For close to 40 years we at Cathouse Iron Beds have been supplying the various movie studios, TV shows and production houses with the iron beds they’ve been using.
This particular bed was one we did for the movie “The Holliday” with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black. It was a romantic comedy dealing with relationships and the holiday exchange of houses in Los Angeles and London.
I had originally been asked to find a very romantic scrolled bed, by a production assistant. Which I did. But after the set designers took a look at them, they realized a much more subdued “flat top” bed with some modest interior design , would be more appropriate for the setting. The setting for the bed ,was a country cottage, which as you may know is a specialty of interior designers in this country and one we cater to. Had I originally known the part of the story that the bed was in would be a cottage interior, especially a small one supposedly in the English country side, I’d have never suggested fancy scrolled beds.
After looking at the first series of bed photo’s I had sent the production assistant, the producers had decided “simpler was better”.
I then sent a ton of “flat top” bed photo’s. I had been told there were two wooden beams the iron headboard would be in front of and that they didn’t want a bed with large 2″ diameter tubing for fear of taking away for the charming beams. That slightly narrowed down the selection I sent them. The majority of beds made back in the 1800’s were 1″ tubing anyway. After seeing the second set of bed photo’s, they came back to me with a short list of three beds. The two beds they didn’t select had much more detailed castings. Which the producers were concerned might be to prominent for the close-ups.
I was very pleased with the amount of time our bed had on the screen. Many of the antique iron beds that I’ve supplied the studios with get very little time on screen. Surprisingly , after a movie comes out that has had one of them prominently displayed, we see a considerable increase in phone calls and people interested in finding beds like the one they may have seen in the movie.
Unfortunately……after one of our beds is used in a movie, it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see another one like it. So the calls we receive from people that may have seen one of our beds can be very frustrating for the customer until they realize the unique nature of them ……. as oppose to reproductions that can be ordered at will.
I hope you’ve found this blog informative . I invite you to revisit my website
www.cathousebeds.com
to answer any and all questions you might have about antique iron beds.
I also invite you to take a look at the multiple “Before & After” photo’s on our company Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/ – %21/pages/Cathouse-Antique-Iron-Beds/126838177398
