I'm also a two king pillows with cases and two king pillows with shams user. Everything is white cotton or white matelasse, with a solid yellow quilt folded across the bottom. Our walls are yellow and the bed is against the wall. We have no headboard or footboard. Kitty cat sleeps on the yellow quilt every night. I also relate to your disappointment! I literally cried when my bed was delivered and set up, and called my sister on the phone I was so beside myself! I thought it looked so big and awkward and awful. I concluded I'd made one big honkin' mistake, and couldn't imagine *how* I could make such a thing actually look attractive. A little over six years later now, and I regard our king-sized bed as one of the best purchases we've ever made! Within a few months of living with it and adjusting my eye to it, I loved it, both in terms of how it looked in the room and how it functioned as a wonderful, dreamy place to sleep! I hope you find yourself with a transformed perspective too, Sonicmom.

Why, thanks, Mtn. I used Bbstx idea of zip ties to replace the second bolt. It works very well. Thanks, Bbstx. My son the contractor finally explained the order of all the hardware to me by using the shish kabob analogy. Imagine the long bolt is the skewer. First slide on the medium size metal washer so it is against the bolt head. Next slide on the leg of headboard, then slide on the large rubber washer (to prevent metal on metal), then slide on the metal bed frame, then the locking (small) washer and finally the nut. Ta da. It worked. Along with the zip ties and lots of cursing. I am going to need to use the felt pads under the feet of the headboard because right now it is levitating. Thank you all. It takes a village -- or a forum or whatever.

Patricia has a great example for you there. And I agree that it is a tremendous gift, I love them! Remember, it's a kid's room. It doesn't have to match the decor of the rest of the house, and some (myself included) would say that a child's bedroom should not match the rest of the house because the function is so unique. Your son will have lots of changing interests and a really good, long-term paint job will carry him through them all and serve his own kids well, too!

There's a small gap between the edges of the built in and the walls because the wall wasn't level front to back. The contractor suggested quarter round or a small flat piece of trim to cover it. It seems like a flat piece would look best but is there a way to do it to be as inconspicuous as possible? DH thinks the trim piece should start halfway across the width of the edge of the built in. That seems more noticable to me than having it go all the way across the edge, but then it might look odd that all the shelves don't have trim. The contractor said he could frame it with trim (the two sides and the top). I'm just not sure what will look best, or if there's an option we haven't considered.