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…

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…

Multiple Paint Layers on Your Iron Bed

How is it that original old antique iron beds often have as many as a dozen or more layers of paint on them? In the early 1800’s iron beds came from the manufacturer with a good strong coating of lead base paint. As the bed went through normal use, after a few years, it would…

Sandblasted Details

The iron bed in this photo was covered with layer upon layer of old lead base paint before it was sandblasted and readied for restoration and paint. It’s often difficult, if not impossible to really see what detailing is under all the 150 to 200 years of paint, until they are sandblasted off. The beauty…

Popular Oldies Being Reproduced

Over the years I’ve sold well over a hundred iron beds that different manufacturers have ended up reproducing. Sometimes that reproducing occurred here in this country. But most often it took place in China, Taiwan or Spain. All centers of low price labor. But few beds have ever experienced the popularity as the one in…

An Antique Iron Beds Best Friend is Sandblasting

I’ve lost track of the countless times a prospective customer has said to me, after I’ve showed them the custom antique faux’ finishes we specialize in, ” oh…. I’d only want an iron bed in it’s original condition”. First of all it automatically lets me know what little this person really knows about the restoration…