When I first got to know my husband, I was living in Delft (where I studied), in a tiny studio apartment. I loved this place — it was my first little house completely for myself and I thought it was just perfect. It was so tiny that it would only fit a very small bed, about 90 cm (3 feet) wide — plenty of space for me though, and even my new beau fit in! You don’t need a lot of space when you’re in love…
Not even one year later, the boyfriend and I moved to New York together. We took nothing but three boxes of clothes with us. We rented a tiny little one-bedroom apartment in the then upcoming neighbourhood of Cobble Hill, and we loved this place — it was our first little house together and we thought it was just perfect. We inherited the bed of the previous owner, a lovely girl who was moving to the other coast to get married. It was about 120 cm (4 feet) wide — more than plenty of space for the two of us!
About three years later, my fiancee and I moved back to the continent. We took back a little bit more than three boxes (there were a few Eames chairs for example), but we left the bed behind in New York.
We found a beautiful apartment in Ixelles, Brussels, and we needed a new bed. My sister-in-law advised us to get the biggest bed imaginable — we were going to get married and thinking of children, and from her experience the more children meant the bigger the bed! Following her advice (better safe than sorry) we got ourselves a huge lit-jumeaux bed — the full 180 cm (6 feet) width, and we took the extra length as well — my husband is quite tall. It was enormous!
Now, nearly 5 years later, my husband and I still have this enormous bed. And my sister-in-law has been right. Every morning, two little children crawl in our bed, and the lit-jumeaux is filled with people! When one of our children is ill, we take him or her in the bed with us, and we can still sleep fairly comfortably.
Although I would never want to continuously have my children share our bed, I’m not against the idea of (occasional) co-sleeping. Because as my wise sister-in-law keeps reassuring me: it is just a phase, and in the end, they all end up sleeping in their own bed!
xxx Esther
Comments (9)
When we moved into our new house last month, we ‘inherited’ the owner’s big, huge American King-Sized bed…. and it’s HEAVENLY!!! I love that we all fit, and so comfortably!
Though, with a baby on the way, I’m trying my hardest not to make it a ‘normal’ thing for my boys to be in bed with us!!!!
we still have our 1,60mt bed…and it’s too small!
Although we try not too encourage the children to come in our bed, it’s nice to snuggle under the cover on winter mornings.
We’ll get a larger one soon!
we are a cosleeping family – although never longer than the first couple of years. That said in the mornings – when it is cold and no one is ready to start their day – we have four sweet little mice who scamper from their respective twin sized beds to pop in for “morning hugs” in the “big bed”. It makes the morning. Our eight year old has deemed herself “too old” for such childish things some mornings. With this I realize they all will as the years pass. Wow. time flies when you are having hugs 😉
It’s pretty much impossible to find a 180-size bed in France unless it’s custom-made, which drives me crazy! In fact, Belgium is one of the only places that I know of where you can find them. So be glad you got one while you got the chance…
two years ago we bought a 200cm x 200cm bed. It’s wonderful! plenty of room for two and comfortable also when there are 4 in (our 2 doughters on sunday mornings)
but difficult to find sheets..
My parents had a 200cmx200cm size bed and now I completely understand why! The bigger the better I say….
i agree, the bigger the better, i want an even bigger one.
I grew up in a queen size bed (US) and when I moved to France every bed I slept in was SO small for me. Of course I made it through those 4 years and now my hubby and I rejoice every, single night when we climb in our very large (Cal-King) oh-so-comfortable bed!
Bon Nuit!
Esther,
What a wonderfully personal blog this is! I love it! It cracked me up to think y ou went to New York wtih 3 boxes having just halled 1 1/2 trucks via Corstjens Moving Company in my move from Amsterdam to Berlin!
Great article today.
Best,
Toma, Aka The Antiques Diva