Last Time on The Ikea Chronicles:

The Captain and Kay were hunting for the perfect bed frame and found it in the affordable, yet stylish, SVELVIK. Due to the forces of nature, the availability of their frame was continually put off. Did they ever get their hands on the bed?

Yes.

Is it another slightly long story? Yes.

I’ll admit that due to the incredible troubles of trying to get this bed my enthusiasm for IKEA may be dimmed some. A girl can only take so many stressful trips to the megastore before she wilts.

When we last left off my mother and I were going to make a trip to IKEA in order to finally pick up the SVELVIK bed. It was a wonderful drive, full of good conversation, and before we knew it we were pulling into a parking spot and rushing into the marketplace first to make sure it was there.

And it was! There was the beautiful headboard/footboard combo in one box, queen size, and ready to go straight onto my cart. We bought it first thing and took it out to the car before going back in and going through the showroom and marketplace and picking up some additional things. The Captain and I chose a new duvet cover and I tried to find the perfect throw pillow to go with our new design, but was unable to.

My mom and I had a wonderful day in Sacramento, and I got home after nine o’clock, triumphantly bringing home several Hot Topic purchases and the bed frame. The Captain and I were excited to put together the frame the very next day and spend the weekend putting together everything.

And then we discovered something.

Remember how we bought the sides and slats for the bed on our first trip? Well… It turns out that when we grabbed the sides and got lost in the excitement of trying to figure out the headboard drama we didn’t realize that we’d grabbed FULL instead of QUEEN. It was honestly so ridiculous that we couldn’t help but laugh at our misfortune.

I, of course, was exhausted from driving to and fro Sacramento the day before so The Captain took his grandmother and went on the journey of another lifetime to pick up the right sides. They got back later that night, proper sides in possession, and we—determined to be done with this—started putting the bed together.

Now there is a reason that people say IKEA furniture is a true test of a relationship. It reveals things about people. Your lover might seem like the most even-tempered being in existence until they can’t figure out what piece D looks like and if they’re doing things backwards or not. I would like to say that The Captain and I handled our construction with ease and grace, but that would not be true.

It took a few hours, a grump-fest on my half in how useless I felt, but we did it. We put together SVELVIK and then lugged our heavy-ass Tempur-Cloud mattress on top of the frame. Unfortunately then we had to make the bed, which is an operation in and of itself because The Captain is very particular about side ratios and coverage. Then, luckily, it was done and we went to sleep in our well-earned bed.

It’s been almost three months since that joyous day and I can say for sure that it was worth the effort, the stress, and the heartbreak. It’s everything we wanted and more, and the only downside might be that the mattress slides a little bit in the frame and sucks up my pillow. That and traversing across a mattress that absorbs you every step of the way is more difficult than I thought it would be.

Still, the sleep is good, the pillow forts are awesome, and it makes me feel like an adult to make up this beautiful bed with all of our pillows and blankets. And, yes, it’s almost like sleeping on a cloud.