Cheryl Shops

Like many of you, I'm sure, I've spent more time inside my apartment in the last year and a half than I had in the previous six years I lived there combined. I realize this is a luxury and a privilege, as not everyone has a job that allows them to work from home, and I'm thankful that I'm in such a position. (I'm also not even remotely eager to go back to working in an office, but that's another topic for another day.) Spending so much time at home, however, allowed me to pinpoint what was and wasn't working in my space. For example, after doing little more than binging Netflix night after night, I realized that having our TV mounted above the fireplace was too high and straining our necks; we ended up completely rearranging the living room, and now it feels way more open and welcoming. Also, I finally got around to changing my kitchen hardware, swapping out the cheap-looking builder-grade knobs for a nice matte bronze. There are many areas of the apartment that are still a work in progress—I want to paint the office a lighter color, and I really want to renovate the bathroom—but so far, I'm the most pleased with our bedroom. Here's how we upgraded our bedroom during the pandemic.

The before

We have a pretty large bedroom by city standards—it's about 14 by 20 feet with a big bay window and walk-in closet—and so it tends to serve as a dumping ground for clutter and stuff that doesn't want to fit anywhere else in the apartment. It's also where I now work out in the morning, so it's unfortunately home to my mini trampoline and pilates props. And while there were things about it that I love (the paint color, most of the furniture), I wanted it to feel even more serene. Oh, and in spite of the fact that our bedroom is so spacious, we've always had a queen-size bed—I originally brought my old bed from Brooklyn (a king would have been a tight fit there), then when Sean moved in, we switched to his newer queen-size bed. We probably could have slept in a queen-size bed indefinitely, except my back really started to bother me a few months ago and when we realized the culprit was our comically saggy mattress, Sean had the brilliant idea to upgrade to a king. And thus the wheels were set in motion.

The bed

Before I started going too far down a rabbit hole of bed research, I discovered that lead times on upholstered furniture are averaging 6-8 months at the moment. That's right, 6–8 months. Fabric mills in southeast Asia are backed up because of delta variant. Lumber mills are backed up because of delta variant. Foam production is backed up because of delta variant. Factories? Delta variant. Global shipping? Delta variant. You get the picture. So instead of panicking, I went on Offer Up and bought pretty much the first bed I saw, which was luckily an Avery storage bed from Room & Board; it had been slept on only a handful of times in a guest room and was in gorgeous condition. More importantly, we got it for less than half the retail price, and we hired Lugg to move it, which saved us the hassle of renting a U-Haul. Putting the bed together ourselves was not a walk in the park (if you buy it from Room & Board, they will assemble it for you), but I am super happy with it. The thing is SOLID and I love the storage drawer—it's where I keep extra pillows and linens. I hope we have this bed for years to come. 

The mattress: an honest review

Once upon a time, you'd go to a mattress store, lie down on every one in the store until you found your Goldilocks "just right," then it would show up at your door in a day or two. You can still do that, but there are also a gazillion (better?) companies that you can order from directly, cutting out the middleman (and, let's face it, the sleazy/pushy mattress store salesperson) and saving yourself a bunch of money. I quickly found that 1) EVERYONE has an opinion about the best mattress, and 2) the options are so overwhelming that there are multiple mattress review sites (both legit news sources and kind of sketchy-looking ones) to help you find which one to order. After several days of poring through reviews, we decided to go with a Winkbed Luxury Firm, which was The Wirecutter's top pick. We chose an innerspring mattress because I'm a hot sleeper—when I sleep on a foam mattress, I wake up in a pool of sweat—and we chose Winkbed in particular because it's good for people with back pain (that's me), side sleepers (Sean), back sleepers (me again), and it's good at minimizing transfer (Sean can be a restless sleeper, although that has improved greatly since we got this mattress). It is definitely more firm than I'm used to, but it's really cushiony too—it's soft yet supportive at the same, if that makes sense. We have been sleeping so much better since we got it, and I often have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning—it's that comfy. Ours came with a set of sheets, a mattress pad, and, the best part, two super THICC foam pillows, which might be my favorite part. (Not-thick-enough pillows are super high up on my pet-peeve list, and if you've stayed in a hotel room with me, you likely witnessed my nightly pillow-plumping routine.) One thing to note: the mattress comes vacuum-sealed in a (very heavy) box; if you have to schlepp it up a flight of stairs or two, either bribe your delivery person or get a friend to help you. That's literally the only iffy thing I have to say about Winkbed; the customer service was great, we received the mattress in about a week, and we absolutely love sleeping on it. I know mattresses are a very personal decision, but if all of the above sounds good to you, I'd highly recommend the Winkbed. 

The bedding 

This was by far my favorite part and the most fun thing to shop for. I had wanted a John Robshaw duvet for ages, but after crowdsourcing on Instagram and, more importantly, getting Sean's input, we decided to go with the Coyuchi Lost Coast duvet cover. Coyuchi is a really cool company that's been making organic cotton and linen sheets and towels since the early '90s, and they're based locally, in Point Reyes, California. The California-coast colors and boho-ish striped pattern felt very relaxing and unique to us, plus it worked really well with our existing furniture and walls. The cotton is really thick and textured; it has heft, in a good way, but note that it takes forever to dry. We got the matching Euro shams; the white shams are Pom Pom at Home from Lulu & Georgia (I accidentally ordered natural instead of white but was too lazy to ship them back): and the little gray pillow is from Serena & Lily—here's one that's similar. I scored a comforter, Euro pillows, and linen sheets on Amazon Prime Day; the sheets I absolutely love (team linen for life!), the pillows are fine, but the comforter is a little crinkly-sounding at times, which I could have avoided if I had shelled out for something slightly nicer. Lesson learned! 

What still needs to be done

Now that we have a gorgeous new duvet cover, it doesn't quite match our existing curtains (which I sewed myself, not very well I might add) and blinds, which, thanks to our drafty windows, clink up against the window frames on windy nights. They're both going to go and will be replaced by these antelope-print curtains with a blackout lining—that's next on my list. The cheapo Ikea chandelier is also being replaced by another (yet much cooler) Ikea pendant light; we just need to call an electrician to switch it out. The biggest project is going to be reupholstering my grandma's love seat; I do actually love the magenta velvet, but it's got a different sort of boudoir vibe than what we're going for, and I feel like the piece would have a little more longevity in a nice ivory bouclé fabric, for example. It may be awhile before I undertake that one, but I'll be sure to post another update once it's all finished.