We LOVE June and July. Especially in London heading off to the park. Jumpers for goalposts. Strawberries. The whiff of charcoal. The list goes on. But Wimbledon tops the list for Melissa, our very own Head of Words.

"Hellair! One just loves to watch those lovely boys running around."

And we all love Rafa Nadal’s fighting spirit and winning ways.

"Hola hombres, arm very 'appy, ar can no believe it. Gracias."

We were extremely lucky to watch him lift the cup this year having given Tomas Berdych the run-around.

"Hola, me thinks you was rubbish, Tom, but I never say. Muchas gracias."

And afterwards we all wanted a piece of Rafa.

"Ole, ole, donde estas, Rafa?"

But that piece wasn’t forthcoming. Nonetheless we ended the day on a real high and ready for some Monday morning action selling our lovely sleigh beds . Summer times. Happy times. x

If you’re a regular reader here you’ll have noticed how we’ve been whizzing all over the world looking for beautiful new products. We always look forward to receiving follow-up emails from new suppliers whose grasp of English isn’t quite perfect. Recent examples have included such wonderful sign-offs as:

“Thank you, sir, and may you have a good harvest.”

“I respect you, kindly. Please do the needful.”

But we were particularly intrigued when our Steve (aka Head of Drawings) sent us a picture of a sign he’d seen in an airport.

What the Dickens does this mean?

And then there was the bus we saw as we arrived to see our bone inlay beds in India.

If you’ve got any gems of your own, do send them in. We’d love it. x

Following our India trip, we went to Paris last week to check out some cool French beds. Before we post anything here about what we found, we have to admit how shallow we are as our heads were turned by a couple of celeb spots. First up was fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Here’s what he normally looks like when “on duty”.

Karl hot-footing it about town

But when we crossed paths in a cafe in the Marais, Karl was distinctly more low-key. Dressed casually in black T-shirt and jeans, he brought his outfit together with a simple “foulard” around the neck, a pair of shades, half a pint of Stella and a smoko.

"Leev us alone, guv, I'm gaspin 'ere"

Chloe was finding it hard to get the shot from a distance. So here’s one of our Charlie next to the man himself.

"For Pete's sake, leave me alone, Karl."

And then there was Katie Price (aka Jordan) at the Gare du Nord train station ordering a coffee .

"A cafe au bleedin' what?"

To be honest, we weren’t sure if it was really her. So we took another photo.

And another.

"Hang on, luv, we can't keep up."

And we still weren’t sure. So we decided to mind our own business, jump on the Eurostar and stick to what we know best: talking about French beds.

Lying back in one of our contemporary beds recently we read a quite brilliant new book called Cracking The Wine Code by Charlie’s old friend Lavinia Brown. It’s a concise guide to everything you ever need to know about wine in under 100 pages. Genius.

A right good read

Charlie once did work experience at a posh wine merchants in Vauxhall. Years later he suggested to Lavinia, fresh out of university, that she hook up with them. Lo and behold she became obsessed with wine and ended up working in Hong Kong and writing this wicked book.

So who says work experience when you’re 14 is a waste of time, eh?

Well we haven’t, but Charlie’s sister Lou has! She’s just given birth to the lovely Ordi. Rather than going to hospital like most normal people, she decided to stay at home and flit between her bathroom and Antoinette French bed!

Luckily everything went according to plan and they are now looking more healthy than most of us. Fake tan anyone?

So big shout to Lou, Rufus, Esme and Cas. And a huge welcome to this wonderful world to Ordi. We’re now busy working on all our new kids beds and bunk beds for launch later this summer. So we promise to let you test them first! x

Yes, we know you know, but here at The Sleep Room we never tire of new reasons to love beds. In fact, we thought we had thought of them all but recently we thought of a humdinger: they are nesting point of some of the best belly laughs we’ve ever had.

It began with a quick look at a classic Morecambe & Wise sketch featuring them in their natty little pyjamas sharing a snug wooden bed, and then we couldn’t stop thinking of examples.

It seems to have begun with Laurel & Hardy, who frequently shared a large French sleigh bed in their comedy capers, and were further immortalised in this shot, which hung on the wall of Joey & Chander’s apartment in Friends.

Laurel & Hardy in bed in 'Leave 'em Laughing'

In 1920s and 1930s, it wasn’t uncommon for less wealthy adults to bunk up, but by Eric & Ernie’s day it was definitely being used as a comedy trope – especially as they mention their wives on some occasions! It turns out it was their writer Eddie Braben whose idea the situation was, and apparently Eric Morecambe was initially so uncomfortable with the idea that he insisted on being able to smoke his pipe during those scenes. Word is, this important detail would make sure his ‘masculinity’ was emphasised.

And, just as Eric & Ernie has been inspired, they went on to inspire others … especially some puppets. First there were Bert & Ernie, eternal flatmates and stalwarts of the Sesame Street scene. They didn’t actually share a bed, but had a pair of nice wooden beds in their shared room. (Fact fans alert – that set first appeared in 1970, the opening episode of Season 2). The iconic decor remained and the bedtime chats were the bedrock of their relationship and a source of much loved comedy gold.

Bert & Ernie in their lovely bedroom

Into the 1980s we had Rainbow, and once again it was bedtime the provided the backdrop for comedy: the effervescent craziness of Zippy and the dopey musings George. They didn’t really have a luxury bed, but there was space for Bungle to squeeze in from time to time.

At this point in our musings The Sleep Room seemed to have reached the end of comedic duos in the bedroom. Then came Sports Relief, which gave us Smithy and Beckham enjoying a bit of Neighbours wearing their his’n’his pyjamas. Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems that the contemporary bed is just as much a birthplace for comedy as it ever was…

David and Smithy: the last word in bedtime banter

We’ve been thinking about The Princess and the Pea a lot lately at The Sleep Room. It’s a simple childhood classic by Hans Christian Andersen but to be honest, it gives us food for thought.

We all know the story – a prince is looking for a bride, but he’s having a dreadful time finding one. The thing is, he can’t find a real princess. Then, one dark, stormy night, a bedraggled woman who has been caught in the horrors of the weather outside appears at the door. She is very soggy and somewhat tearful.

She asks if she can stay the night, claiming there’s no need to worry about any funny business as she’s a princess. Yeah, nice line, sweetheart, thinks the Prince’s (pushy?) mum. To test her princessy-ness, said Queen gives the princess a bed with no fewer than forty mattresses on it. Twenty featherbeds and twenty of horsehair.

As far as upholstered beds go, that’s pretty extreme. Mmmmmm, cosy, I hear you think. But Queen Suspicious has sneakily positioned a pea at the bottom. Not one to complain, the princess sticks it out, but she wakes up the next morning finding herself somewhat bruised. Bruised! Her hosts spot this and declare that – hurrah! – she is a princess. The two are wed.

The Dulac illustration from the original Princess and the Pea

Apparently it comes from a Swedish folk story that Andersen himself was told as a child. These days there are all sorts of children’s versions available, all of which feature the luxury bed as a centrepiece. Oh it always looks so cosy – check it out here, and here. But onto our pressing questions…

First of all, why on earth is a princess wandering around in a storm anyway? Where were her security guards? What was going on? Had she escaped? Is it like when Lady Di used to sneak to the cinema on Kensington High Street?

Second of all, what is the actual proof that the bruises were caused by the bed/pea combo? We are not at all sure that they were. After all, she was wandering around in a storm before bed. It could have been hailstones at the very least – if not a fall from her horse or some other mishap.

But thirdly – and most importantly – why is it that people often tell other people ‘Oooh you’re behaving like the princess with the pea’ as if that’s a BAD thing? You know what, this princess, who is so often spoken so ill of, actually sounds kind of cool. She wanders off to do her own thing, regardless of what her King Daddy thinks she’s meant to be doing, she’s smart enough to get let into the castle and crash for the night and she’s polite enough not to complain about her restless night of hell on forty different mattresses. (It’s only the bruises that give her away). And she still gets her guy. All in all, we think she sounds like quite a cool cat.

Princess, you rock.

Oh yeah, the Great Bed of Ware. This is possibly one of our favourite beds of all time here at The Sleep Room. In its day it was the ultimate in luxury beds, but this one has stayed the course.

The Great Bed of Ware. It really is great.

1. It was built by Hertfordshire carpenter Jonas Fosbrooke in around 1590. He certainly had his work cut out – it’s made of oak, measures ten by eleven feet and is decorated with elaborate carved marquetry
2. Originally, it would have been brightly painted. If you look closely you can still see traces of the original colours on the figures carved on the bed-head.
3. It’s said that it can sleep over fifteen people at once. We are not sure that we recommend this for a truly restful night
4. The bed started off in situ at the White Hart Inn in Ware, Hertfordshire (where we like to imagine they advertised ‘Football Shown Here! Modern Beds !) on a little chalk board outside. But by the 1800s it was moved to the Saracen’s Head in the same town. We’re not sure why, but we’re really glad we didn’t have to do the lifting with that one.
5. The bed moved again in 1870 when a Mr William Henry Teale bought it and – somewhat whimsically – decided to pop it in his pleasure garden at the Rye House.
6. In 1931 the Victoria & Albert Museum bought it, and there it remains. Go and see it! But try try try not get in … you may never get out.
7. Sir Toby Belch refers to the bed in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, mentioning a bed sheet ‘big enough for the bed of Ware’.
8. Playwright Ben Jonson called it ‘the great bed at Ware’ in a play in 1609, and it is also mentioned in George Gordon Byron’s Don Juan.
9. Visitors often carved their initials on the bed or applied red wax seals, which are still visible on the bedposts and headboard today. We cannot stress enough that these were visitors to the Hertfordshire inns, and NOT visitors to the Victoria & Albert museum.
10. We very much wish that this bed could talk. Oh, the stories.

After 9 months of arduous interviews and physical tests, The Sleep Room is proud to have on board a new member of staff. Horace Marshall joins us as our Vice Head of Sleep and will be working mainly on product testing. With a background in doing very little, Horace was seen as being the perfect choice for this important new role. When asked to comment on this exciting new opportunity Horace had very little to say. In fact, he said nothing.

We’re very pleased to hear that one of our Cloth upholstered beds has successfully made it to Ibiza. Emma and Jason M wanted a seriously comfy number to go in their groovy Balearic pad. We reckon it looks great and think little Inigo’s done a great job of straightening the sheets: we salute you!