It’s been a while since I’ve painted a piece of furniture, hasn’t it?
Zoe, bless her heart, is still sleeping in her crib, which is converted to a toddler bed. She still fits, but it won’t be long before she’s really too tall.
I’ve been meaning to get a bed for her for a while, but what made me think of it this week was, oddly enough, a sale email from Pottery Barn. The first sale item was a lovely, white twin bed, and it was on sale for $399.
Heh.
I don’t mind paying for high-quality stuff if it’ll last for a long time, but I hopped on Pottery Barn’s website and discovered that $399 doesn’t even get you a solid wood bed.
So, I decided to poke around and see what I could find on the second-hand market. Lo and behold, I found one affordable twin bed listing, and it wasn’t even that far from my house.
Excellent.
For a mere $50, I got a twin bed frame, and it’s the kind that has drawers underneath the bed. I am SO excited about this part. Yay for storage!
The bed is mostly made of solid wood, and it’s in pretty decent shape.
Oh, and a matching nightstand came with it too. I’m not sure if I’ll use it or resell it, since Zoe already has a nightstand. Her room isn’t enormous, so I’ll just have to see how everything fits in there and then decide.
The bed is perfectly usable as-is, but Zoe’s current dresser is a Freecycle find that I painted white and I’d kind of like all of her bedroom furniture to match.
(This post has a before and after picture of the dresser.)
Anyway, I’m going to paint the bed and drawers white.
I’ll be using the method I outlined in my post about how to paint wooden furniture, and I’ll need to buy some sandpaper for my orbital sander, some spray primer, and a can of the Painter’s Touch paint that I love so dearly.
I’ll also need to shop for a box spring and mattress, since the toddler mattress is obviously not going to work anymore.
And I think we’re going to sell the Ikea chair that’s in Zoe’s room, since her new bed is going to take up a lot more square footage.
So, there’s lots on my to-do list before Zoe can sleep in her new bed. Hopefully I can get this done in a week’s time or thereabouts…I want to hurry and finish before the weather is miserable for painting.
Of course, I’ll share pictures when I’m done.
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Lisey and I baked a recipe. And then we discovered we didn’t really like it. Read more over on Lisey’s blog!
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Today’s 365 post: Our daily bread
Joshua’s 365 post: One more!
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Our four-year-old daughter recently moved into a full-sized bed. Her room is tiny, and up to this point, we’ve only used it as a nursery, so didn’t know if we could even fit a full-sized bed in. Her needing a bed timed out with my in-laws getting rid of my sister-in-law’s childhood bed and dresser, and they fit *perfectly* in the space. It was serendipitous — and free. I can’t wait to see the bed painted. Maybe it’ll be inspiration to finish the two half-painted projects lingering in my garage.
I have 2 bookshelves that I got at a yard sale 3 weeks ago for $35 and they are sitting in my garage waiting for me to paint them….I didn’t think about the weather getting miserable to paint! I have been sick with breathing problems the past 2 weeks and used that as the excuse why I can’t paint them…maybe I better get on that project real soon, maybe today. It is a lot of standing and I only have a smaller Korner Kat for sanding.
I can’t wait to see how it comes out! I have a piece of furniture that is made of the same type of wood and I’d love to paint it. I’ve read your instructions for painting furniture and I think I can do it…
My small home is full now, yet I love furniture projects. I’ll just have to live vicariously through you! Can’t wait to see the final results.
Personally I love wood furniture so it seems a shame to me to paint that white, but that is just my taste.
Also you have some very annoying ads with sound on them on your website today. I had to mute my computer.
Well, nuts. I try to opt out of those whenever possible. Could you tell me which ads are making noise so that I can check into it?
They were talking about Lysol when I hit the mute button.
Very nice project indeed. I want to add that in one of your photos you showed an Ikea Poang chair–we have just bought two, on a first trip ever to Ikea, and they are soooo comfortable. At $69 each which includes the cushion sets they have to be one of the best bargains around.
Now I’m off to bake your white bread with cornmeal recipe. I’ve passed several of your baking recipes on to my sister in England. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but this 71 year-old disagrees!
We have a couple as well. I prefer the couch, but my husband loves them. What I love is that they are light and easy to rearrange if we need to move the furniture around for an event. And if you leave them in the box and duct tape the cushions to the top, Alaska Airlines will check them as a piece of luggage so you can get them home to the end of the road for $20! A great deal for the land of hugely expensive shipping.
Great find and what a price. I love when it all works out the way you need it. Love the beds with the drawers underneath. And you have a fun project to boot. Can’t wait to see the pics when you are done.
I agree it’s a pity to paint wood in such good shape but I can see why you’d chose to do that.
Since we’re talking about furniture deals: my elderly neighborm who recently moved to a retirement home, had a company sell her household goods. There was a full-sized Metro-type shelving w/ castors (see http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10000999&N=&Ntt=metro) I had my eye on but the company wanted $100 for it, I’d have to remove all the stuff from the shelves, it needed cleaning and one shelf was very rusty. And I didn’t, strictly speaking, need another set of high-end metal shelving. So I decided to take a risk and wait.
At the last hour of the last day, I negotiated for $25, plus a couple hours of work to get the darn thing clean. A similar setup from The Container Store is $500.
Wow!! What a great bed for $50!! I LOVE the drawers underneath, you can never have too much storage for a little girl!! Can’t wait to see the after pics!
Score!
Love a good find like that. She’ll have that set forever C:
I don’t think I can look at that luscious recipe. I forgot my lunch at home today.
You can turn the extra nightstand into a play stove/oven/kitchen.
That is such a cute idea!
Looks like fun!
Looking good. Wishing you luck on all your projects!
Great find! It’ll look beautiful painted white…..
I love painted furniture! Your initial posting was my inspiration, and now I cannot stop. Soon I will have to start painting furniture finds and either sell them or give them away to family. I have found a new hobby. Thank you!
Second hand stuff is how we furnished our kids (3) rooms, as well. I drooled over the brand new bedroom sets in the stores but realized the first time one of them nicked the finish, I’d be crushed (they wouldn’t, they’d hardly notice I’m sure). Anyways, children are hard on belongings. They don’t mean to be. Learning to be gentle takes years to accomplish. So garage sales and hand-me-downs it was.
And for our two girls, we acquired a rather motley bunch of pieces. To make them all seem to go together, we did the white paint, too. And for a personal touch, I hand painted flowers and ivy on the side panels and tops. I used the Folk Art One Stroke (by Donna Dewberry, if that sounds familiar) painting instruction cards from Michaels (a craft store) and acrylic paints for the flowers and ivy (topped with some varnish). It was a whole lot easier than it sounds. Believe me, I’m not artistically gifted, these instruction cards make it easy. Can’t wait to see pics of your finished project.
Sorry to say this, but I cringe every time I see you paint over lovely wood grain. I love the look of that bed as is and will be sad to see it done. Maybe it’s the tree geek in me, but I like to KNOW I still have wood around me and painting over it makes me kind of forget. Silly I know! But that’s me. Oddly enough, I’m okay with varnish–love it in fact. I know you’ll do a great job, though. You always do.
Yep, everyone has different preferences. I really, really love the look of painted wood.