What is it that makes Miami one of the largest iron bed markets in the United States. Well first of all “good taste”……… secondly the amount of people from the Manhattan area, or largest market, that decide to retire and move to sunny Florida. There comes a point as we grow older that we ask ourselves why I’ve spent the better part of my life in a less than perfect climate. Snow in the winter and humidity in the summer.
At any one time for the past 15 to 20 years I’ve had as many as half a dozen beds that people from Manhattan have purchased….had us refinish, then box up…..and hold until they made their move to somewhere in Florida. Not wanting to have to move the bed, when they knew they were going to eventually be in Florida made perfect sense. Plus the value of the bed continued to go up as did the prices, as availability continues to go down.
The iron beds in Miami tend to have more lighter finishes. Nothing dark like we tend to do for cabins or Victorian homes. Lots of Two Tone Crackle blues finishes and Sea foam Greens. Also lot’s of slightly distressed white finishes are high on the request chart.
It would be difficult to give any historic background to antique iron beds in Miami and all of Florida, because back when they were being made few of them migrated south from their origin in the Pittsburgh Pa region.
Yet this photo is of the McMullen-Coachman Log Cabin at Heritage Village in Largo, Florida and depicts an accurate setting from the 1800’s. So it would appear beds were making there way south back then on trains and down the coast of boats. But all manufacturing was still taking place in the north.
For more history on antique iron beds, please take a look through our website. If you find you’d like to see photo’s of our 400 bed inventory please give us a call or shot us an email and let us know what you’re looking for. Hope to be hearing from you.
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.
Cathouse Antique Iron Be#B1BE56
