November 2003

Designing Solutions’ Deborah Wiener was quoted in “Is it Time to Give The Sofabed a Rest?” by Washington Post Staff Writer, Annie Groer.

…Another overnight option is a standard bed or a daybed with a pull-out trundle underneath, suggests Deborah Wiener, a Silver Spring designer who specializes in family-friendly décor. Never mind that one person has to sleep on a mattress-in-a-drawer or mounted on a frame a few inches off the floor, while the other is at normal bed height she says.

Wiener dislikes pop-up trundles, even if that means a pull-out model separates couples by a vertical foot or two. “My sons, who are 8 and 12 have trundles in their rooms for sleepovers. But the older boy doesn’t want to be lying next to another boy. And what if you have grownup guests who are not a couple, like a brother and sister?” says Wiener.

She suggests buying trundle sets at furniture stores such as Pottery Barn or Pottery Barn Kids rather than at a shop that sells mattresses “because this is about the frame, not the mattress. And just because they are shown in a kid room setting doesn’t mean you can’t use it in an adult room.

…But if holiday hosts get too frantic, decorator Wiener has this bid of advice: “Want to know where I personally think is the best place to put your guests? In a hotel, especially if they are family.”

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