Iron Beds and the Reading Nook

Here is a prime example how a little design sense,  iron beds and ingenuity can turn an otherwise wasted space into a peaceful retreat. We all have our idea of how much space is needed to set up a particular size bed. Usually we want walking space around the perimeter of the bed so it…

The Folding Victorian Bed

In the past 40 years, I come across just about every imaginable shape  bed you can think of. I can remember the first time I saw French Campaign iron beds and how fascinated I was with the practicality of it’s use when the armies of Europe went on “conquering” campaigns. But the  bed that is…

Behind the Veil a Bed Waits

Many of my customers are looking for that first “big girl” bed, for their daughters. Because most people are trying to be conservative in their selection of a bed and may have some concerns about the duration a child is going to want what they’re spending their hard earned money on, there are ways of…

Angels from Above Meet Iron from Below

Yesterday I posted a blog that showed the casting on a bed of the “Lone Star” emblem of Texas, encased in a “horse shoe”. It was right our of the wild west and a definite Texas phenom. This casting came on a bed that we found close to Chicago Illinois. Chicago had it’s share of…

Texas and Iron Beds West of the Mississippi

It’s  commonly thought that back in the early to mid-1800’s most of the iron beds that were being made were coming out of the tri-state area of Ohio, Pennsylvania and W. Virginia. So you certainly wouldn’t expect a northern foundry to be producing a bed with a western flare to it. Then how did such…

Iron Bed Hospitality Symbolism on Iron Beds

The use of “Symbolism” in the castings of iron beds was a strong continuous theme throughout the 1800’s. Small independently owned foundries made beautiful molds of floral arrangements, animals, and mythical characters as symbols, their patrons wanted in the 1800’s. One of the most popular symbols back then, that most  beds employed in some way…

Eaves an Upstairs Bedroom Dilemma? Not For Iron Beds

eaves |ēvz| plural noun the part of a roof that meets or overhangs the walls of a building. That’s what your dictionary will definite the slanted roof and where it meets the wall in that upstairs bedroom you so desperately want to decorate……but feel somewhat limited because of the low wall. Quite a few of…

Arsenic and Old Lace I mean Iron Beds and Old Lace

As some of you, and the list of those who do, gets smaller every day, remember….”Arsenic and Old Lace” was a great old comedy classic movie from 1944  staring Cary Grant. Well this blog doesn’t have a dam thing to do with that movie………. What it does have to do with is “old lace” and…