The last thing I want to admit is that I am weaker than I look, but heck, it’s true. I’m 4’11 inches of flab and lies, with a low tolerance for poor building materials, and far less patience for confusing instructions. I just HATE building furniture. So when I drop the “easier to build than IKEA” line, you’ll know it’s true. I bought my queen IKEA MALM shortly after getting married. A 20-something me was far more forgiving of cheaper materials for an affordable price. After a few years and a move later, I was searching for two specific things when I discovered the Thuma website: a bed that wouldn’t creak but was also simple to assemble.
As a petite woman with weak noodle arms, I don’t need to explain why assembly needs to be easy, but as a light sleeper, it was the creaking that killed my MALM for me. Any trip out of the bed in the middle of the night would wake my poor husband. Even my 11lb dog elicited the worst woody, particleboard-on-particleboard noise when he was being naughty and rolling around on my pillows near the headboard.
Maybe it was the not-so-great materials, or maybe I built it wrong. Who cares!
I was Googling on a stormy payday and I had MONEY!
Thuma only makes one bed, dubbed… The Bed. I wanted an upgrade so I ordered a king. More bed, more problems, right? Nope. Like a fancy Jenga set, the few pieces that come in 3 tall, long boxes that FedEx dropped at my door just FIT.
A third of the instructions are to “light a candle” and “play some jams,” no kidding.
If you've never built an IKEA piece of furniture, the instructions are usually a mix of hieroglyphics and comic strips. Words? The Swedes don’t need WORDS. I didn’t hate a second of building The Bed. As a kid who loved Lincoln Logs, the experience reminded me of how much I loved building my own little forts in the basement. But instead of creeping in the wooden basement of my wooden house in the middle of the woods of Virginia playing with the wooden equivalent of Legos, I’ve got a fancy wood bed that reminds me of home (I need therapy).
It smells good, too!
Thuma prides themselves on simplicity and quality, using tried-and-true Japanese craftmanship. Heck, they also plant a tree for every bed sold so I feel pretty OK consuming more… stuff (more on that in a future piece). I’m now working on sourcing a mattress I won’t complain about (unlikely). But I’m relieved no one has to be alerted of my 2 nightly bathroom trips anymore.
So, is truly settling into your 30’s finally buying items of quality and being OK with paying more to get more? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just accepting that your little dog will never pose for the camera, and he will quietly judge you for forgetting to buy a new mattress at all in the first place.
