Frugal Fun: A New Platform Bed from Mission Craft

Note: This post is not sponsored by (or endorsed by or even requested by) Mission Craft. I just had a really good experience and I’d like to share.

I had to buy a new bed to escape the horrors of sleeping on a mattress on the floor. See, I have a queen bed, and for some reason queen bed box spring and basement apartment are not highly compatible. I think it’s just that the queen bed is flexible (and plush! oh, how I love you, pillowtop!) and the box spring is entirely inflexible. This led to hacking up the box spring into a bunch of pieces and throwing them away.

On Sunday, I decided that there would be time for some conscious spending, so I went traipsing around to vintage stores, where I learned that “queen bed” and “vintage” are not terms that go together. I did see full sized vintage bed frames, and they were lovely and inexpensive, so if you’re looking for a smaller size, vintage is the way to go.

I learned I’ll need a platform bed (because evidently platform bed means “doesn’t need a queen box spring”) and that I needed to go somewhere more contemporary.

Then I went to City Liquidators, a very weird giant warehouse of a store under one of Portland’s bridges. From what I can tell, they have stock dating back forty years. It’s a cool, odd store with all kinds of things, but I focused: I needed a way to sleep more than five inches off the ground.

Their prices were surprisingly high, and they only had a few platform bed style frames. Do I really have to spend $500 on a platform bed? Goodness gracious, I hope not. So I left, defeated. I was hungry, too, which always exacerbates my negativity. I went back home, sat down on the couch, reminded myself that I was darn lucky that I wasn’t in the market for a new one of those, too, and looked online.

I Googled “platform queen bed” and got (as I should have estimated) about a bajillion results. Narrowing it down to the shopping subsection made everything a bit more reasonable, and let me know that my gut was right: $500 is high. Some big box stores said that what I wanted could be had for under $200.

But I really didn’t want to go to a big box store. I say that buying local matters. In conversation I say, “I would prefer something sturdy and local, even if I have to spend a little extra,” so when I was perusing Craigslist, I hit paydirt. “Get your mattress off the ground!” the ad for Mission Craft said. I’m trying to! I responded, before realizing that talking to the computer is just like talking to oneself and that is how crazy starts.

The next afternoon, at lunch time, I drove over to my old neighborhood, enjoying the irony that I rarely ever spent money over there when I lived there. I was headed for Mission Craft Furniture, and I didn’t want to miss it, so I plugged it into my GPS. I nearly did miss it, and when I walked in, I knew I was in the wrong place. There was sawdust everywhere! And men, doing manly things like sawing wood! I was confused. Luckily, someone passed me on the street and directed me to their showroom.

I walked in and was greeted by a dog who wanted to play tug of war with a soccer ball. No thanks, buddy. I told the guy I was looking for a platform bed, and he said to look at pictures and find the one I liked best. “Everything is custom,” he said.

Ut oh. “That sounds expensive,” I said, with a worried look. “I don’t want to spend more than $300 (lowest price I found online plus $100 leeway for buying local).”

“Oh, then you’ll want to stick with pine. Everything pine is under $200. Come look at some pictures.”

Ten minutes later, after I looked through pictures, and replaced the paper in the printer for him (oh my goodness, you cannot take me anywhere!) we settled on a simple curved headboard in pine, with a cherry stain.

“Do you want to come back and pick it up or do you want to pay extra for delivery?” he asked.

“Ummmm…” I paused.

“Delivery is $40, and we’ll also set it up for you.” Done.

I got a custom bed, with a cherry stain, and delivery, for $289. Will I go back to Mission Craft? You better believe it.