Thinking about ironing yesterday made me think about iron beds and how much I have always loved them.
When I was in high school one of my best friends had a black iron bed..single size..as much as single size was back in the day. She wanted to get rid of it and have a hollywood bed frame for her mattress...I thought that was so sad until she asked me if I would like to have it. Oh yes, I said, not bothering to think that my sister and I shared a very small bedroom and there wouldn't be one for her..oh heaven's I would think about that later..I was going to get an antique bed!
She brought the frame to a party at a friend's house one Friday nite. And another friend put it in his car and drove it home for me. My dad and mom always knew I would bring home something that I was lucky enough to acquire...they just never knew when. The bed was the kind that fits together and a mattress fits on horizontal rails that didn't happen to come with the bed...sooo, I put the head board at the head of my bed and the foot board at the head of my sister's bed and we stored the side rails for years to come.
When my daughter grew big enough for a big girl bed I fixed it for her...to have the headboard and the foot board and the side rails joined as one again. Back in the day those "single" beds were a little larger than ours today so to fix it so that the whole bed would be joined together and still hold a box spring and mattress, I put a "hollywood" bed frame in the middle of the joined frame...it worked perfectly! I painted it an icy blue enamel paint and then made her a beautiful comforter, bedskirt, pillow sham and curtains in pastels~her favorite colors. I'll have to dig up the pictures of it sometime and post them. I still have the bed..and you know what? A couple of years ago she bought herself another antique iron bed only it is a full size...and she rigged it up to fit a mattress. She uses it in her guest room now..it is beautiful with a fluffy white comforter...it is like a cloud. My kids beds always felt like clouds to me. I have other stories about iron beds I'll tell at a later time. Meanwhile I'll search for all those photos...
Do you love iron beds?
