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 be a minimum of 1″ thick wall pipe. This enables the additional width to be solid and free from any flex or movement. I always explain this to my clients and actually won’t show them iron beds that aren’t the correct size for conversion. But in this instance the pleading customer had seen a iron bed in my inventory, she’d fallen in love with, that was only 3/8″ solid rod across the top. This gauge has a certain degree of flex to it, and when expanded that flex is exasperated even more. Because I’ve being doing this, I know the pit falls of converting an antique iron bed that’s too thin. But as the line goes “…..the customer is always right”. So I gave my cautionary speech concerning the “flex” and tubing size………to no avail.
Visually, the bed turned out beautifully and I was assured my client had no intentions of setting up in their converted iron bed or stacking pillows against the headboard to watch TV or read. They had just wanted the look. To that end, the conversion was a success.
Flash forward close to 20 years………
I had gotten married to the most beautiful woman in the world and we were blessed with the two most beautiful daughters a couple could ever hope for. Business had gone well over the years and we found ourselves living on the coast of California just north of beautiful Malibu. My wife had become a real estate agent in Malibu and one weekend was setting on an Open House on Malibu Road, a very upscale address in Malibu right on the ocean. As is the case, I usually visit her and bring her some coffee from Starbucks, midway through the day. She was with a client when I got there so I gave myself a tour of the beautiful home. In the master bedroom, much to my surprise, was the thin gauge iron bed I’d converted to king size some 20 years before. As you can see, there are pillows propped up against the headboard. Later my wife informed me the owner of the house, my old client, commented on how much he and his wife loved to watch the sunset in the evening in bed and look out at the ocean.
Guess this was one thin gauge iron bed conversion that had made everyone happy.
