In the Time of the Dinosaur

When the hubby and I moved into our apartment just over a year ago, we came with lots of clothes, books, and baking supplies (you know, the essentials), but precious little in the furniture category. I had spent four years at a college where living off-campus was expensive and highly impractical, and Dan was leaving a surprisingly-neat-but-thoroughly-male bachelor pad, from which most things were moved directly into the dumpster when their lease was over. Luckily, we had three sets of parents more than willing to donate a few ancient pieces to ensure that we had somewhere to sit and somewhere to sleep between moving day and our first trip to Mecca Ikea. 
For the most part, the only unfortunate part of this is that we live in a land of unmatched wood, oddly thrown-together couch patterns, and the occasional Expedit bookshelf. There is one glaring exception, which involves a little detail that makes me queasy on a daily basis: our box-springs have dinosaurs on them. Even the fact that the bed is a cozy little double that leaves you sleeping, quite literally, right on top of any bedmate (including the cat) pales in comparison to what lies beneath the deceptively simple white sham: red brontosauruses (brontosauri?) and yellow pterodactyls looking all of their 200 million + years old. I have been trying to laugh about this for a year now, but each day I die a bit inside, just knowing what awaits under our cute snowflake sheets and fuzzy red blanket.
Thankfully, my wonderful hubby has been promising for months that when he came home from his deployment, we could finally get a new bed: one big enough to fit ourselves plus a stretched out feline, comfortable enough to fall into at night and fall asleep instantly, and, perhaps most importantly, dinosaur free. Dan has officially been home for a week now, so our main priority this weekend is not putting up the Christmas tree or finishing shopping, but buying aforementioned bed. Today was a quiet day at work, so I spend some time exploring our options (and getting extremely excited).
I've always kind of liked sleigh beds...probably because I have this idea that every night would feel like Christmas eve. Not sure how realistic that is, but there are some pretty ones out there:

I'm a bit conflicted on low:

vs. high:

and wood frames vs. upholstered headboards:

My very favorite, though is this gorgeous Pottery Barn piece (in white or mahogany):

Unfortunately, the look on Dan's face when I shared the price with him was slightly less than reassuring. Honestly, though, I know I will be thrilled with just about anything we end up choosing... as long as our brand new box springs can be absolutely positively nothing-but-white.
Happy weekend, everyone!

   
   Love,

    Meg