My neighbor nnK spotted this headboard at the curb with a ‘free’ sign on it sometime last summer.

She came and picked me up, and we went back for it (she couldn’t load it by herself).

I had initially hoped that my handyman Ken would be willing to turn it into a bench for me, but he wasn’t up for it this time around.  If there had been a matching footboard to cut in half and use to create the arms, he would have done it.  But without the footboard, he just didn’t want to tackle the project.

So, it sat in my carriage house all fall, and winter, and spring … and I finally pulled it out to get started on it the other day.

At first I was planning to just simply paint it black.  After all, I’ve done a couple of these spoon carved beds in the past in black …

and they were pretty quick sales.

But before I could get started painting it, I needed to sand it.  It had a lot of flaking varnish and I needed to get rid of that first.

As I was sanding it, I seriously considered doing a ‘raw wood’ sort of finish on it.  It really would have been pretty fab with the finish stripped and then a coat of clear wax.  But honestly, I just couldn’t make myself do it.  I’m not a fan of stripping, and after sanding on it for quite some time, I realized it would require the use of a stripper to get all of those spoon carved details clean.

In the end, what I really wanted to do was paint it in Drop Cloth and add I.O.D.’s The Botanist transfer to it.  I was hesitating because I just don’t know if it will sell this way.  But I decided to just go for it.

After cleaning up the dust from sanding it, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. first.  I have definitely learned over the years that it’s so much easier to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to bleed-thru.

Next up, two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

After that had dried for several days (while I painted the back of the house), I applied the transfer.

Isn’t that just pretty as a picture.  So sweet.

Maybe too sweet for some?  That’s what I’m worried about.

But I love it.

After the transfer was in place, I sanded lightly to distress this piece and then finished it with a coat of clear wax.

The transfer may seem like it’s placed too high on the headboard in my photos, but I think once you’ve got a box spring and mattress in front of it, with a nice stack of fluffy pillows, it will be just right.  And your pillows won’t hide the design.

Sidebar comment; just check out the tatting on that pillowcase.

Can you imagine how long it took to do that?

OK, back to the bed.  In case it’s not apparent in the photos so far, I should point out that this headboard is TALL at 6′.  It will definitely make a statement in any room.

As I’ve mentioned a few times before here on the blog, antique beds don’t come in sizes larger than a full.  They didn’t start making queens and kings until after WWII, and they didn’t become popular until the late 50’s to early 60’s.

So this headboard is technically for a full (or double) sized bed.  However, I’ve modified it to also fit a queen mattress.  We did this with our own bed, and it works out great.  You can find all of those details here.

But basically, with Ken’s help I’ve added a 60″ board along the bottom of the headboard.  It is pre-drilled so that one can bolt the metal frame to the board using the brackets on the metal frame.

The metal frame (that will be included with the bed) can be adjusted for a queen, full or twin sized box spring and mattress.

One could easily switch this back to a double sized bed by removing the board (it’s held on with screws) and bolting the metal frame right to the legs of the headboard.  You could also technically turn this into a twin bed by drilling new holes into that board, but I don’t think it would look quite right with so much ‘extra’ headboard.

When it comes to selling these antique beds, I’m always asked “is it sturdy?”  Well, in this case all of the weight of the box spring, mattress and sleeping people is carried by that modern metal frame.  The headboard is purely decorative.  Attaching it to the metal frame will allow it to stand up, but it won’t completely eliminate any wobble.  For example, if one were to be jumping on the bed (or, um, well, you know what I mean), it will make that headboard bounce.  But it shouldn’t come crashing down or anything, unless you’re some kind of a gymnast, and then all bets are off.

I always try to read the wording on transfers like this one, just to make sure they don’t say anything odd.

I had to laugh when I got to the part about descriptions that were ‘intended to convey both moral and intellectual gratification’.  I’m really wondering what the moral implications of ornamental plants might be.

I don’t know about moral or intellectual, but I definitely got a lot of some kind of gratification out of making over this curbside find.

Not bad for free at the curb, right?

This bed is for sale, so be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page if interested in the details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the B.O.S.S. and the paint used for this makeover.