How to Cover and Hide a Box Spring Mattress Fast

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Do you have a box spring under your mattress that is ugly? Want to know how to hide a box spring mattress? I found a super easy way for covering a box spring mattress fast, and chances are you already have everything you need! I’ve also included some other ways to hide your box spring, in case the easy way isn’t the look you want. This is a super simple DIY home decor project that will help make your bedroom feel more put together and cohesive. If you’re looking for box spring cover ideas, be sure to check out this article.

How to cover a box spring – in brief

Let’s face it, box springs can be ugly and you may not want to look at them. There are many different ways to cover a box spring. The more popular ways to cover a box spring are:

• Use a bed skirt
• Use a box spring cover
• Encase your box spring
• Use this quick and easy hack!
• Build a box around the box spring and upholster it
• Staple fabric to your box spring
• Sew your own bed skirt or sew your own box spring cover

Some of these ways of covering a box spring are easier than others. Some of them are rather permanent. You won’t be able to change the box spring cover once it’s in place. In this article, you’ll learn a quick and easy hack to cover your box spring, how to use a bed skirt, and how to use a box spring cover. These ways to cover a box spring are all easy to use and are easy to change out. This means that if your bedroom decor changes in the future, you can easily change your box spring cover to match. This post will only cover the easy ways to hide your bed skirt – by using a box spring cover, bed skirt, encasing your box spring, or the quick and easy hack that we found.

What is a box spring?

Box spring mattresses are the mattress under your mattress. Box springs are basically there to support your mattress. They raise your bed up a little higher so that it’s easier to get in and out. They also provide a firm, flat surface for your mattress to lay on. Having a box spring mattress can be pretty important depending on the type of bed frame you have and the type of mattress that you have. Do you not have a box spring mattress, but need one? Check this one out here.

Do I need a box spring mattress?

Do all beds need a box spring mattress? Not all beds need a box spring mattress. Some beds do just fine without a box spring – it depends a lot on what type of of bed frame you have. Your bed frame is going to have pieces running across it where the mattress goes to support the mattress. These are called slats. If the bed frame slats are too widely spaced to support your mattress, then your mattress will sag between the slats and be uncomfortable to sleep on. This is when you will want to get a box spring mattress. A bed frame like this one here has slats that are close together, so you wouldn’t need a box spring with this bed frame.

If you are not sure if you can remove your box spring or not, try it! If your bed frame’s supports are close together you can always just remove the box spring and try out the mattress on it’s own. If you find that it is too uncomfortable to sleep on without a box spring, then you know you need a box spring. Also if you see the mattress visibly dipping between the bed frame’s slats then you would want to put the box spring mattress back.

Another reason that you might want a box spring is to add height to your bed. How tall is your bed? Is it hard to get up out of your bed? Would the extra height of a box spring make it easier for you to get out of bed? Adding more height to a bed is a good reason to have a box spring mattress.

Is it possible to sleep on a mattress without a box spring just as comfortably?

Yes, you can sleep on a mattress without a box spring just as comfortably. However, this is going to depend a lot on your bed. The box spring mattress provides support to a mattress. So if you did not use a box spring, your bed frame would need to provide that missing support instead. Without a bed frame or box spring to support it, you will find your mattress sagging and dipping between the bed rails. If your bed slats are too far apart, this can be really uncomfortable and unsafe to sleep on. The best bed frame to use without a box spring is a platform bed or similar. Your bed frame would need to have a solid foundation for the mattress to sit on or slats with very small (3″ or smaller) gaps between them.

Can you use a box spring on a bed that has wooden slats?

Yes, you can use a box spring on a bed that has wooden slats. Box springs are used to provide support to the mattress and to add height to a bed. Beds with wooden slats and platform beds are great for using with a box spring. If your bed frame has larger gaps between the slats, then using a box spring becomes more than optional. Using a box spring mattress on a bed frame with large gaps between the slats keeps the mattress from dipping between the slats.

Why would you want to hide a box spring?

We don’t always get to pick what our box spring looks like. It may clash horribly with the decor of your bedroom. If your box spring mattress is anything like mine, then it is a super ugly box spring mattress. Words cannot express how truly ugly the design on my box spring is. Hiding an ugly box spring mattress is something easy you can do to improve how your bedroom looks. Even if your box spring mattress is not super ugly, it might not match your bedroom decor and blankets. With a few minutes of effort your box spring can be either hidden away or made to blend into the rest of your bedroom decor. Covering a box spring is a easy way to improve the look of your whole bedroom.

Covering a box spring also helps to protect it. Having a cover over the box spring can keep the box spring from collecting dust and other allergens like pet dander and dust mites. Since dust mites are known to cause allergic reactions and asthma attacks in some individuals, keeping your box spring clean is important. The longer you can keep it clean, the longer it will last. Speaking of keeping it clean, using a box spring cover will also help protect your box spring from spills and accidents. It is much easier to remove and wash a box spring cover or bed skirt than it is to try to clean a box spring.

Do you have to cover your box spring?

No, you do not have to cover a box spring. Covering a box spring is mostly decorative. If you have a super ugly box spring like mine that wouldn’t match with anything – then you may want to cover your box spring. However, they work just as well uncovered. The only functional benefit of covering a box spring mattress is helping to keep it clean. Adding a cover over a box spring mattress allows you to easily remove the cover if something spills on it for easy cleanup. So covering a box spring mattress mostly just makes them more visually appealing.

How do you cover a box spring without a bed skirt?

You can cover a box spring without a bed skirt in a couple of different ways. A couple of great alternatives to bed skirts are the quick and easy way to hide a box spring or to buy a box spring cover. Both of these methods would hide your box spring quickly without using a bed skirt. With the quick and easy way, you might even already have the materials needed to cover your box spring. Purchasing a box spring cover might be easier to do if you have difficulty lifting your mattress and box spring mattress.

How to hide a box spring – the quick and easy way

So, how do you hide a box spring mattress fast, with things you have on hand already? I’ll admit, finding this neat trick to hide my box spring fast took longer than I want to say. Once you figure it out, you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it sooner. If you are looking to match a comforter or sheets with a pattern, then this is the best way to cover your box spring mattress.

Supplies to cover a box spring fast:

• fitted sheet
• someone to lift the mattress and box spring

To hide your box spring fast, you’ll need a box spring and a fitted sheet and someone to lift the mattress and box spring. That’s it. That’s all the supplies you need. I bet you can even guess what we’re going to do with it. If you don’t have a fitted sheet, Amazon has you covered. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just something that’ll cover the spring mattress and match your room’s colors. If your box spring is super dark or has a pattern on it, you might want to choose a darker fitted sheet to make sure that the box spring material doesn’t show through.

To start, you take your box spring mattress. You’ll be using the fitted sheet as a box spring cover. You will want to make sure that the fitted sheet for your box spring is the right size. If your box spring matches your mattress, just use the mattress size for fitted sheet. Just stuff the fitted sheet on the box spring mattress. I personally stuffed mine on upside-down so that the sheet covered the bottom. But that’s because my cats are jerks and would tear the bottom open then climb inside the mattress and run around. Usually when I was sleeping.

Hiding a box spring mattress fast is really that simple. You can change out the fitted sheet whenever you want, or just leave it on there forever. No more ugly box spring mattress. Covering your box spring really does improve the look of your whole room. Using a fitted sheet to cover a box spring is a great bed skirt alternative. You can use an existing fitted sheet that you have instead of having to buy a new bed skirt or cover. If your sheets or covers have a print on them, using a fitted sheet lets you match the pattern used in your sheets or covers.

How to hide a box spring mattress – bed skirts, box spring covers, and box spring encasement

There are a couple of other ways that you can hide a box spring mattress easily, but both will probably cost more than your fitted sheet that you probably already have. Even if you don’t have a fitted sheet, buying a new one is about $7 on Amazon, whereas buying a bed skirt or box spring cover is more. That said, maybe the bed skirt or box spring cover look is what you need. In that case, read on.

Bed Skirts

Bed skirts are just about exactly what they sound like. Skirts of fabric for going around your bed. There are a couple of different designs of these. The two main designs are wrap around and between the mattress. Then there are multiple different fabric and gathering styles.

A wrap around bed skirt literally wraps around your bed. You don’t have to worry about lifting or shifting the mattress to install this. It can be less secure since it’s not actually anchored between the mattress and box spring. If you’re not able to lift your mattress then this is the type of bed skirt for you. Using a bed skirt that wraps around like this makes it really easy to change out your bed skirt for a different bed skirt if you decide to change your room decor.

A between the mattress bed skirt is one that has the skirt part attached to a large flat piece of fabric – like a flat sheet. This large piece of fabric is designed to go between the mattress and the box spring, with the skirt hanging out. Having the bed skirt anchored between the mattress and the box spring like this helps to keep it in position and stable. They can still shift though, so it’s not a perfect solution.

Bed skirts can drape down below your box spring mattress and to the floor. Bed skirts can be used to hide the bottom part of your bed frame when you use them. Ruffled bed skirts in particular are good for hiding slimmer bed frames like metal bed frames. Another great thing about bed skirts is that since they are draping to the floor, you can use them to hide things that you store under your bed. This way your bed maintains a clean appearance no matter how much you have stored under it. No more boxes visible from the sides of the bed!

Box Spring Covers

A box spring cover is a piece of fabric that wraps around your box spring to cover it. These are also known as a box spring wrap, because they wrap around the box spring. Box spring covers give a look very similar to the fitted sheet look above. There are a couple of differences between using a box spring cover and a fitted sheet though. The biggest difference is that the box spring cover doesn’t have the flat part of the sheet in the middle. This can be super nice if you are not able to lift your mattress and box spring to install it. You can simple ‘walk’ the box spring cover down the sides of your mattress to the box spring until it is installed how you need it. This isn’t something you can do with a fitted sheet. You would *have* to move the mattress out of the way to install a fitted sheet on your box spring. Generally, a box spring cover is going to cost more than using fitted sheets to cover your box spring. But the ease of installing can definitely make up for it.

If you are wanting to cover a box spring on a sleigh bed or similar bed where you don’t want a bed skirt, you would use a box spring cover. Since the box spring cover is just wrapped around the box spring it would not extend and hide the bed frame.

Box Spring Encasement

Box spring encasement is something to consider to protect your box spring mattress from bugs. There are quite a few bugs that would be too willing to chow down on your box spring and eat the various fibers and materials that make it. Carpet beetles are one of the biggest culprits, but mattress encasement can also protect your box spring from bed bugs. Encasing your box spring prevents these bugs from being able to reach your box spring mattress. This way they won’t be eating and living in your box spring and leaving behind feces, dead bugs, and more gross things. My box spring mattresses all have one of these mattress encasements on them to help protect them and keep them bug free.

Even better, you can use the mattress encasement with a box spring cover or bed skirt. So you can both protect your box spring cover and keep it bug free while having your box spring hidden or color coordinated with your bedroom decor.

What’s the Best Way to Hide a Box Spring?

Now that you have all of these options for hiding your box spring, you might be stuck wondering which way is the best way to hide your box spring. Most of the methods above are equally great for hiding your box spring. However, the one thing we recommend above all of the other methods is to encase your box spring. This protects your box spring from bugs, protects you from sleeping on bug waste, and generally leads to better sleep.

The #1 thing we recommend to hide a box spring – encase it.

Once your box spring is encased and protected, you can use any of the methods above to hide it. It’s very nice that you can use encasement with hiding your box spring, that way it is both protected and stylish. In a nutshell though, these are the methods we recommend for hiding your box spring and when to use them.

1. Encase your Box Spring! Then:
2. Use a Bed Skirt – great to hide things under the bed
3. Use a Box Spring Cover – sleek and minimal look
4. Use a Wrap Around Bed Skirt or Cover – you don’t have to move the mattress
5. Use the DIY Method – perfect if you have the materials already

Use a Bed Skirt

This method is great if you want your box spring cover to extend past your bed frame. You can use this method to hide any boxes or items you have stored underneath your bed. This is a very common approach to hiding a box spring.

Use a Box Spring Cover

Using a box spring cover gives a sleek and minimal appearance to your box spring. When it’s on, it allows your box spring to look like it was “always that way”. You can use this to either hide attention to the box spring, by picking a wrap that blends into the mattress or the bed frame.

Use a Wrap Around Bed Skirt or Cover

Wrap around bed skirts or box spring covers are great if you do not want to lift your mattress. Let’s face it, mattresses are big, heavy, and awkward to move. Not being able to or not wanting to move your mattress should not prevent you from being able to hide your box spring. Using a wrap around style of a bed skirt or box spring cover will allow you to hide it without having to shift your mattress.

Use the DIY Method

This method is great if you already have the materials needed. It also is great if you want your box spring to match your mattress exactly, but are having a hard time finding fabric that matches.

In Summary

Having box spring covers is a great way to make your bedroom feel more put together and cohesive. No more clashing, ugly box spring sticking out in your bedroom decor. You can make your box spring match your bedroom colors. This is an easy DIY home improvement project that can be done using fitted sheets, or actual box spring covers.

Related Posts

• Interested in a mattress protector now that you have your box spring covered? Check out our review of the SafeRest mattress protector, it’s our favorite!
• Looking to elevate your master bathroom? Check out this post about how to make a spa like master bathroom.