Modifying an antique bed
At my mother’s house, much of the furniture is antique. Some pieces are family heirlooms, but most can define their provenance with, “Oh, your dad and I got that at an auction years ago when nobody wanted antiques.” Of course, by being part of our family’s home for the past forty-some years, those things have become family heirlooms too.
One of my parents’ auction finds, an iron bed that I remember from when I was very young, sat upstairs unused and unappreciated. So when it was time for Eleanor to transition from her crib to a big girl bed, I brought the bed to our house. It had been painted cream (by me, circa 1988), so I repainted it white. And I ordered a new mattress and box springs to go in it.
Sounds great, right? Sweet iron bed, lovingly repainted, handed down to the youngest daughter…
It was, until we tried to fit the box springs into the bedframe. Apparently, in the past, twin beds were a few inches wider and a smidge shorter. Even though it was a tight squeeze, we were able to fit the box springs in lengthwise. But the discrepancy in width meant that there was a gap between the box spring and the frame where a little foot could easily get caught and twisted. Clearly, without some modification, this bed was not going to work out. 
Fortunately, I have a clever and resourceful husband. He decided to take advantage of this situation and build a step for Eleanor to use to get into the bed. It is actually a pretty high bed, and, at two, her legs are rather short, so this solution served two purposes.
First, he filled in the gap with a piece of wood that covered the iron frame and the open gap. He attached this to the slats supporting the box springs.
Because of the design of the frame, it didn’t completely fill the space, so he covered that with another, thinner piece of wood wide enough to cover the edge of the bedframe.
Then, to make the step smooth and pretty, he attached a piece of trim.
This was the tricky part. We didn’t want to use nails because the trim isn’t real wood. Unlike nailing trim on a wall, where it would be stable, using it for this purpose meant that it would be rocked repeatedly by little feet. Small nails would eventually lose their grip and nails with a larger head could also work their way loose; either way, nails seemed likely to eventually snag the very feet we were trying to protect. We needed a way to allow for some give as children climb on this step. Solution? Industrial strength velcro. (I told you my husband was clever!)
We attached one side of the velcro to the wooden step and the other to the trim, aligned the pieces, and pressed them together. The velcro allows for some flexibility on the step. However, the connection is strong enough that one of the girls can’t pull the trim off and use it for pole-vaulting. (I checked.)
Now doesn’t that look safer?
Eleanor is a proud, happy and independent girl! I love that we were able to make this old bed child-friendly and that it will now be part of her memory of childhood. It’s a lovely bed with character and history. Not only do we get the intangible benefits of that, the step cost us about an hour and approximately $35–much less than any new bed, especially one this pretty!
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
