So you might have noticed in the shared kids bedroom reveal that something was missing. Something I told you I started working on way back in February.
Remember Jenny? Jenny Lind?
I got this headboard and footboard out of my parents’ basement, but once upon a time, it was in my great grandmother’s house. The finish was not good, so I decided to paint it and make it a fun big girl bed for Elise.
I briefly wondered if I should try and put the bed together to make sure everything was OK before I got started, as older beds can be slightly different dimensions than modern mattresses. But I was pregnant and that sounded like a lot of extra hassle. So instead, I got to work and figured whatever happened, we’d be able to make it work. This, my friends, is called foreshadowing.
It took me about 4-5 hours to sand both the headboard and the footboard. Thanks to some unseasonably warm and sunny February days, I was able to do 90 percent of the sanding outside. I used one of those foam sanding blocks; they are so much easier to use than regular sandpaper, especially when sanding something with a lot of curves and details like this. I’m a fan.
I was excited to get a custom-mixed enamel paint, but after a quick trip to Sherwin Williams, I learned that they couldn’t mix enamel in a deep pinky red because they don’t have a base for it. My options? Go with regular latex paint or pick a different color of enamel. I left the store with their advice so I could think about it.
I didn’t want to use semi-gloss in this situation, so I decided just to get some flat paint mixed and then follow up with polyurethane. More coats, more work, but I could get the color I wanted AND that hard glossy finish. I ended up buying the paint at Lowes, though, because I didn’t really want to make a special trip back to Sherwin Williams.
Then it was time to paint! I started out with my favorite stainblocking primer (Kilz Premium Latex) and followed up with a coat of flat gray paint in hopes that would cut the number of coats of pink I needed. Painting deep saturated colors on top of pure white primer is a lot of work.
It was around the second coat of pink paint (in total, my fourth coat) that I began hating this project. Why did I have to choose such a saturated pink? Why couldn’t I have just used white enamel and have been done in two coats? Because my girl wanted a pink bed. And although I’m sure I could have talked her out of it, I wanted her to have a pink bed too. After the fourth coat of pink, I decided it was good enough to stop. The middle of a project can suck the soul out of you sometimes.
(Spray paint would have been a good option here, but being pregnant and winter, it wasn’t going to happen that way.)
And then I went and had a baby and the bed sat in the basement for over a month. But near the end of April, I picked the brush back up and gave it two coats of polyurethane to finish it off. The shine! So pretty.
Then it was time to put the bed together. Sorry, no photos of this process. You’ll soon find out why. My dad brought over the metal rails and the box spring just wasn’t fitting. He thought maybe he had more longer rails still in his basement and maybe he picked up the wrong ones. Fast forward a couple of weeks, he brings a collection of six rails over. Dan and I struggled to get everything assembled and we discovered the first pair was way too long. Like six inches too long. We try a second pair, they were again too short. Like an inch too short. We try a third pair that seemed just about right and we put the box spring in and the whole thing was crazy wobbly, not to mention crazy high.
I don’t think this old bed was intended for use with a box spring. It probably had some sort of platform missing. Anyhow, it wasn’t working with the box spring. And it wouldn’t work with just an unsupported mattress either. So we took it all apart again.
I talked to my dad and we decided that maybe we could just attach the headboard and footboard to a modern metal bed frame. Wait, make that just the headboard. The metal bedframe wouldn’t be long enough to be able to attach the footboard as that end is usually open. OK, I thought, I’ll sacrifice the footboard.
When he went to attach the headboard to the metal frame, the heights didn’t line up well. The legs were all spindly where the metal frame would attach. There wasn’t a flat surface where the two should meet. Not only that, but the headboard is slightly warped. (I noticed that before, but didn’t realize it was going to be an issue.)
So now I have a beautiful but useless pink Jenny Lind headboard and footboard taking up space in my basement. All that time wasted! Eight coats of primer, paint and poly! Kills me.
I put so many hours into this project, I’m not ready to quit them just yet. I’m hanging onto them until I figure out if there’s anything else that can be done with them. I’ve seen benches, etc. made from beds and cribs, so maybe they still have a future.
But what’s the new plan for Elise’s bed? We ended up using a plain metal bed frame to get everything up off the floor. At this time, I’m not ready to spend a lot of money on another headboard. The cheapest new ones I liked were still over $100. And after this debacle, I’m more than a little scared to go the vintage route.
For now, Elise’s make-do “headboard” is two giant throw pillows from Home Goods. It is what it is, but I think it kind of works? It is a kid’s bed after all.
I also think that it might be wise to wait until Etta’s eventually out of the crib and then just buy two matching beds. The long-term plan is to move them upstairs in a few years and matching beds would look so good. Plus it gives me a few years to casually shop for a deal. And maybe my new-found fear of vintage beds will wear off a little.
Any ideas of what I could do with my useless headboard and footboard?
Oh my. Nightmare is right! No ideas for you but I feel frustrated and exhausted just reading this post. I hate these kind of projects where you have some sort of intuition that things won’t go as planned but for some reason you just keep charging ahead. Fingers crossed that you come up with something. I love those brightly painted Jenny Lind beds.
I seem to do a lot of these kinds of go-nowhere projects. Who knows why.
What’s worse is the bed taunts me every time I go into the basement!
I like your idea of using them for a bench. . . could be cute for a playroom. Or is there a source on the interwebs somewhere for your metal rail conundrum? Growing up we had just a single twin mattress (not a box spring) with plywood underneath it to keep it from sagging out. Maybe not ideal but it seemed to work. Unless you jumped on the bed too hard and had to tell Dad you needed a new piece of plywood cut for your bed because you broke the other one . . . .
Ha!
I’m just completely done with this bed as far as using it as a bed goes. We even scrapped all the metal rails! I think it would have sort of worked with a platform like you had, but it was very wobbly and with my girl, something (bed or bones) would have broken in no time.
CHeck out this blog. She also had a head and foot board and made it work as a bed!
Thanks for the link. Probably won’t go this route as my headboard is warped, but nice to know it can be done!
What about hanging to headboard on the wall behind the frame/bed you already use?
Hi Jessica, thanks for your comment!
I thought of that too, but it doesn’t work for the set up of this room. We are very limited on furniture placement in there. (See this post.) And putting the bed in front of the window is the only spot that works unfortunately.
Just stumbled upon your site. We have a very similar bed! Is your’s also a 3/4 bed?
We inherited our bed from my husband’s grandmother. It was shipped to us from CA. Well, the rails that attach the headboard to the footboard did not make it with the rest of the bed. The rails were wooden and what kept the entire bed together! We could not find a bed frame for a 3/4 bed, so we ended up getting a platform for a full mattress we had and pushed the headboard and bed against the wall in my daughter’s room.
I am thinking about refinishing the bed, and I hope to secure it to the frame somehow! I’d also like to be able to use the footboard again.
Antique beds are hard!
I think this one was supposed to be a twin, but the twin mattress we had didn’t work with any of the rails we had. All of them were metal, but either too long or too short. I’m sure there was a piece of wood or some sort of platform missing as well. Such a headache.
Hope you can figure something out! But I would definitely figure everything out before I started refinishing it. Hindsight is 20/20! 🙂
Just curious as to how you painted the bed – Particularly around the spindles. We just bought one exactly like yours off Craigslist and now I’m a bit nervous. We trashed the springs that came with it because they were old and rusty and I figured we’d just use the box spring and mattress we already have. I hope I’m not kicking myself later. Anyways, we got ours all sanded down and my husband painted 2 coats on one side, then started painting the other side and realized that where the paint around the spindles from the first side had dried, it started to clump. But yours looks smooth. Just curious what kind of brush/method you used.
Oh I hope your bed fits together! I’m still sort of scarred by this experience.
I used maybe a 1.5 inch synthetic angled soft-bristle brush? Look for something that specifically lists for acrylic paint. I like the Purdy brand. They are more expensive, but worth it.
There’s really no big trick to it. You have to do the spindles separately. You can’t do one side and then the other, if that makes sense. Light coats and watch the drips!
Hi–came across this today when googling “painting a jenny lind” and oi! I feel your pain. That stinks. But here’s why I’m writing…I am about to paint a vintage JL for my daughters room as well. (just white…phew). And my husband was all, “Why did you buy this bed, it sucks, its too rickety, it won’t work….” And he was right. BUT he’s also rather handy and i knew he could fix it. Wink, wink! So he ended up building new side rails himself, attaching new brackets in the corner to attach to the bed and then laying planks across the bed rails for a new mattress. This thing is now rock solid. SO if you’re interested I’m sure he could give you some pretty simple instructions for making your own bed rails, etc. He got everything at home depot for about $50 I want to say. I know this was about a year ago, but maybe you’ll be ready to tackle it again… 🙂
Good for you! Glad your bed turned out!
It might be possible to fix it up like you did, though mine is a bit warped. My dad is my go-to handyman, and he was uncharacteristically just done with the project. I suppose I could do it myself, but I’m not sure I’d really be able to do a good sturdy job. I also am still a bit scarred by the whole experience.
I think once my baby is ready to move to a big girl bed, I might try and find a couple of matching beds to makeover instead!
This might be too late, but here is a suggestion that we used in the master bedroom: we bolted the headboard to the wall and just put the bed against it.
Our headboard was perfectly aligned with the frame, so that was not the problem, but I never liked that the heavy wood was always banging into the wall when my daughter would jump on the bed or when, well whatever. It was annoying. So we found two studs and bolted it on. Best. Decision. Ever. We liked it so much, we did it by default once we moved to our new home.
It might not work for your setup, but it is an option. Hope all is well! And thank you post blogging. Love your writing style.
Yeah, that’s a really good solution. My bed was warped and the placement in the room didn’t allow for it (right in front of a window). I think if we get a pair of antique beds in the future, I will try to mount them on the wall like you did!
I hung my Jenny Lind head board on my wall behind my bed, using curtain “pull backs” as enormous hooks.
Have not figured out the footboard yet. I’ve been thinking about a shelving board slid under the foot of the mattress/box spring…attaching a 1×3 maybe..and ataching footboard to that?
The hooks are an interesting solution! Your footboard plan sounds like it would work, but it’s so hard to know!
This exact bed in a maple finish has been in my family for at least 3 generations… It was my grandmother’s, handed down to my mother and eventually it became my bed after my brother got married back in 1969… so this has been mine for 45 years… I have the original steel rails, so no problem with that. It is being stripped now and will be refinished with a cherry stain. The stencil on the headboard said I4 JL MAPLE. When I put this bed back into use, I will be bolting the 1×4’s to the rail. I am well aware of it’s history of going bump in the night way back when, when a rail board would slip free and sometimes throw the sleeping person or persons out of bed during the night. LOL!
Oh, wow! Yes, I think bolts are definitely necessary! I think this bed might have had some holes for bolts to go through the rail to stabilize things.
Good luck putting your bed back together!