The absolute most important thing after finally finding great old iron beds you’re happy with, is to select a custom antique faux’ finish that is really going to bring your bed to life. One of the more attractive elements to owning an antique bed is their flexibility in being able to be painted and refinishied…
“Where do you get your iron beds ?” ……… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked that question and how many ridiculous answers I’ve come up with over the past 40 years. My favorite is…….. “there’s a small town close to Three Mile Island that is a toxic waste dump. Over the…
Many people aren’t aware that iron beds that were being made back in the 1800’s were never larger than today’s double/full size. There were no queen or king sizes. But people were much smaller then and the luxury of space wasn’t a strong necessity. Although 90% of the bed market was made up with full…
Most antique iron bed casters, are worthless. Why you ask? Because they were made back in the 1800’s with no ball bearings. Iron beds are traditionally very solid and heavy, due to the poured cast iron castings and thick wall tubing that most all beds were being made with. The casters that were being made…
One of the major things that help our customers focus in on the iron beds they like is familiarizing themselves with the different styles that were available 150 to 200 years ago. In that period of time numerous different Style Classifications came and went and beds seemed to have adapted nicely with all of them.…
Why would an bed designer, design a bed with a bowed or curved footboard? Many people feel it’s just something to set one manufacturer apart for another. Something to make straight line beds a little different from the rest. But there actually is a practical reason for “bowed footboard” iron beds. Both of the reasons…
Occasionally I’ll get a person who loves antique iron beds, but doesn’t want an antique finish. There are many people that want a new modern clean look, almost industrial in nature. As I’ve mentioned many times, the beauty of a metal bed is in the castings the foundry designed back in the 1800’s and…
The photo you’re looking at is our most popular finish…….our Black Smyth. Why is it called that and how did it come about? Read on…….. One day I was in the store cataloging and arranging a new shipment or iron beds that I had just gotten in. It actually had some of the prettiest beds…
Iron beds were not just painted white back in the 1800’s. That is what most peoples concept of a bed is……..white. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Most beds had a variation of colors or accented castings. Many beds of the day were painted with two colors. Generally the perimeter was painted in a…
From the days when Lincoln was in office and Billy the Kid roamed the wild west to when two brothers named Wilbur and Orville took to the skies at Kitty Hawk, and when President Woodrow Wilson announced our entry into the 1st World war, iron beds offered people the handmade craftsmanship and quality they had…