Listener Questions 1 - Bedside Tables

In between full episodes we will be fielding listener questions about their renovations. So if you have a burning question send us a voice-note at @ripitup_podcast_official on Instagram or ripitupearlybird@gmail.com.

Items mentioned:

Floating shelf with drawers:

• Sklum floating shelves
• Kave home floating shelves
• Zara Home floating shelves

Headboard with built-in shelves:

• Kate’s Moebe bed frame
• Kave Home 
• IKEA Nordli
• Ikea Brimnes

Brands mentioned for good quality bedside lockers:

• Homesense
• West Elm
• Kave Home
• Zara Home
• Ikea Tonstad
• April and the Bear - metal side table / coffee table

Follow the podcast on Instagram @ripitup_podcast_official, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:03

Welcome to Rift It Up, the Renovations Podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 0:06

In between full episodes, we are going to be feeling listener questions about their renovations. So if you've got a burning question, send us a voice note at RiffItup Podcast Discord on Instagram or send us to an email at riffituparlybird at email.com.

SPEAKER_02: 0:20

Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Well, welcome back to the podcast mini episode. Mini episode. Bonus! Bonus! Keep us taking over every week. We mentioned in our last episode that we're gonna trial um listener questions uh because we usually have an episode out every second week, and we're gonna do this now every other week so you can hear our beautiful voices every week. Yeah. Um and we got listener questions, which is great fun. So anyone who's inspired by this one, please send us more because uh these are fun to answer. Um okay, so will we play the listener question and then we'll answer it?

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

Play the listener question. Here we go. Okay. Hey girls, love the show. Um, I think it's amazing and it's so informative. Anyway, I have a very specific question that you may be able to help me out with. I don't think Kate will because I think she's anti them, but I'm struggling to find a nice place to buy bedside lockers. Now I know they're not for everyone, bedside lockers, but I would love some advice. Uh, any tips would be great.

SPEAKER_02: 1:24

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24

Love the show.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26

Okay, great question.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29

Hmm, I'm not sure I dislike bedside drawers, but anyway, we'll answer it to what we like and hopefully we'll give some inspiration.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37

I actually do think as well that we have very similar stances on this one because it's not that I dislike them either, but because normally the rooms I'm working with are very small and people like bedside lockers are an unnecessary amount of space, if you ask me, because what are you putting in them like? You just don't need that much.

SPEAKER_01: 1:53

What are you putting in them is exactly my thing. Like you just collect shite when you have bedside lockers. Now I'm not against them, and I have them in the guest room because I think I like to have a few bits in one of the drawers for when guests come. Do you know if they're struck with stuff? I have some stuff in the drawers. Um, but like, yeah, I think when you have them beside the bigger one you have, the more shit you put beside your bed. And it's such a dumb thing for it.

SPEAKER_02: 2:12

Like nothing, nothing lives there. Like, I'm all for storage being planned and like a place for everything, everything in its place, but nothing belongs in your bedside locker except for like maybe your phone charger, a book, glass of water.

SPEAKER_01: 2:23

That's it for me, like. Exactly. I have a little tiny canvas bag that I have like a lip band and a little sleep spray and some earplugs if something's happening, like my neighbour's having a party or something like that. Um, but I have that beside my bed, but it's only a tiny little drawstring bag. And like, yeah, do you ever wake up or I don't know, your lips are really sore or whatever, like dry. Like it's just nice to have it right there. Yeah, Elizabeth are digging around for it.

SPEAKER_02: 2:46

What is it? The 48 hour magic on the lips every night before I go to bed, and they're so sleepy.

SPEAKER_01: 2:52

Like little spaff your lips. Anyway, let's go through our favourites. Do you want to go first and talk about where you've gone and gotten yours and what you like?

SPEAKER_02: 2:58

So the ones that I got are not actually bedside lockers, they're two tiny little coffee tables from April and the Bear. They don't stock them anymore, unfortunately. Um, but they are they have a round top, then they have a curved underneath almost like a magazine rack or newspaper rack, and then just one kind of stabilizing leg down the side. They're metal, very, very, very slim profile, and they're super easy to keep clean, and they just look really slick. So I love them, slide with them. Love a little side table like that. Anywhere else that you've kind of gotten them or picked them for people or anything else that I like are in just installing shelves instead of actually instead of actual bedside lockers. My two preferences are either installing shelves or my number one, especially for like a really small house and a really small bedroom, because again, they just take up unnecessary floor space. I'm like, why not have a bigger bed? Why not have a king-sized bed? Is those headboards if you have the length that have the the shelves built into them? Either nice minimal kind of shelves along the side of the bed, or even better if it's small room behind the bed, so that you know the headboard comes out a little bit, it's taking a little bit of depth behind the bed, but you have lots of space in there, lots of shelves in there, and I think it all just keeps everything looking really, really neat and slick.

SPEAKER_01: 4:14

Yeah. Now I don't have bedside lockers, but uh they are built into my bed frame, so I have a Moebe bed frame. It's kind of like a powder-coated steel bed frame. Yeah, I love it. It's kind of creamy low-fight. Yeah, it's pretty minimal, like, so it's kind of low to the ground. It looks like the mattress is more or less just floating, you don't really see the frame underneath because the legs are kind of set back, we'll say from the edge, and then there's two kind of winged small semicircular slide tables right at the top, and it just it's big enough, like it's I don't know, maybe a 30 centimetre semicircle or something, and it's just fits like you know, my bottle of water, my phone, and I it's because it's metal, I have those little um you know, when you're charger cable, like it's dangling somewhere and you're like you know, reaching around for it. Yeah, you can get these little clip-on things, they clip onto the cable and they have a little magnet.

SPEAKER_02: 4:57

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 4:58

And you can either stick the magnet to your standard bedside locker because the my one is steel, it just sticks to the side of it, so it's always there, so I'm never kind of looking for it, and it keeps your cables kind of tidy, so that's a nice option.

SPEAKER_02: 5:09

That's when people um glue on a little Lego a Lego brick, and then if you stick a Lego man or woman onto the Lego brick, they're hands that comes out as the perfect size for holding a phone cable. I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 5:22

That's very cute, that's very cute, but again, unnecessary stuff, besides your bed. A lot of clutch. Joke. No, but I have had bedside lockers for my last house when it was a much bigger, kind of more square room. I had bedside lockers. I think it's hard to beat home sense for bedside lockers on a good day. Yeah, I think they're such good value, they're always at the 70 to 90 euros mark. They look almost identical to West Elm ones. I think it's great.

SPEAKER_02: 5:46

They're West Elm, I will come out and say, is like the go-to, I think, for being a bedside locker, but you're looking at hundreds and then you have to order them in because they're coming from abroad.

SPEAKER_01: 5:55

So definitely chance home sense, maybe a few times, maybe midweek when it's a bit quieter and there's more stock out. I think you can get really lucky with bedside lockers, bedside tables, side tables, and stuff in general. Um, I think the Spanish website Cave or Cave makes some lovely options as well. And to your point about wall-mounted, they've kind of wall-mounted drawers, which I think are very cool. Now you can get wall-mounted kind of small ledge shelves and small drawers on Amazon too. Yeah, you have to be a bit careful with the quality. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not. Just like go for the more expensive one and they'll still be cheap, but like they will be worth the extra money. Some of the really cheap ones look really cheap.

SPEAKER_02: 6:32

So these are like just shelves that have a small drawer underneath it, so it looks really, really sick. They're floating, so you know they're not again, they're not taking up any floor footprints.

SPEAKER_01: 6:44

Um, I think those lovely little ledges and small drawers are the perfect amount of space. Yeah, and then some of them even have a hole in the back for your cable to come through and stuff like that. Some of them have charging pads built into them if you want to go all out and do all that kind of stuff. Um, but I don't know, like you could. I suppose the list is endless. I think IKEA actually have one of those wall management.

SPEAKER_02: 7:04

Ikea do have them, but it I don't like the look of it that much. It looks a bit cheap. But if you're open to a bit of work and you're open to maybe painting or like covering it with a vinyl wrap or something like that, then you could do that. Um Zara Home have nice ones at the moment, like a really large one. Lovely ones, yeah. Wood, I think it's a rubber wood, it's called or something like that.

SPEAKER_01: 7:20

Um yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of like some of them are mango wood or acacia wood as well. That's a good thing. Lovely finish on it. Looks great. Um, I think, yeah, so cave, calve, however you say it, yeah, West Elm, like you said, it's the kind of gold standard for me. Home sense um for a good bargain, but you know, you might need to go a few times to find good ones and to find two. Sometimes they might have two of everything, which is a bit of a pain. Floating ones on Amazon, HM home as well, can do some really good picture ledge, kind of small shelf ones if you want to just do a ledge one. Yeah. Um, and oh, actually, in my guest bedroom at the moment, I do have bedside tables, so I got rid of those West Elm ones because they're just too big for the house I'm in now. Uh, or not West Elm, but the home sounds ones that look like West Elm. And then I bought to IKEA Tonstad, so T O N S T A D. Slightly more expensive than their other ranges, so it's kind of a wood veneer rather than just a laminate. Yeah, um, and it's a dark kind of smoked oak, really kind of simple, minimal. It's probably about 35 or 40 centimetres square, lovely kind of slim profile shelf on me, small drawer, very open and it doesn't take up a lot of space in the room. So I really like that Tonstad range in general, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 8:29

Um, yeah, yeah, that would be really kind of few that I've bought places for those headboards for the kind of deeper headboards that have the shelving built in almost behind the bed. Um, IKEA do have a good one, the brimness one, I think it's called. Yeah, it's just it's the white um veneer IKEA one, so it doesn't look incredible. But if you like if it's gonna be pretty hidden, it's behind your bed. If you're gonna be covering it with cushions and pillows anyway, yeah, um, and you're not gonna see it much, then it's perfect. And then again, uh cave or cave or whatever it might be, home. Um, they have a few uh nice ones as well, they're a bit more expensive, few hundred quid, but you're you're spending that for a nice headboard anyway. Um, and they're wood and they have a nice finish on them, so um, they'd be my two go-tos for those places.

SPEAKER_01: 9:12

Yes, there are some other options on you know, obviously, yusk have some cheap and cheerful kind of beachwood options, you know, that are kind of you can stain to match, maybe. Yeah, do you know how the spindly kind of mid-century style legs, but they're just bare wood? Yeah, you kind of do need to stain those though, because they stain really bad, otherwise, if you put water or coffee or anything down that. Um, so I think those are a good option and wayfare as well. Now, there's literally thousands of options to go through, and you can be very hit and miss, so definitely read the reviews and stuff, but they have a massive selection, so you probably could find something to fit there as well.

SPEAKER_02: 9:46

Yeah, yeah, worth the look, I suppose. But just like buyer beware on that, I think.

SPEAKER_01: 9:51

Absolutely, yeah. Good way if you can. There's when a website has that much stuff, there's gonna be some crap and there's gonna be some good stuff, so like, yeah, definitely read the reviews. And I think wherever possible, if you're buying a wood or a wood effect, like try and see if it's a veneer rather than just a laminate, because the fake kind of plasticky laminates tend to look cheap and fake when they come as well. Yeah, um, and especially the little picture ledges, because I've bought a few different ones of these over the years. The small picture ledges, if they're laminate, they just look like a kind of a browny colour, but they're not real wood. Yeah, but you can get solid wood picture ledge kind of uh shelves for pretty cheap as well. Floating yeah, and then you can paint them if they're solid wood easily, you can stain them, whatever, you know, they're much more kind of adaptable to different spaces. Yeah, so I love look, I love floating in a bedroom, it just keeps the floor space clean. You can have a small little rat-on basket if you really need some overflow stuff that you want in there, but like um other than that, I'd say home sense, calf, West Elm, they'd be my kind of go-to's.

SPEAKER_02: 10:52

Agreed. I think uh and Zara Home as well have the auto have the odd nice one. Um and I think as well, it's very like I like going to bed in a very serene environment. I just don't like the clutter around me, as well my book. Want to charge my phone, and then I want my box my glass of water and my Elizabeth 48 or exactly okay short and sweet. We'll put the short and sweet with Ellis in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01: 11:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 11:16

Hopefully you get some nuggets there for some thanks for shopping and send us in. If anybody wants to send us in more questions, we'll put the links in the show notes, but you can get us, you can send us a voice note on Instagram at rip it up rip it up underscore podcast underscore official. Is that right? And then you can also email us at ripitup earlybirds at gmail.com. You can just like email us, record a voice note in the gmail at us. Any questions, comments, you think we'd be taking compliments, but we're not, so feel free to send us over it.

SPEAKER_01: 11:45

See you next week for the full episode.