As soon as we made our final decision to stay put in Manila and move to a bigger and quieter space, I immediately thought of giving an old bed a new old look, shabby chic-style. We have one of those iron beds with wooden posts and it literally was the last remaining piece of bedroom furniture that I hadn’t restored yet. Thank heavens for my husband who indulges me!
Armed with an allen wrench, I set out to dismantle our bed and lift the really heavy queen-sized orthopedic mattress. I didn’t really lift it off so much as slide it to the side and push the other side to rest against the wall. I then took the bed pieces downstairs to the open garage and laid them on pieces of packing paper.
I had white spray paint and primer for both wood and metal waiting, as well as sand paper – all bought from Handyman at the Robinsons. The only thing I had forgotten to buy was a mask.
These are the parts that I and our helper sanded down. The wooden posts originally had a darker color.
I applied the primer and waited a few hours to spray on the first coat. The spray paint we bought was the cheapest at only about 100 pesos a bottle. I think I used up 6 bottles, plus our can of leftover white paint when I ran out. I finished with a third coat from the spray paint because I liked the eggshell color. It was also fast-drying but I left the paint to dry overnight.
I cheated and didn’t paint the bed frames – they aren’t going to show anyway.
Once the paint had dried, I proceeded sanding down areas that would usually wear out like the corners. I really like the shabby-chic distressed look so that was what I was going for.
It’s difficult to post a photo of the finished product as I can’t fit the entire bed into the photo and show the details. Here are parts of it:
I had our bedroom painted a nice taupe color so the white furniture blended perfectly. My room is my sanctuary and so I make sure that it is the most comfortable and nicest part of the house – at least to me.
