Vermont winters are long, cold, and snowy, and the houses are built around this reality. The roofs are steeply pitched to shed the snow, and the upper floors are directly under the roof to reduce the area of the house exposed to the weather. Bedrooms on the upper floor are cozy; with high ceilings under the ridge beam, and low clearance toward the eaves.

I designed this bed to work in these cozy Vermont bedrooms. The mattress sits at a comfortable height to swing your legs directly into your slippers, bypassing the cold floor. The low headboard will work in any orientation you care to put the bed in under the roof.

I took the general proportions for this bed from Thomas Moser's book How to Build Shaker Furniture. The turnings are not inspired by any particular piece of Shaker furniture, but are meant to complement other Shaker-style pieces. In particular, this pairs well with Shaker-style night stands in cherry, which complement the cherry headboard.