sewn to the top—all the better for a little extra cushioning. The most publicity ever garnered by a pillow-top? Probably when the Westin Hotel began selling its 12-layer version (created by Simmons) in 2012 for a hefty $2,800 price tag.
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Memory foam
An alternative to a standard coil mattress, memory foam is made from polyurethane and molds to the body. But it didn’t begin as a bedroom material: NASA developed the material in the 1970s to improve seat cushioning for astronauts enduring gravitational forces or impact upon landing.
The entire mattress can be constructed of foam—but if you’re not ready for a space-age mattress through and through, you can get a foam mattress topper instead.
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Bachelor’s chest
What you probably think of as a standard dresser was once designed to the needs of a specific kind of guy—young ones just starting out and looking to optimize their small spaces.
The standard three- or four-drawer piece is squat and simple. Originally, it had a slanted surface for writing that rolled out and served as a multipurpose piece of furniture—perfect for 18th-century bachelor pads.
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Lingerie chest
If you’ve ever lived in tight quarters, you’ve probably shopped for tall, thin dressers that don’t eat up lots of floor space. Little did you know this bedroom furniture design comes with a name: the lingerie chest, named for storing ladies’ undergarments—or, hey, anything else that fits.
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Armoire
It’s the extra closet you wish you had: Open its tall double doors, and a mix of shelves and a hanging rack promise to keep your apparel in order.
Fun fact: Long before armoires were used in bedrooms, the French created them to store something else entirely: armor. You can use them for your own daily armor, otherwise known as business clothes.
