The Bumper Bed by Marc Newson, courtesy of Domeau & Pérès

Marc Newson reinvents the bed

Innovative, internationally renowned designer who admits to sleeping on a mattress on the floor until just a few years ago (because "buying a bed is such a cheesy experience") creates ultimate dream aid

The Parisian contemporary art gallery Domeau & Pérès champions artistic concepts by furniture designers. It already has lovely pieces by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Andrée Putman and a host of others. Now it has a bed by Marc Newson.

The Bumper Bed is a playful, engineered version of the ubiquitous mattress on the floor. For 49-year-old London-based Australian Newson was still sleeping on a mattress into the late 1990s. He just couldn't bring himself to make that oh-so-grown-up purchase, claiming that "buying a bed is a cheesy experience".

 

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For the gallery, he turned this apparent shortcoming into a benefit. "Most people I know have at some point in their lives, slept on a mattress on the floor," he says. "So I thought it would be cool to design a product that would give people like me the opportunity to transform their trusty mattress into a nice looking bed. It was a very playful, conceptual exercise, akin to turning one's bed into a boxing ring or a life raft."

The 'bumper' refers to the foam-filled cushioning over a wooden frame, which is firm enough to be sat on. There are some nice colour options in leather: white, grey or chocolate brown. And while these are not limited edition - like some of Domeau & Pérès' offerings - each one is signed and numbered.

 

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For younger Newson fans, despair not. Italian furniture brand Magis produces his marvellous plastic modular Bunky bunkbeds, in three shades of blue or three of orange. To find out more about Newson's creation, go here. For more on innovative design, consider our Design Book, which offers a great overview of product design in 500 classic products, including three designs by Newson himself.