This is a “before & after” photo of a bed I had converted to king and canopy for some very close friends of ours. As you can see in the photo the castings are very large and nicely detailed. This bed itself lent it self, from a style standpoint, to nicely being converted to a…
The majority of the antique iron beds that were being made back in the early to mid 1800’s were Victorian style designs with beautiful open scrolls and smooth curved lines. So to come across a unique style bed that was made at the same time, but looked as though it was a bed that had…
Many years ago I was setting in my store in Santa Monica, when a long stretch limousine pulled up out front and double parked in the slow lane. Some might think this an unusual occurrence, but being in a well to do section of Los Angeles, something like this was quite common place. But what…
A French Curve is the outer side pole of an antique iron bed that curves out beyond the normal double width of the bed. Most iron beds from the early to mid 1800’s measured approximately 53″ to 54″ wide. I’ve actually had some that had the “French Curve” sides that measured as much as 60″…
In 1995 I was approached by a publicist who had asked me to select an iron bed for a photo shot on the beach for her client, who had just been nominated for and Academy Award. She had wanted the bed to have a white chipped finish, because her client was going to be wearing…
Back in late 1984 I had just opened a new store on Montana Ave in Santa Monica. At the time it was a sleepy little street with not much foot traffic. I had started advertising in local papers and a set directors directory that was distributed to all the studios , film companies and set…
Many years ago I went against my better judgment and allowed a client to talk me into converting a very thin gauge antique iron bed into a modern king size. Because additional tubing needs to be welded into the width of the interior design, the tubing going across the top of the bed should always…
Close to thirty years ago I was just getting started in the iron bed business. At that time I was living Washington DC, going to school at George Washington Univ. and doing all my antique buying within a comfortable “one days” drive throughout Pennsylvania, W. Virginia, and Ohio and a little in Maryland and Virginia.…
This one has a rather colorful past, if we’re to believe the “picker” we got it from. He canvases the New Orleans area and said that it came out of the red light district over 175 years ago, and had been handed down through the family of the madam that supposedly owned and operated the…
So why, you ask, would anyone in there right mind paint an antique iron bed “barn red”. Over the years of dealing in iron beds I’ve come across “hundreds” of them that had been painted a very distinctive “barn red”. But then I’ve also come across a number or iron beds that were painted white,…