I'm starting into building a bedroom set, and am at a bit of an impasse with the wife over the height of bedside tables. She prefers the tables to be a few inches higher than the mattress, while I prefer them to be about level.
Her argument is that the higher tables prevent you from knocking stuff off of them in the night,
I like the level table so that I can see the clock if I wake up.
I'm looking for any opinions out of experience: What works and why, what didnt work out and why not.
This has been an issue for me lately. I am building a set of night stands for my son and his girlfriend. I started with plans to make them 28" high. On our bed, that puts the night stands about an inch higher than the mattress.
My son reviewed my plans and asked me to shorten the stands to 24". He comments that 24" will be below the height of their mattress which is what they want. Okay - I will do that - but it does not make sense to me.
In the middle of the night, I want to be able to look sideways and see the digital clock on the night stand. In my opinion, the night stand should be the same height as the mattress or slightly higher.
lol at crank49! That sounds like it was taken from the "happy wife, happy life" book!
I agree with it being the same height as the mattress so that I can see the alarm clock while lying down (just like its been mentioned previously). I also think that if you look in a furniture shop, most all bedside tables seem to be made to match the height of the top of the mattress.
An inch above sounds perfect to me. By the time you get your head on a pillow, you'll still be able to see the time, but won't knock anything off with unintended flailing around.
Your wife is right. Aren't they always? Get a projection clock that projects the time onto whatever surface is handy at any height including the ceiling.
I have my alarm clock on the other side of the room so I actually have to get up instead of turning it off then deciding, "Couple more minutes couldn't hurt." They always do.
Seems like we're a site full of men afraid of their wives! LOL. I take it that the majority support level with the bed.. I think asthetically that looks best when you walk into the room, so i'm leaning that way a bit..
My preference is +/- 1" of the matress height. I always read for a while before going to sleep and that height seems to work great for laying down my book and turning off the light while half asleep.
Back when I used alarm clocks (many years ago), I always put the alarm across the room so I had to get up to shut the damned thing off. Being able to hit the Snooze or Off button while snuggled under the covers was not a good thing. - lol
Had the same issue myself, the bedside tables are higher than I wanted, but at the end of the day, it's not a big issue, you get used to them.
Of course, you could always make them the height you want and say you got the measurements wrong.
We're a site full of men afraid of our wives? Nope, you're missing the point. All married men are afraid of their wives to some extent, I'm no different.
LOL BT, you're right! Renners, I like the way you think.. I can "Plan" to do it her way, and 'mistakenly' end up doing it my way I'll keep you updated on the divorce proceedings if this plan fails!
It really doesn't make any difference whether it is level or not. You are going to sleep with a pillow under your head right? And when you aren't laying in the bed she will probably have 47 or so throw pillows on it anyway, so what is there to be level with. Do it her way or do it twice! I'm betting you are making it for her anyway aren't you?
Oh come on guys - first of all a happy wife really does make for a happy life. We're also Lumberjocks. Don't ignore the LUMBER part. Make a little more sawdust so it has an additional shelf at the 'other' height. Besides, the added complexity is surely justification to buy another tool and more wood. It's a win-win.
Why not make the one that goes on her side the way she wants and make yours your way? After all who is going to know except you two? We don't entertain in our bedroom or give people tours of our house. Just a thought.
Not really, BT. A few weeks ago, SWMBO got pretty upset with me when I disagreed with one of her ideas and demanded to know why I always went along with my customers but would argue with her.
I told her that she wasn't a customer until she started writing checks, and (unlike a customer project) I had to look at this stuff every day. - lol
Seat up or down? Try lid down… That's the designed position when not in use.
Dollars to donuts says she sits on the little pink furry cover with her bare bum!
"I have my alarm clock on the other side of the room so I actually have to get up instead of turning it off then deciding, "Couple more minutes couldn't hurt." They always do.
-Tyrone - Canada, BC"
Tyrone - I tried that trick in the past, but then I just started crawling back into bed anyway.. You can't fix lazy, I guess…
On the height/relationship to the mattress issue, mattresses come in all sorts of thicknesses now. Just saying, regardless of what you come up with now, if you ever replace that mattress it could be totally different..
what you do really depends on how long you want to keep living there.
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