Trash to Treasure Bed

The weather here is seriously cray cray. For reals.  If we are not snowed/iced in, we have dreary,cold, cloudy, wet days.

Need. Light. Therapy.

During one really cold, wet day I spied not one, but two, bed frames in my neighbors trash. A full size bed and a king size.

SCORE! Visualize me doing a huge happy dance!

I called a friend and neighbor, Laura, and bribed begged her to help me go dumpster diving and haul the beds to my house.  I guess this full size bed is literally a trash to treasure bed!

My first thought with this bed was that I would just restore it, rather than paint it. Then I got a better look at it.

The feet had been broken and glued back together – and not in a good way! The veneer had crazed. Lots of scratches. Someone had put poly on top of the original finish and there were runs and clumps of poly. In a nut shell? It would take a miracle and many, many hours to restore this bed to it’s original state. It was clear that it would be a better painted bed, rather than trying to refinish it.

 Furniture really does tell you how to paint it if you listen. The detail on this bed cried out to be more ” masculine”. I gave it a couple of coats of Maison Blanche Hurricane. Which is kind of a “greige” color. ( Who thinks of these color names?)  Hurricane is a great neutral that will go with just about any color.

I love the detail on this bed, but painted all one color you did even see it.  I painted the raised bands white so that the detail would stand out.

I also wanted this bed to look old. Really, really old. You know, like it was hundreds of years old, a little dirty, with that smooth, worn patina that comes with age. To get that look I gave it a good coat of Annie Sloan clear wax, followed by AS dark wax.

Here is the finished bed.

Looks old? YES!

Look masculine? YES!

Time worn, smooth patina? YES! YES! YES!

I truly love giving furniture a new life! This piece is going up for sale sadly – no room here at the castle. If you are interested, check out the SHOP page here on the website for more information.

Until next time….

              Tammy