Check the box first!

We had worked our way through the maze of Swedish furniture, lying on all the mattresses and beds in the process, and I stood now in front of the help desk with the certainty of my decision in hand. I wanted the Björksnäs in the 140x200 cm size. That way it would fit the boxspring I already had at home, though I did want a new mattress, please. The lady handed me the printout, and I followed it down to the letter once we got to the large warehouse hall, hauling only the boxes with the codes she had specified. I was sweating by the time we reached the van, but I couldn’t wait until Karen came over and we could assemble my new purchase.

I had cleared my room of all traces of the old bed, the boxspring and mattress took up the entire hallway, but Karen and I had just enough space to spread out the Ikea boxes and begin alan-wrenching together bed-legs and correctly organizing various frame pieces. At one point, the thought crossed my mind, “This bed is going to block some of the window. I must have measured wrong,” but on we forged. The 16 tiniest screws that had to be hand-twisted into the metal portion where the mattress frame would rest were nearly our undoing. The drill couldn’t reach, and it took the two of us 45 minutes and some hand cramps to get them all in.

About two hours into the process, I reached for the fourth and last box, the one that held the spring wood frames, and that was when my eyes caught the large numbers on the side panel for the first time: 160x200 cm. My eyes darted back to the bed and the extra bit that stuck out in front of the window. In panic I looked at Karen, who threw her hands up to her face. “What?!” “I bought the wrong size everything!” Sure enough, we were able to finish assembling all the bed pieces, thank the Lord, but the boxspring and mattress left a giant-feeling 20-cm gap that I rolled into the first night.

Karen laughed and then cut herself short, “We’re not starting over, are we?!” Of course we didn’t. Those 16 screws alone weren’t worth it, much less another trip to Freiburg and the hassle of a German return. In the end, I was able to sell my 140x200 boxspring and mattress and get a 160x200 size one so that I no longer fall into the gap. But I learned my lesson: always check the boxes for all the numbers.