Quite a few years ago I had a person that was vacationing from San Francsico come into my store in Santa Monica, looking for antique iron beds. She mentioned wanting something that had a design of 
waves, or something with a fluid design. At the time I had close to 500 or more iron beds. Many of them had fluid lines.
She took her time looking through the stacks and stacks of Victorian and Art Nouveau beds I had. After a couple hours she had narrowed her search down to a “short list” of about 4 scrolled beds. I gave her a little “up close and personal” description of the ones on her “short list” and the qualities that made one bed better than another.
Not long after my tutorial, she decided on one that had a relatively low head board. I mentioned we raise nearly 50% of all the beds we sell and that I’d be happy to do it to hers. Today’s thick pillow top mattresses and large European Shams tend to hide low headboards. She assured me she wasn’t going to use a box spring and planned on using a plywood foundations to support her mattress. She said she also didn’t use European shams and tended to lay her pillows flat.
Having said earlier that she had always wanted an old bed, specifically one of our beds, I was curious why she didn’t seem to want to dress the bed in the same manner most of my customers do. That was when she enlightened me as to the setting her bed would have.
She was recently divorced and this was her first place apart from her husband. They had sold their mutually owned home in Sausalito Ca. and she bought a little house boat that was moored in San Francisco harbor. She’d always wanted an old bed, but her husband had not been of the same mind and consequently had never got one. This bed was a new beginning of a new chapter in her life and was quite symbolic of her new start.
She decided on an antique faux’ finish we specialize and asked that we do the castings in a sea-foam greenish blue color.
Needless to say, knowing how special this bed was to her, we did everything we could to make it a real show piece. After it was delivered I received a call telling me how happy she was with all our efforts and that her iron bed had far exceeded her expectations. It far exceeded mine also in that she has referred over half a dozen people who also live in her house boat neighborhood and have sine purchased iron beds from me.
