The photo you’re looking at is our most popular finish…….our Black Smyth. Why is it called that and how did it come about? Read on…….. One day I was in the store cataloging and arranging a new shipment or iron beds that I had just gotten in. It actually had some of the prettiest beds…
DetailsIron beds were not just painted white back in the 1800’s. That is what most peoples concept of a bed is……..white. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Most beds had a variation of colors or accented castings. Many beds of the day were painted with two colors. Generally the perimeter was painted in a…
DetailsFrom the days when Lincoln was in office and Billy the Kid roamed the wild west to when two brothers named Wilbur and Orville took to the skies at Kitty Hawk, and when President Woodrow Wilson announced our entry into the 1st World war, iron beds offered people the handmade craftsmanship and quality they had…
DetailsOver the years I’ve had customer want me to do finishes on the iron beds they’ve gotten from me, around everything under the sun. I’ve had child’s parents send me comic books with colors circled that their child wanted their bed painted like. I’ve had the Ralph Lauren Co. send me material swatches, paint chips,…
DetailsOne of the more enjoyable things I’ve had the privilege to be a part of in my business, was being able to do a bed for a needy family on Extreme Home Makeover TV series. All of the items used on the show are donated. Donating antique iron beds for silent auctions or causes isn’t…
DetailsEvery little “princess” wants a canopy bed. Some of the best advertising I ever had were the matching set of iron beds in this photo that we had given to my daughter. On sleep overs, her friends were always anxious to ask their parents if they could also get a fancy bed for their room.…
DetailsSo why is it important to be concerned with the tubing size of your bed? Don’t all iron beds have the same size tubing? Absolutely not. The stability and rigidity of a bed is determined by the size of tubing the manufacturer used back in the 1800’s when they were the most popular beds being…
DetailsSo what could iron beds and the Statue of Liberty have in common? Well …..take a look at the casting that I had on the corners of one I had. I’ve actually had numerous metal beds with variations of this casting. Recognize it???? It’s a “torch” . The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical…
DetailsFew castings that I’ve seen over the years have been as distinctive and detailed as the one in this photo. As far as iron beds go, this one was not really spectacular. But I’d say it was easily in the top third of the best ones I’ve had . The thing that set this bed…
DetailsA iron sleigh bed is a style of bed with curved or scrolled foot and headboards thus resembling a sled or sleigh. Often made with a top bar of brass and quite heavy, the sleigh bed is a result of the French and American Empire period of the early 19th century. The Empire style…
DetailsTake a look at this bed. Is it a bed you’d stop and look at if it was disassembled in an antique store? Probably not. But after seeing how attractive a simple one , like this can be…….once assembled and dressed properly, it may give rise to a whole new set of design possibilities. The setting…
DetailsMany people think iron beds are simply that……. iron tubing that is sometimes scrolled or curved to give a pleasant design to it. What most people don’t know is how intricate the “castings’ on an iron bed can be. True most iron beds don’t have the detailed castings in this photo. But all iron beds…
DetailsAs I’ve mentioned in the past……most of my patrons I have for my iron beds are women. That was also the case back in the 1800’s. Society was much more chauvinistic back then and beds and the selection of them for the house was not something most men involved themselves in. So selection was left…
DetailsHere’s a sweet little twin size iron beds, I’d originally sold the parents of a young girl over 10 years ago. Just recently it was returned to me and I was asked to convert it to a daybed for the, now grown up, little girl that had grown up in it. She now is using…
DetailsThe thought around canopy iron beds is that they are feminine and only for little girls rooms. This couldn’t be farther from reality. Here is an bed I did for a physical trainer, who was about as masculine as they come. He specifically wanted a 2″ diameter bed that we could convert to king and…
DetailsAlthough the “art panel” iron beds that were being made back in the early 1800’s, certainly not the Deco period of the 1920’s and 30’s, definitely had a Deco feel to them. Take a look at this photo of a bed that was made in 1820. You would think with these more modern lines like…
DetailsHere is an Art Panel bed that was found in the Pittsburgh PA area. Iron beds didn’t usually filter too far west of the Mississippi back in the 1800’s. Shipping a heavy metal bed back then was much more of an ordeal than it is today, before trains and truck’s were able to bring them…
DetailsMost of the traffic I get for my iron beds comes to me from customers doing a Google Search . There are hundreds of different search terms that can obviously help find an iron bed. Some of those search terms are antique iron beds, antique iron bed,rustic iron bed, discount iron bed, metal beds, iron…
DetailsOne of the funnier vintage photo’s Ive come across over the years is this “play bill” or advertisement. It has to do with a comedian who converted an iron bed into a two wheel bike. From his dress, “bowler hat” and the particular straight line metal bed he used, I’d say this photo was from…
DetailsWhen considering a bed for a child’s room…….keep this in mind. The bed you select doesn’t have to be the fanciest you can find. It can be the simplest and still give you a great look. In this photo you can get a feel for how busy a child’s room can be and how out…
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