Walnut bed with woolen linens and walnut side table with brass knobs, book and white lamp

Choosing a bed at thos. moser

Advice & Education

Who are we without a good night’s rest? Sleep is our body’s natural defragmentation process. Overnight, we allow our bodies to restore, recharge, file away, and re-set every piece of information we have received throughout the day to meet the morning rested and ready to accomplish whatever is thrown our way. Our bedroom is a sanctuary where we can unwind, and our bed is the throne upon which we snuggle in and tell bedtime stories, rest when we are sick, or wish we could stay buried beneath the covers a few moments longer when the alarm sounds, and a new day begins.

Three beds. Left: Vita bed in cherry. Wooden bed with curved foot made from cherry, a grey blanket and white pillows are on the bed. Beside the bed is a dresser with 5 drawers made from cherry. The dresser has a curved foot. Center: A pencil post bed made of cherry with a canopy top. The bed has white blankets and chocolate colored pillows. Right: The sleigh bed in walnut. The headboard and footboard are curved with a brass bolt cover on the lower leg in the front. The bed has a white fitted sheet and two cream colored linen pillows.

building the bed of your dreams

At Thos. Moser- we build our beds first and foremost to be long-lasting, so you don’t have to lose sleep over it. Each bed is a custom-built piece. We select matching grain for the headboard, seamless joinery, and top-of-the-line hardware, making our beds easy to move, assemble, and disassemble when necessary.

Mattress Height

Mattress Height

Height from the Floor

Height from the Floor

Accompanying Side Tables

Accompanying Side Tables

Hardware, and Wood Species

Hardware, and Wood Species

Left: Polished Brass bed bolt cover on walnut Right: Studio Bedroom Collection, Studio Bed in walnut in center of room with blue bedding, Studio side cube on left of bed with water vase glasses and flowers, Studio vertical dresser on right behind the bed

In addition to crafting heirloom-quality beds, we also build our beds to fit your unique arrangements. Whether you opt for a traditional box spring and mattress arrangement or you prefer a platform-style setup, our beds are designed to be flexible.

When selecting the best bed for long-lasting comfort and style, consider these items: mattress height, height from the floor, nightstands and accompanying side tables, hardware, wood species, and finish.

know your mattress height

If you have a traditional box spring and mattress combination,

measure both the box spring and mattress for the correct height.

 

Do you intend to keep your current mattress and box spring, or will you be switching to a lower profile box spring or just a mattress?  After knowing where you will put your gorgeous new bed, this is the most important thing to understand.  If you intend to keep your current mattress and box spring set up, measure both box spring and mattress heights together. This will give you the entire height and let you know how high your mattress will come upon the headboard. or will you be switching to a lower profile box spring or just a mattress?

 

Left: Edo Bed in walnut in room with wallpaper, windows, floor lamp with flower vases on side tables. Right: Pencil Post Bed in walnut with grey blanket and white pillows

Mattress height can determine the overall look of your bed. We design each bed with approximate mattress measurements in mind. However, a box spring and mattress combinations may require custom modifications and may change the aesthetic of the bed you choose.

Perched up high or down low?

Accommodating design for varying heights in traditional and platform beds.

 

Consider this, a standard dining room table stands at 30″, and an accompanying chair is generally 18″ from floor to seat.  Do you want a bed that you have to climb up into or one that you can easily fall into?

Two styled bed photos. Left: the Vita bed in cherry. Vita features a low platform and a curved foot and headboard. Beside the bed is a black bulbous side table with eyeglasses. there is a window to the right of the room. Right: The sleigh bed and square end table with drawer. The Sleigh bed has a curved headboard with white and eggplant colored blankets and white pillows. The side table's drawer is pulled out showing the dovetail details of the drawer, there is a shelf under the drawer and on top of the side table is an amber glass candle holder. the room is an eggplant color.

Some adjustments that can be made to the design of the bed include lowering or raising the side rails to reach your maximum height (this is why it is essential to know your mattress height).  Other modifications can be made to accommodate your existing mattress and box spring, like raising or lowering the height of the headboard, as some mattresses may be flush to the footboard or potentially cover three-quarters of the headboard.

Side tables and nightstands

Generally, the tabletop should be approx. 2″ above or below the top of the mattress.

 

Each of our designs comes with side tables that help complete your bedroom set. For those beds that do not have a side table in their collection, our Minimus Tables and Companion Tables are a perfect fit. When you decide on the table that will complete your look, you must then consider the height. How high or low do you want to reach from your bed? Generally, about 2″ above or below the mattress is where you want the top of the table to be. If you’re going to work with your existing nightstands, be sure to measure your mattress to decide on the height of your bed legs so they will fall within that 2″ window.

 

Left: Detail of Ellipse bed bolt cover on cherry. Right: Ellipse bed and nightstand in cherry with white pillows and wool blanket

Hardware and wood species

 

All of the beds in the Thos. Moser catalog can be built in a variety of sustainably harvested wood species but are traditionally built in either Allegheny Cherry or Missouri Walnut. Once your bed has been assembled and built to your exact specifications, it will be sent to our finishing department. Here we apply our standard oil and wax finish to help protect and bring out the inherent beauty of the wood grain. Upon request, your bed can be finished in oil and lacquer. Each bed also comes with its own standard hardware that is perfectly matched to enhance the design and style of the bed, and in some instances, may be interchangeable and customized. Our bolt covers range from silver nickel, brass, matching tear-drop wood, and hammered copper.

four bed bolt covers

Platform design

Our platform beds are traditionally designed to accommodate a 10″ mattress.

 

These lower-profile bed designs offer lower clearance below the bed and are built with a mattress in mind. With the lack of a box spring, the bed is designed with I-beam baltic birch panels to support the mattress. Beds like our Edo and Vita are designed as floating platforms. Meaning, the bed rests upon a central support system underneath the bed, creating the illusion that the bed is floating instead of being supported by four sturdy legs. Other platform beds in the Moser catalog that blur these lines are our Forside, Ellipse, and Studio.

A styled bedroom with floor to ceiling windows to the right of the room. There is a solid cherry wood platform bed in the center featuring a curved foot and headboard with a grey blanket and white sheets and pillows. To the right of the bed is a small wooden vita cube side table with a lamp and glass of water on top and books on the lower shelf. To the left of the bed is a wooden dresser that has the same curved foot as the bed and features six drawers with recessed pulls. There is a clock, vases and black and white photograph perched on top of the dresser. the bed and side table are on a white shaggy rug.

Traditional design

These beds are designed to accommodate 16″ – 18″ mattress and box spring combinations

but these designs can be customized into a platform design.

 

Many traditional bed designs appear to be higher off the floor (they owe this added height to the addition of the box spring); they generally have the same low clearance as many of our platform beds. We build our traditional-style beds to house the box spring on wooden slats that rest upon a low-sitting lip rail allowing the box spring to nestle lower in the standard 5 1/2 inch rails. When choosing a traditional style bed, be sure to measure the entire height of your box spring and mattress together. Beds like our American Bungalow, New Century China, Sleigh Bed, and Pencil Post bed are designed with a minimalist eye. Still, they will rekindle the warmest memories of climbing up into our parent’s bed to hear a bedtime story.

Sleigh Bed - Walnut

Remember these few tips, whether you choose to go with a traditional bed that uses a box spring and mattress combination or the crisp, clean lines of our platform beds.

Always measure the height of your mattress or the total height of your mattress and box spring to know how high off the floor you will be. By getting this number, you will also know the height of your accompanying nightstands. While our designs are created with cherry or walnut in mind, we are always willing to work with other sustainably harvested hardwoods. Knowing your sleep style, how to customize it, and how to get the bed of your dreams will have you resting easily in no time.

 

 

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