On a Whim

Sometimes "on a whim" projects are the best kind, and this one was no exception, however, it would've been a whole lot smarter if I'd chosen something a little less utilised.  A little tip - do not decide "on a whim" to paint your bed!  Unless of course you are a speed painter, have heaps of time and can paint uninterrupted and can spare more than, oh, an hour at a time to devote to it!

Our bed had bothered me for years.  I liked the overall style, and it was structurally sound being solid timber but it was stained a horrible, cheap-looking orangey colour and the timber had been badly finished off making it rough with raw edges - so rough that rubbing a hand along the frame guaranteed a splinter or two.  I often dreamt of a new bed (I also dreamt of a house in the Hamptons ...) but because new beds are generally very expensive, and in our house there is always something else to be spending our money on, I knew I had to come up with a cheaper creative solution so that I wouldn't cringe every time I walked into our room.  So, what did I decide on?


This is the only BEFORE photo I have of the glorious orange bed. Me, happily sanding away.

A facelift (no, not for me - although I could certainly use one especially the morning after I've been up half the night with my little Miss) - for the bed! I would paint it - white, like in my dreams.  So, about 2 or 3 months after our daughter was born (during that beautiful, loved-up stage when life is feeling so rosy and special that you think anything is possible and you're capable of marathon feats), I walked into our room, looked at the bed and decided right then and there that it was time.  My husband thought I was kidding but I just KNEW at that very moment I was going to do it - I was passionately determined. Out came the allen key and bit by bit I pulled the thing apart and carried it out to the garage and sanded that baby crazy.  De-orangey'ing it was reward in itself! 

This is how our bedroom looked while the frame was in the garage.  It was very plain and needed a bit of love.

I was feeding my daughter 2-3 hourly at the time so "a little bit of quiet" came infrequently but I just left the bed all set up in the garage and squirrelled away whenever I got a free moment.  It took quite a bit longer than I had originally  judged (in my post-pregnancy, blissful hormonal state) and required a primer plus 3 coats of paint on some parts of the frame (the parts that weren't going to be obviously in view only got 2 coats) and we certainly hadn't planned on sleeping on a mattress for six weeks, but the end result was so completely worth it.  Now not only does it look a hundred times better, there's not a splinter in sight ... kind of a good thing for the marital bed!


Voila!  A new bed! What do you think?  I love it.  And that's my son refusing to let me take a photo without him in it.

Side note:  I sort of knew the bed was going to look good so I gave our room a mini-makeover at the same time, buying new lamps and adding in some cute little Etsy prints from "Tastes Orangey" - which, coincidentally, is nothing like looking "orangey"!