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[Darbuk.Ubildolush]

Greetings and Salty Nations to you all..

    While I acknowledge that there have been many threads on beds and bedding, my search fu is weak;  I was unable to locate a thread that was specifically about the topics I want to present here.  Some of it is going to be a light rehash of existing concepts, others I think are, at least less talked about.
So, if you'll bear with a new and enthusiastic member of these forums, I will present... "The Big Idea (tm)"

The Basics... Or, Of what shall my bed be hewn?

Something that has been presented many times is the concept of 'beds of other materials'.  I absolutely think that beds should be able to be made of any material one should have at hand. Stone, Bone, Wood, Cloth.  The end results may be different, but ultimately you're should be able to craft the basic bed out of anything.  Short and sweet, and much discussed.


Variety is the spice of life.

Here we shall discuss different kinds of beds.  It goes without saying that preferences could easily be employed to add yet another way for the attentive lord of the hold to keep his Dwarves happy.  Each of these are created from one unit of base material, with others requiring a specific combination.  Know that these could combine Type of Bed with Material of bed to create very specific preferences. Beds come in t

Beds of any material
    * A bassinet is a bed specifically for newborn infants.
    * A box-bed is a bed having the form of a large box with wooden roof, sides, and ends, opening in front with two sliding panels or shutters.
    * A bunk bed is two or more beds one atop the other.
    * A brass bed, constructed from brass or brass-plated metal.
    * A captain's bed (also known as a chest bed or cabin bed) is a platform bed with drawers and storage compartments built in underneath.
    * A four poster bed is a bed with four posts, one in each corner, that support a tester.
    * A futon is a traditional style of Japanese bed that is also available in a larger Western style.
    * An infant bed (also crib or cot) is a small bed specifically for babies and infants.
    * A toddler bed is a small bed for young children. (Likely just lumped into a childs bed, post crib/bassinet)

Beds of Cloth or Leather
    * A hammock is a piece of suspended fabric.
    * A camp bed (also cot) is a simple, temporary, portable bed used by armies and large organizations in times of crisis.

Bed requiring multiple materials
    * A canopy bed is similar to a four poster bed, but the posts usually extend higher and are adorned or draped with cloth, sometimes completely enclosing the bed. -(These beds will require the base material, plus one two units of cloth or leather)
    * A rope bed is a pre-modern bed whose wooden frame includes crossing rope to support the typically down-filled single mattress. (One log, one rope)
 
Exotic Beds
    * A kang bed-stove is a Chinese ceramic room heater used as the platform for a bed.
    * A platform bed is a mattress resting on a solid, flat raised surface, either free-standing or part of the structure of the room.

Both of these items would require digging a special square (or constructing one) called a 'dais' or 'raised platform'.  It's a bit of a glossing over, but either the Kang bed or the Platform bed would only require this (rather than requiring a special hollow platform for the Kang bed).  Dais could also be used for thrones and the like, and if you have a Dwarf who likes Dais, you could put a chair or bed on it to produce minor happy thoughts.

Is there a pea in this bed?

    One thing I haven't found much mention of is matresses.. The padding that makes the bed liveable. Mattresses are made at a clothiers workshop, and are composed of a 'cloth or leather' and a 'stuffing'.  Stuffing can include wool, rope reed, pig tail, Quarry Bush Leaves, or feathers.  Dwarves of course can have preferences both in size, and thickness of beds.
    Mattresses can be applied to any style of bed except a cloth bed. (Hammocks and Cots)

Mattresses have two elements, size and thickness, that will be addressed below.

Size
    * Childs - A bed designed for a child, for simplicities sake used in infant beds as well, requires one piece of fabric.
    * Single - A bed designed for a single person, requires two pieces of fabric.
    * Double - A bed designed for two people, requires three pieces of fabric.

Thickness - For simplicities sake size is not taken into account with stuffing.
    * A pallet is a thin, lightweight mattress, and requires one unit of stuffing.
    * A mattress is a 'standard' non-luxurious mattress, and requires two units of stuffing. 
    * A 'plush mattress' is a especially thick mattress, and requires three units of stuffing.

A place to lay my head.

     For the clever and attentive user, you will probably realize that I am moving on to pillows at this point.  Dwarves who own a bed will acquire a pillow for their bed, and if assigned a different bed will take it with them.  In the event that the owner dies, it will be transported back to the storage area.  There are only two types of pillows:

*  Standard:  A pillow requires a piece of cloth, and a piece of stuffing.
*  Luxury: Requires a piece of cloth, and a piece of stuffing.

Good for superheroes, Escaping from Prison, and Hiding from Monsters

     And here we address sheets and blankets...  They don't require a horrible amount of attention.   

     * Sheets require 1 unit of cloth per size of mattress.
     * Blankets require 1 unit of cloth per size of mattress.
     * Blankets come in 'blankets' and 'comforters', comforters require one unit of stuffing, blankets require none.


 
This way lies madness
      Here I'll present a couple of ideas that are a possibility, but may be just a touch across the line.

vermin
      * Beds can be infected with vermin, able to be repelled with a vial of 'pest repellent' from the alchemist in vials, composed of herbs and/or minerals. (A use for orpiment and the like!).  It's possible that in addition to stuffing, beds can contain 'additives' like cedar sawdust that repels these beasties.

My ass... is on the frame...
      * The stuffing in beds can require replacement on occasion, perhaps once a year or so, or the beds will start degrading in value.  More on this later.


Fin
There are some more variants to be added here, a variety of ideas and expansions dealing with bed quality and the like, but that are largely tied to other tasks.  (Such as using embroidered cloth to make the bed, the mattress, pillows, sheets, and bedding for example).  And perhaps an expansion of ideas regarding the pest repellent.

[Darbuk.Ubildolush]

Alright, one quick alteration after some more time thinking about it.

Beds would be composed of:
1 bed frame, 1 mattress, 1 or 2 pillows, bedding, and blanket.

This way the value of all components are included in a single item, but it eliminates bloat by having it be a single item.

[jfs]

Pretty sure "advanced bedding" has been up before.

I think it should be possible to skip on parts of a bed's construction. Like, build a bed that only consists of a mattress on the floor, a bed that's just a wooden construction (with solid bottom) and a pillow and possibly more.

[Dabi]

Don't forget where these materials come from - I doubt most of the things needed like say...silk or feathers can be farmed or even exist.
Silk worm farms etc.

[Silverionmox]

Nice, let me systemize a bit.

The most basic form of a bed is a place to sleep, eg. a free or reserved tile. The rest are additions in the categories bed frame, bedding, pillow.

Sizes: Bassinets, cribs, toddler's beds etc. don't differ functionally from other sleeping places except in size and name, so the game would consider just the size of the beds, and probably the different material requirements following from the size. The bed of a giant child still would be more than big enough for an adult dwarf. So I'd think that size should be taken into account when determining how much material something uses, including pillows, mattresses etc.
On the other hand, let the difference between a luxury and an ordinary pillow be determined by the ornamentation; it's much easier than an arbitrary black and white distinction, where one could end up having embroidered ordinary pillows that cost much more than luxury pillows. The same for comforters: let the extra padding be a type of ornamentation, they're functionally the same anyway.

- Futon (cloth + mattress), cot (cloth + cloth), hammock (cloth + rope): are the same functionally, because they're beds that are folded up and stored away (in a nearby cabinet, or backpack) when no one's sleeping in it, clearing floor space. The latter is not something typically in shortage; the extra underground stuff might change that.

- Bunk beds: spend an extra piece of material, to allow two bed frames to be placed on top of each other. The same as other beds otherwise, except that ornamentation like four posts isn't possible.

- Brass bed: just a different material and name/style. No need for a special treatment.
 
- Captain's bed: same as another bed, but an extra cabinet is placed on the same square, and functions as such.

- Box-bed, canopy bed and four poster bed: since the box or the testers normally don't support weight, it could be considered ornamentation. The only functional difference would be to block line of sight into and out of the bed... and keeping out vermin, of course (mosquito nets).

- Dais or pedestal should indeed be its own construction, using up material like a floor and able to support furniture.

- The bed-stove is interesting, but it'll have to wait how general heating will be done to say more. Putting hot rocks and hot water bottles in beds would be another way. Historically, people slept above the oven or stable to recuperate that waste heat.

- If the two-person variants of beds take up just one square, people will only build two-person beds. So they'll have to take up two.

[Sunken]

Historically, the vast majority of beds have probably had straw bedding, or at least mattresses filled with straw, and nothing more fancy. Perhaps beds without mattresses can be seen as an abstraction of this (we don't have straw, after all).
That's not to say proper bedding won't add to the quality of a bed, of course! The just may not be strictly necessary.

[Rowanas]

I'd like to add my two pence to this.

I think the important factors are, slightly different from what you've said, the frame, the mattress and the pillow. The sheet is entirely unimportant.

Each one grants a positive thought, based on quality, material and size.

A frame without anything else is the current bed we currently have. It's basically a palette, it keeps them off the ground and makes them happy.

A mattress without a frame is a futon or a lengthy bean bag. It's not as restful as a palette, but probably gives a happier thought for the comfort.

Pillows are additional extras. Dwarves will carry them around and use them whenever and wherever they sleep. Grants additional happiness (not a substitute for real beds).

Obviously a bed with a mattress and a frame is the best a dwarf can get, along with each dwarf's trusty pillow.

Double, triple or whatever sized beds should be determined by the number of beds next to each other belonging to one specific dwarf. Obviously this leads to a bit of exploitation, but it should be ok, since you need room size for all that bedding and it takes away the opportunity to fill that same space with masterfully engraved walls.

Basically, this is a tl;dr bersion of what the OP said, minus some of the crazy OTT detail.

[Darbuk.Ubildolush]

Don't forget where these materials come from - I doubt most of the things needed like say...silk or feathers can be farmed or even exist.
Silk worm farms etc.

Silk is available from cave spiders, giant cave spiders, phantom spiders, and caravans.  Feathers are coming in the next release.

Nice, let me systemize a bit.

The most basic form of a bed is a place to sleep, eg. a free or reserved tile. The rest are additions in the categories bed frame, bedding, pillow.

Sizes: Bassinets, cribs, toddler's beds etc. don't differ functionally from other sleeping places except in size and name, so the game would consider just the size of the beds

Fair enough.

On the other hand, let the difference between a luxury and an ordinary pillow be determined by the ornamentation; it's much easier than an arbitrary black and white distinction, where one could end up having embroidered ordinary pillows that cost much more than luxury pillows. The same for comforters: let the extra padding be a type of ornamentation, they're functionally the same anyway.

Functionally, but I see it as the same reason I always build cabinets and chests instead of installing bags in their rooms.  As for the 'embroidered ordinary pillow...'  that's actually an entirely acceptable state of affairs for me.  But true, it isn't strictly necessary, so why not.

- Brass bed: just a different material and name/style. No need for a special treatment.
 

Doh!  I thought I edited that one out. Oh well.   Yeah, this is just a metal bed.

- Captain's bed: same as another bed, but an extra cabinet is placed on the same square, and functions as such.

So essentially requiring two units of base material to produce, the same as a bed, and a cabinet.

- The bed-stove is interesting, but it'll have to wait how general heating will be done to say more. Putting hot rocks and hot water bottles in beds would be another way. Historically, people slept above the oven or stable to recuperate that waste heat.

I was thinking of this more in the vein of 'personal dwarf preferences' than having any real functional value.  The stove would be largely non-functional other than it's intrinsic value for being more of a PITA to build.

- If the two-person variants of beds take up just one square, people will only build two-person beds. So they'll have to take up two.

Truth.

[Dr. Melon]

My response to the bunk bed issue is to make it more expensive in terms of materials. You need two lumps of whatever material instead of one. Therefore, it all comes down to resource management.

Also, you could make bunkbeds less restful than single beds, due to the fidgeting of the other dwarf - and nobles wouldn't sleep anywhere near another dwarf.

[The_Kakaze]

I seem to remember metal bed frames raised off of the floor as being a major health improvement in Europe, bc it kept bedbugs from being able to get into the mattress.  So perhaps metal frames reduce mattress degradation much like metal barrels keeping out vermin.

[sweitx]

It sounds... needlessly complicated.
Thou I would like simple variation in type, such as a cloth-only bed (futon, hammock) and a wood/rock/metal bed.
All the other type of bed can be abstracted into one of the two.
Another thought.
Have the basic wood/rock/metal bed have the option to have mattress, pillow, blankets, etc, added to it.
Maybe at a workshop.  Or have workshop output mattress, pillow, etc that can be added to a built bed.  Maybe even as a dwarf preference.  So you just build a basic bed, and the dwarf will purchase bedding for it (of course, need to figure out how to make barrack bed comft for your expert military dwarf too).  I want my dwarven champions be able to sleep on skins made from their fallen enemies.

The is a goblin bone bed.  It is covered with mattress made of goblin skin and menacing with goblin hair.

[Draco18s]

*  Standard:  A pillow requires a piece of cloth, and a piece of stuffing.
*  Luxury: Requires a piece of cloth, and a piece of stuffing.

And the difference is?

[neek]

You know, I see these bed suggestion posts... and somehow, I think we're failing to see something here.

Beds are made out of wood because dwarves hate elves.

[Deimos56]

I made a suggestion to the effect that dwarves could, in an emergency, carve furniture out of walls... Very low quality furniture that's only marginally better than a floor... and could improve on it from there via smoothing and assorted bedding material. Not sure where it went, it was a fairly long time ago.

A lot of interesting ideas, here, really. And some sort of crazy brilliance on Neek's part.

[Darbuk.Ubildolush]

Agreed Diemos, Neek is some kind of minor genius.

On another note, I like the idea of carving furniture out of the stone of the walls, but being the craftsman Dwarves are, I have a hard time seeing it being less desirable by default.  But the concept as it sits is a good one.