What, you ask is “gendered iron beds“…….. Quite simply it means taking any antique 
iron bed and establishing it’s gender by the “finish” you apply.
It’s actually quite simple. You can take a beautifully scrolled Victorian or Art Nouveau bed that has soft flowing feminine curves and design……. and make it look masculine. Maybe not Attila The Hun masculine…..but much more so, simply by the finish. If you’re going for a more masculine look, you’ll obviously want to choose from warm dark colors. Old iron finishes are great for bringing a more feminine design back toward the masculine side.
Now the opposite is obviously what you’re going to want to do if you have a dark colored finish and you want to use the bed in a more feminine setting. White’s…… and every and any variation of white, off white, crackle white, distressed or chipped whites. They all will make a bed appear more feminine. Especially if the bed you’re working with is a straight line masculine bed to start out with. Many Craftsman style, Austere and Tailored style beds will automatically have a masculine look to them. Beds with larger tubing and large massive castings are also going to be looked upon most of the time as being too masculine for a feminine setting. That’s not necessarily the case. Soft pastels can also turn a big beefy masculine bed into something you’d be very happy with in a young girls room.
The other thing that’s going to help you in establishing a beds gender, is the way you dress it.
Beautiful “punch-board” eyelet dust ruffles and lots of ruffled pillow shams are not going to be the direction you’re going to want to take if a masculine look is in your plans. Tailored dust ruffle, solid colors and tailored pipping is more in keeping with a masculine look. Dark plaids
I hope you’ve found this blog informative . I invite you to revisit my website
to answer any and all questions you might have about antique iron beds.
I also invite you to take a look at our company Face Book page for multiple photo albums on Custom Finishes, Canopy Conversions and a comprehensive “Before & After” King Conversions album.
