A Bed with 9 Lives

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9

Well, okay, maybe three or four lives…but who is to say how many more it will have?

My “Gramma B” is who I get my love of all things handmade, my desire to remake everything I get my hands on, and my DIY instincts from.  There are many other traits and characteristics I received from her, but for the purposes of this blog, we will leave it at that.  ;->

We sold her house a few years ago, before she died, and almost all of her belongings went to family members.  One of the items I asked for was the iron bed that lived in their spare bedroom.  I wish I had a before photo, it probably looked like this at one time:

But I’m only guessing, and going by my Mom’s description from memory.  You see, my Grandma and Grandpa lived in small farm houses, the kind with slanted ceilings and low walls on the second floor.  So, my Grandpa, being a resourceful farmer, took the ornate Victorian style iron bed and cut it down, so it would fit under the slanted ceilings.  I remember it looking something like this in my childhood, (minus the vertical rods on the foot board, as Grandpa had cut those out, too) in chipped white paint, and almost always covered with one of Grandma’s quilts:

 
It was not quite full size, but still too big for me use in any of my recent homes.  We needed a guest bed, and I really, really wanted to use my Grandma’s bed.  So…  we had a blacksmith cut it down to twin size, add the vertical supports back into the foot board, and then had it sandblasted, which brought back all it’s cast iron glory.  The bed came back to us looking like this: 
This is the bed in raw metal form.  We had to be careful about touching it without gloves on, and prime it within a few days to prevent it from corroding quickly.  My sweetie spent about two weeks meticulously priming and spraying it, until it finally looked like this:
Yes, it is red, because it is going into my sewing studio, and the accent color is red.  Painting it red was my sweetie’s idea, and I had reservations all along, in my mind it was, it is, a white iron bed. But now that it is done, and in place, I love it!

 

Bright red paint, and all.
 
Gramma B would definitely approve of the DIY project, and love the idea that this silly old bed has been given yet another life…

9 thoughts on “A Bed with 9 Lives”

  1. Your new-old bed looks adorable, Doris! I love the way you have given it a new lease of life. I bet happy memories come flooding back every time you look at it.

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  4. Oh, I love it Doris! It's so pretty. But the nostalgic aspect of it is what makes it so wonderful. You've done a beautiful thing, and should be very proud of it.

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  8. Oh I am a sucker for stories like that Doris! What a fabulous job you (and your sweetie) did….I would never have thought to cut it down to fit your new purpose…fab idea!! LOVE the red paint job! It must just make you smile everytime you look at it!

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