The Country Cottage Iron Bed

Cottages have always been a great venue for our antique iron beds. Because cottages are usually smaller with bedrooms equally as small, iron beds have been a  popular way to bring attention to the bed without making an already small room look more diminutive. Many of the decorators I’ve dealt with, that specialize in country…

The Bowed Footboard Bed

Why would an  bed designer, design a  bed with a bowed or curved footboard? Many people feel it’s just something to set one  manufacturer apart for another. Something to make straight line beds a little different from the rest. But there actually is a practical reason for  “bowed footboard” iron beds. Both of the reasons…

Refinishing Your Iron Bed In Sandblasted Pewter

Occasionally I’ll get a person who loves antique iron beds, but doesn’t want an antique   finish. There are many people that want a new modern clean look, almost industrial in nature. As I’ve mentioned many times, the beauty of a metal bed is in the castings the foundry designed back in the 1800’s and…

Iron Bed Refinishing Finish Number 1 Black Smyth

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…

Refinishing Finish Number 2 Two Tone Crackle

Iron 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…

Character and a Past

From 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…

Iron Beds and Copper Pots………

Over 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,…

A Bed for “Extreme Home Makeover”

One 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…

Matching Twins Canopy Style

Every 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.…

Tubing Size Important

So 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…