By Tab Olsen
Do you wish you had more storage space in your bedroom… like under your bed? Some bed frames are too short to accommodate large enough storage bins. Many platform beds, although they look nice and stylish, don’t include any practical storage unless they have built-in drawers, and those are rather expensive. If you have a mattress on the floor, you won’t have any extra storage space at all. ZINUS solves that problem!
A couple of weeks ago we purchased a twin-sized ZINUS SmartBase® Compack® Mattress Foundation on Amazon. It’s a 14 inch metal bed frame, with a full 13 inches of clearance space, so there’s room for tons of stuff underneath it. It’s great for the large, bulky, or awkwardly shaped stuff that’s hard to find space for, such as: laundry basket, Lego bins, out-of-season clothing, blankets, linens, luggage, file boxes, milk crates, oversized board games, puzzles, toys, crafts, hobby supplies, science projects, camping gear, sporting and exercise equipment, etc.
Incidentally, if you don’t store anything below the bed, the ZINUS bed frame would be roomy and sturdy enough to comfortably take shelter under in the event of an earthquake! Seriously, this innovative mattress foundation, with its multiple support legs crafted from thick durable steel, provides much more stability than a traditional bed frame. The steel frame is super sturdy and it won’t bend like cheaper metal.
I know this from experience, because the last bed frame I got was this adjustable metal bed frame on wheels. Heavy duty? Ha! The thin metal leg bent just by sitting on the corner of the bed (okay, plopping down on it). Once it had bent the first time, it was permanently weakened and that corner kept bending down, so the wheel was tilted backwards. I tried to prop up the bed with a block of wood under the corner and pulling the bent leg back in place with long tie wraps, but it didn’t work very well and looked terrible. I hated that stupid bed frame ever since!
The ZINUS bed frame is so much better! It has a modern black minimalist design that doesn’t look unfinished like some bed frames, so you don’t have to hide it behind a bed skirt. Another reason for getting this one is that the legs have rubber feet for protecting the floor. You can also attach a headboard to it.
This bed frame has to be assembled, of course, but it’s pretty easy. The long, flat box that the product came in was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It was basically just a bunch of metal bars in a box. The illustrated step-by-step assembly instructions that ZINUS provided were excellent, no additional tools are needed, and any Lego or K’Nex fan in your family will happily help you assemble it in no time. It will be kind of like putting together a full-size model, and if it’s going to be their own bed they will be able to sleep comfortably on something that they built themselves.
For most mattresses, a box spring or bunkie board will not be required; just place the mattress directly on top of the metal slats. (The slats even have stickers to keep the mattress from sliding out of place.) However, the new memory foam mattress that we bought at Costco specifically said that if the slats are wider than 2 inches apart (these are 5 3/4 inches apart and are themselves 3/4 inches wide), you will need a box spring or solid foundation of some sort.
You can try it without one, I suppose, but I imagine the soft memory foam would squeeze through the gaps when sitting on it. Unfortunately, the way the metal slats are recessed into the ZINUS frame, you can’t just add more slats like we did on our old wooden bunk bed. We contemplated laying a piece of plywood on top of the frame, but we were able to find a twin box spring on sale at Big Lots, and it was a classic black color to match the frame, so we bought that instead.
Now there’s just one problem with using a box spring on this particular frame. With the bed frame being 14 inches off the floor, placing a single mattress on top puts it at the normal height for getting in and out of the bed. But if you do add a box spring (the one that we got was 9 inches deep), it will make the mattress sit really high! Which is okay as long as you don’t mind climbing in and out of bed. If you’re short like me, a little step stool on the side of the bed will help. 🙂
Do you need more under-bed storage space? You can use this ingenious ZINUS frame to store more under the bed than ever before! Trade in your old bed frame and move up to the ZINUS SmartBase® Compack® Mattress Foundation.
NOTE: The above product was NOT provided for free or at a discount in exchange for a review. This item was purchased by a homeschooling family at their own expense.