Hard to be sure, but by the names, it looks like you may well be a woman, and that most of the responses have come from men, so I'll chime in from an altitudinally challenged perspective. I had always heard the 4 foot wide thing, and my one wood framed raised bed is that wide and I have a hard time reaching the middle. I'm quite short, and a 3' wide bed is just perfect, Also, it's not clear if you're building raised beds with wood, or tilling and then hoeing new raised beds each year, or maintaining hoed raised beds from year to year. So .. . .with crop rotation you would need to use your wide squash bed for something different the next year any way (unless you till and change beds each year). One way to use a wide bed for something that seems to need a narrower bed the next year (beans, for example) is to plant across the bed in short narrow rows. Hope this helps!

Larry and Dawn, thank you both for the responses - as always, so much good information and helpful ideas! Sorry I didn't respond sooner - sometimes I don't get an email when I get a reply even though I check the box (or thought I did?) I'm starting to get the hang of trellising this year - I have some huge muskmelons and also cucumbers growing up the black vinyl coated chain link fence enclosing my potager and it amazes me how those huge melons hang there - I wouldn't have expected that the vines could support that much weight but they do. I plan to hang the vinyl covered chain link along the inside of my wooden privacy fence (I have the side where the fence posts are so that will create a 4" gap between the trellis and the wooden fence pickets) and use that to trellis my crops as everything seems to like growing on it and it blends in well, plus it doesn't rust. I think maybe the vinyl also helps it to not get so hot in the sun. Dawn, I laughed about what you said about my 'for the last time' comment because nobody else believes me either, especially not my son who has done most of the heavy lifting on each of these projects of mine ;) However, I think in a yard this small surely there are only so many ways to arrange raised beds and I think I've tried most of them already :) Each time I learn something though, and I always get something to eat out of the deal, so I guess that's ok. I may have to do this in stages - build new beds along the east fence and the east half of the back fence, then tear out the current potager in the west side of the yard and extend the perimeter beds the rest of the way around the back yard. Then if I decide to later, I can add the two 4'x8' beds in the corners. My yard is so small that I may decide not to add them after all. I have tried the living mulch idea back when you suggested it to me before and it worked amazingly well! I planted sweet potatoes under Baby Bubba okra and it really did well. This year I am growing amaranth for the grain (I have celiac disease and must avoid gluten containing grains) with swiss chard underneath, and it seems to appreciate the partial shade. I like the edging idea and I could really see that working well, and I think it could look attractive as well. To keep the dogs and rabbits out, I've come up with a design that will enable me to hang 8' sections of hog panel along the front, which I will lift off as needed. The horizontal wires are close together at the bottom (and I plan to line the bottom foot or so with 1/2" mesh to keep the rabbits out), but they get wider apart as they go up. I was thinking that I could probably reach through them to harvest tomatoes and other trellised crops, and that front panel could actually serve to hold the tomatoes up. Well it all sounds good in theory but there is nothing like trying it to find out all the flaws in the theory lol!

I had a sidewall failure. It is important to realize the weight of the drawer and insert count towards total weight (38 lbs) I asked and was told I could put 75 lbs in the drawer. I weighed my dishes and almost exactly 75 lbs (well I weighed a place setting and multiplied *12 for the villeroy and *6 for the pantry set) Here is the old thread http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1020404519236.html Believe it or not- still not resolved. We decided too risky to take out the cabinet. They are putting in a 2 level drawer. The company paid to add reinforcement screws and the new drawer will have heavy duty glides if I ever see it. I do have a 37 inch bank of drawers as well with pits and pans. I love the big drawers for function. I don't have to keep opening drawers to figure out what is in each drawer.

I would not do any of the beds, but rather, keep your eastern queen, and invest in a really pretty padded headboard in a durable poly blend fabric and have it stain treated...this will give your the height elegance you require without the added space gobbling inches that all the beds shown would require. Small master bedrooms with upholstered headboard; check more info under each picture for even more pictures Wooden headboards or wooden bed suites; really nice too! Bed similar to your design styles in a small bedroom Other side of room of pic directly above