Because of the size of second bedrooms in today’s homes, more and more interior designers are using multiple iron beds in the same room. The ideal thing is to find two that are alike. The second best thing is to find two beds that are similar and look good together. When similar “finishes” are applied,…
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen made when people try and refinish their own antique iron bed is to do an old antique faux’ finish and then have the brass polished up bright and new looking. If you want a new fresh paint job with no distressing or possibly a powdercoated finish…..then polishing the…
Here are two rather diverse “iron bed” advertisements. The first is of a little girl playing with her miniature doll bed. It’s not sure if this was simply a re-touched photo or actually an ” bed” ad. I’ve seen similar ads in the past that had definite script attached discussing the bed in the photo.…
This photo is of a stack of iron beds from the early 1900’s. The obvious difference between these and the metal beds from the 1800’s is the degree of ornamentation and the total lack of decorative iron castings where the metal pieces are joined. More and more metal beds started hitting the market that had…
In 1943 Berea College, in Kentucky, participates in the WWII effort by organizing a scrap metal drive. Here students stand on iron bed frames and make a victory sign with the bed rails. These beds seem to have always been viewed as a “green” item to be used for the greater good in times of…
What’s one of the major differences between original old antique iron beds and modern bed frames………height? Back in the 1800’s, iron beds were design to elevate the mattress off the ground to get away from cold drafts and also to eliminate rodents and termites that permeated wooden bed frames. As the Industrial Revolution brought to…
The headboard is the only part of the bed that has canopy extensions on it. Instead of the canopy going completely down from the head to the foot board, it curves across the width of the bed about two feet from the headboard.. The nice thing about the “half tester” is that it still has…
What was the last piece of new furniture that you bought? How long have you had it? Can you sell it for what you paid for it……stop laughing. Of course you can’t. But do you know if you’d have bought an antique iron bed…….you could. And do you know that any antique bed you…
“Lay Lady Lay…..Lay Across My Big Brass Bed”. Does this song ring a familiar note? Listen to the words. Back in the very early 70’s I had just started selling brass beds. I use to play it in my store in Georgetown , Washington DC. Iron beds had yet to come into their own and brass…
In 1971 I was going to GW in Washington DC, when the Disney movie Bednobs and Broomsticks came out. I had just start dealing in brass beds and iron beds. I can distinctly remember the day the movie was released. I started getting calls from people looking for brass beds. I wasn’t aware of it,…