My Kingdom for a California King Comforter

When you first move in with your significant other, for me, the sleeping arrangements are one of those important issues. It was potentially a deal-breaker between my husband and I. When we met he had rock hard queen size futon mattress bed. And when I say rock hard, I mean that there were these masses of cotton in the mattress that had formed round protruding mounds that felt like rocks, and the parts that were not rocks felt like plywood. I was used to a double pillow top queen bed, befitting The Princess and the Pea. So when he got his first bonus ever, we headed to Sears and I made him buy a bed. I think a good bed is the foundation of a good relationship.

So after looking at all our options, we decided on the California King Mattress. I have no idea why the state of California has been honored with its own mattress, but there you go. It just so happens that a California King is longer than a king or Eastern King. We went with a California King because we are a tall family. My husband is 6’3” and I am 5’9”. Even though I am only 5’9”, which not all that short I can take up as much space in a bed as a person that 7 feet tall, which is kind of sad because that essentially leaves my 6’3” husband with a twin size bed amount of room in our bed, but he said “I Do” so that legally binds him to our sleeping arrangements.

So here has been the kicker with our California King bed, we can find sheets and we can find mattress pad covers, but finding decorative California King Comforters are extremely difficult. True, they can be found online for hundreds of dollars, but you know we have been on a budget for a while now. We can find down comforters, but not duvet covers for the California king, and a down comforter is problematic in California. So for the last 10 years we have had a standard king comforter & duvet cover on our California King bed, which means either our feet can be warm or our shoulders, and if you want both it requires the application of more blankets. Was it too much to ask for a California King Comforter that was not plain white that did not cost a fortune? And frankly I have been fed up with duvet covers and the little clippie things that you have to use to hold it in place. I have only ever wanted a nicely colored comforter for a California King. We have the perfect bed, but not the comforter to go with it.

Last weekend we were at Costco facing a bin of comforters that were the exact color I have been looking for, but I knew that it was too much to hope for a California king, after all I have been smited so much by the bedding industry with no California King comforter’s, I didn’t dare get my hopes up, and I am so over having a standard king comforter, that I was not settling for anything that wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. To my amazement, they had a California King Comforter set, complete with shams and a decorative bed skirt. Finally people finally what I have been searching for 10 years, and it was only $120, perfectly reasonable. I was a little teary as I grabbed it and threw it in the cart.

So we get it home, wash it and throw it on the bed, and I can’t sleep because both my feet and my shoulders are warm under one comforter at the same time and it is too strange a feeling. I am sure it is only a matter of time until I can sleep under it, but until then I smile every time I see it.