King Beds are Comfortable Upgrades

When a guest (or our family) stays in Savannah at the Broughton Street House, it’s definitely about what Savannah has to offer. The city is full of amazing things to see, and incredible food and entertainment options. But at the end of the day (and sometimes in the middle of the day) you really want a place to recover. Comfort really matters, and the right bed is essential for maximum enjoyment of Savannah and The Broughton Street House. A comfortable king bed is the answer.

Daniel O’Connor built the Broughton Street House in 1883 , and the previous owners furnished this home in period furniture that perfectly captures the luxury of Victorian-Era Savannah. However, in 1883 there was no such thing as a “king” bed as we know it today. There were ‘big” beds, but these were custom.

The Great Bed of Ware (showing modern reproductions of bedclothes and hangings), Hans Vredeman de Vries, 1590 – 1600, England. Museum no. W.47:1 to 28-1931. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

King Beds

The popularity of king and queen beds really didn’t take off in the US until after World War II. Even today, a king is a king only insomuch as you know what country you’re talking about:

150 cm × 200 cm (59 in × 79 in) in the UK.
165 cm × 203 cm (65 in × 80 in) in New Zealand.
183 cm × 203 cm (72 in × 80 in) in Australia.
193 cm × 202 cm (76 in × 80 in) in the US.

We find king beds to be essential and incredibly comfortable. When we bought The Broughton Street House all beds were queen , for good reason. Large beds aren’t historically accurate , and king beds are harder to fit into rooms when every room has a fireplace! Despite these very good reasons, we’re upgrading our beds to a comfortable king wherever we have the option.

The Broughton Street Carriage House gets a Comfortable King Bed

First up is the Carriage House. This structure is actually *not* historical, built in the 2000’s as an addition to the original structure of the Broughton Street House. If you check the history page, you’ll see there’s strong evidence that there was a prior structure in the back of the house, but it was removed in the 1970’s.

The original bed was a lovely bed.

The original queen bed in the carriage house

The style is appropriate, it fits the room perfectly, but it’s not a comfortable king. The nightstands roughly matched the bed, and they definitely don’t fit once we got a nice comfortable king in there, so we had to change those, too.

We found the first king bed we wanted at Restoration Hardware in Atlanta, so we had to haul it to Savannah to get it to the Broughton Street House. We picked up a nightstand from a local place that resells vintage and antique items, and while I wasn’t super happy with it, it works for now. The other side we used a table from another room in the house. Overall, we had to change the look a little, but the comfort is outstanding!

Our new comfortable king bed from Restoration Hardware and a Sealey king mattress and box springs.

The fabric headboard is cozy, and the extra space of the king size is more comfortable

Two people can easily get comfortable on a king bed

I hope our guests appreciate a comfortable king bed as much as we do!

The Broughton Street House Master Bedroom gets a Comfortable King Bed

Later we found a great deal on a Pottery Barn king bed that we think is perfect for the master bedroom, bringing that same comfortable king experience to another room. Below is the original queen bed. Definitely a great bed! Just not quite a king.

The existing master bedroom is a beautiful queen bed

This is the new bed set up at our primary home, making sure everything checked out before transport to the Broughton Street House:

And finally, placed in the master bedroom to welcome our next guests.

In the second photo you can see that the bed has 4 large storage drawers underneath (two on each side). Those will be very useful for extra pillows and blankets for our guests.

It’s unlikely we’ll be able to add king beds to the other two bedrooms. There really just isn’t enough space for the larger bed in those bedrooms, and both have work surfaces we value and wouldn’t want to give up.

The Carriage House Sleeper Sofa

While we were working on getting that new king for the master bedroom, we also got a review for the Carriage House that said the Queen Sleeper Sofa was uncomfortable because you could feel the bars. Comfort is a priority, and sleeper sofas are a real challenge – we want to provide the additional sleeping, but honestly, most adults don’t enjoy sleeping on them. Still, if we can do better, we want to do better, so:

5 inches of high-quality memory foam will increase the comfort and hopefully make this the best possible experience for our Broughton Street House guests that choose to use the sleeper sofas.

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A Well Lit Home Saves Energy

It’s a minor change, but I’m a big fan of LED lighting. When we purchased the Broughton Street House many of the light fixtures had traditional incandescent bulbs, and some halogen. Incandescent can make a beautiful soft white, so I completely understand the choice, but in the last decade LED has really come into it’s own with bulbs that are either tuned to a specific color temperature, or that are actually tunable by the home owner to reach the specific color temperature you want. We can have a well-lit home that is also very energy efficient!

One of our favorite blogs for interior designs for hosting recommends 2700k lighting, and we definitely agree. Here at our primary residence we’ve switched most bulbs to 2700k LED, with the exception of locations where I’m using open filament LEDs for an antique look. For the Broughton Street House, we’ll be using 2700k, and luckily for us Home Depot sells multi-packs at a very economical price in almost every bulb size.

Replacing Bulbs

Starting at the carriage house, there were 10 overhead canister lights in the kitchen area, living room area, and over the bed. It’s going to be easy to have a well-lit home when there are so many fixtures to work with! There are more in the bathroom, but I actually want to experiment a little further before replacing those because in bathrooms 3000k color temperature is sometimes appropriate to mimic daylight for dressing and makeup application.

For the carriage house we’re just replacing the bulbs
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, not the can lights themselves. For the main house, especially the kitchen, we may choose to replace the cans for that flat, one-piece look.

The original bulbs were 65W each, and we replaced 10 of them in one shot.

The original bulbs were 65W each
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, and we replaced 10 of them in one shot.

The new bulbs are the same size, tuned to 2700k, and just under 10 W to operate.

A Well-Lit Home Actually Saves Energy

So we achieved our goal of a well-lit home

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, but there’s more. LED lights last longer than incandescent light by far, usually 12,000 hours or more compared to 1,000 hours. So, less maintenance and less waste. Even better, they are more efficient. You might not realize just *how* much more efficient, though. In this case, we replaced 10 65W bulbs that burn out every 1,000 hours with 10 9.5W bulbs that should last 12,000 hours. Using an average Georgia power cost and because Home Depot sells these things in multipacks that bring the cost down to around $2 each, replacing these bulbs pays for itself in about 2 weeks.

Over the course of a year we save roughly $937 based on energy savings and bulb replacements. Not only will the Broughton Street House be well-lit, it will be energy efficient as well!

It’s definitely worth the time to get out the ladder and make the swap. Over the course of the next several months we’ll be replacing all incandescent and halogen bulbs throughout the Broughton Street House. It reduces cost, reduces heat produced by the bulbs, and reduces the maintenance we have to do over time. Most importantly, the Broughton Street House will be well-lit. Energy savings, efficiency, and a better guest experience.