Decorating Green With Antiques
Antique iron beds have become one of the most popular items being used by green decorators today. There are no better sustainable items than antique furniture.
DetailsMetal Beds vs All Brass Beds
Back in the early 1800’s the more affluent people in this country sought out the beauty of shinny brass beds.
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British Canopy Beds
They are unmistakable. Their construction is very standardized. Yet the metal beds being made in England in the 1800’s all have the same problem …… instability. Why? Because there are way too many connecting points, where iron tubing is joined to brass tubing or iron rods are connected to iron tubingand those connections are problematic…
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Impersonation Is The Highest Form Of Flattery : Reproduction of Originals
It is said there is no great form of flattery than to impersonate someone. When it comes to original “antiques” and “reproductions”, it couldn’t be more true. You can count on the rarity and popularity of original antique iron beds, by the number of companies that are reproducing them. You can also tell which beds…
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The Romance of Antique Beds
The vehicle that is bringing you this information has done more to better the world, bring people together and make our lives better than any single invention since the telephone or possibly as far back as Gutenberg’s printing press. It has narrowed the gap between nations, brought us closer to a cure for countless diseases and…
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The Height of Your Antique Bed
Elevating todays mattresses on old antique beds can often pose quite a dilemma. When antique iron beds were being made back in the 1800’s, the rail system that held the mattresses off the ground was at an average of 13″. Todays Hollywood and Harvard bed frames are only 5″ off the ground. This whole issue…
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Side Rails for Your Antique Bed
I receive at least 2 emails a day from people wanting to buy side rails for their antique bed. It’s unfortunate that people aren’t aware of how vital their side rails are. If they were, more people would take care not to misplace them when they move or disassemble their beds. Because they look like…
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What Makes One Bed More Valuable Than Another?
There are a number of things that make one antique bed more valuable than another. The first thing: is the size of the tubing. To be more specific, the size tubing going across the top of the bed. Nearly 85% of all the iron beds that were made back in the 1800’s had 1″ thick…
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New Mattresses on Old Beds
To understand the possible adjustments you might need to make to your antique bed, to use your modern mattress…..You first need to understand what was being used as a mattress and springs back when these beds were at their most popular in the 1800’s. In the 1800’s there was no such thing as a mattress…
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How Did Iron Become More Popular Than Wood With Beds?
To trace the origin of the switch in popularity from one item to another , you need look no further than the price the new item was offered at. Dollars and cents always seems to be at the inception of a changing of the guard……. For the longest time wooden beds held the spotlight in…
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“The Blue Bed”
When most people think about antique iron beds, they think “white”. What most people aren’t aware of is that “white was probably the least popular color that beds were painted back in the 1800’s. “White” only became popular when “reproductions” started to help satisfy the demand for the lack of original antique beds that were…
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“Half Tester”…..What Is It and What’s It For?
A “half tester” is a form of canopy. The manner in which it differs from traditional “four poster” canopies is that it is only attached to the headboard…..not the foot-board. So why, you ask yourself, would someone want a canopy just at the headboard and not at the foot-board, where it would encompass the entire perimeter…
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What Good Are Old 3/4 Size Metal Beds?
Over the years, I’ve come across a good amount of the old 3/4 size bed frames. You might ask yourself what possible purpose did they have and their usage. A 3/4 size iron bed measures between 44″ and 49″ wide. An antique twin size measure between 38″ to approximately 41″. A Full/Double size measures right…
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Industrial “Finishes”
Although antique faux’ finishes are still the most popular we do, “Industrial” finishes, along with more modern styles have been gaining in popularity more than any other style or design. Industrial finishes include any finish that have a new “unused” look. They can be “powder coatings”, which is a type of coating that is applied as…
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Furnishing: Determining Gender & Mood Through Color
Regarding your home, color has long been used to create feelings of comfort, peace or space. Not only on interior walls, but also on furniture. Throughout history predominant colors have given us insight into a societies mores and beliefs. The Victorian Era was dominated by oppressive dark colors. Primary colors were unheard of. Iron beds were…
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What Determines a Beds Value ?
So you’re hunting for a bed….. not a “replica” or “reproduction”, and you want to know where to start. You should first know that there is no comparability between an authentic old antique iron bed and a reproduction. They are constructed very differently, the reproduction being produced with aluminum castings and thin wall tubing and the original…
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Antique Faux’ Finishes
When it comes to achieving a true rustic looking antique finish, the most important thing you can remember is “experiment”…….. There are so many variables when trying to mimic an old look, that your best bet is to give yourself a lot of time…… don’t rush it. The more samples and experiments you do, the…
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The Craftsman Era
Sometimes referred to as the Arts and Crafts movement or the American Craftsman style, this period in design history became popular toward the end of the 1800’s and continued until the 1930’s. It is probably one of the more “revived” schools of design and to this day experiences a larger share of popularity, than all…
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Refinishing Your Antique Bed Where To Start
If you bought your antique iron bed earlier than 1977, you can count on on it having been painted with lead based paint. Back in the 1800 s, when these beauties were being made, lead based paint was being used on all furniture and pretty much all iron beds of that period. Lead was added to paint to help the speed…
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Louisiana Foundries and Antique Iron Beds
Pittsburgh was the focus of steel production in this country back in the 1800’s. So if you owned a enterprise that depended on steel and iron ore, like antique iron beds, for the production of what you created, it behooved you to locate that enterprise as close to the supply of those needed materials as possible.…
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