A bedstee was a bedstead. Typically, it was a closet in the kitchen or living room where people slept. At night, the doors would be closed to contain the body heat.
The bedstead would be short, typically less than 1.50 m/5 feet, since people slept upright. Some bedsteads had a shelf for a crib, or a drawer underneath the bed where infants would be put to sleep.
You may encounter bedsteads in estate inventories. Estate inventories are typically organized by room, which will show you whether your ancestors had separate bedrooms, or if they had bedsteads in the walls of the other rooms. More well-to-do families had bedrooms for the family, while the servants slept in bedsteads in the kitchen or attic.
Room with bedsteads in a farm in Drachten, Friesland. Credits: C.S. Booms, collection Cultural Heritage Service (CC-BY-SA)
About Yvette Hoitink
I remember being in a bedstee when I had the measles as a child in a little village in Brabant. Our house had 3 of them .
Hi Yvette,
I live in an 1970’s Mennonite Street village in Neubergthal, Manitoba, Canada. The village is a national historic site. On our property is the village herdsman house ( herdsmanhouse.com) which we have restored and turned into a guest house. Two years ago someone who now lives in Canada but is originally from Friesland, got a tour of the herdsman house. The first thing he noticed was the closet, and he said it was a bedstee. I had never heard this before and thought it was a large kitchen cupboard as somewhere along the line shelves were added. Apparently the entire house looks like a Friesian house accept for the Russian bake oven.
My ancestry goes back to 1500/1600 Friesland and Flanders. As an artist and living in history, i have been documenting the handpainted floors the Mennonites also brought with them to Canada. Though the practice stopped many years ago, there are still some housebarns, and remnants of housebarns in southern Manitoba, Canada. Under layers of linoleum and carpet I fine the original hand painted floors with wonderful painted creations that often pay tribute to the garden. I have found several patterns with tulips.
I would welcome any information I can get regarding both the bedstee and apinted floors. I should add that up until the 1920s, the floors were always painted ochre.