Happy Friday! A few weeks ago, I guest posted on my friend Bonnie's blog with a story from my old blog about Mia's big girl bed. I am so proud of this project and have received so many comments from it that I thought I would share it here. Enjoy!
When we found out we were going to have a new baby, my mind immediately went to our three year old. It was time for her to move from the nursery to a "big girl room". I began searching for inspiration and, not surprisingly, found it in a Pottery Barn catalog. And we all know that trying to make a room look like a Pottery Barn catalog can get pretty pricey.
When we found out we were going to have a new baby, my mind immediately went to our three year old. It was time for her to move from the nursery to a "big girl room". I began searching for inspiration and, not surprisingly, found it in a Pottery Barn catalog. And we all know that trying to make a room look like a Pottery Barn catalog can get pretty pricey.
As luck would have it, my mother-in-law told us about an antique bed buried in her garage that had belonged to Aunt Alice. Aunt Alice was a beloved part of my husband's family (and our youngest daughter's namesake). I have heard stories of love and laughter for years. It seemed so fitting that, four generations later, this could be our daughter's bed.
The only problem was the bed looked like this...
How was I going to get it to look like this?
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| Photo from PotteryBarn.com |
After extensive research I found out there is an easy way and a hard way to paint old furniture. Of course, I chose the easy way and prayed it would work.
First, I gave the bed a good cleaning with a strong all purpose cleaner.
Then I lightly sanded all the pieces with a medium grit sandpaper just to rough up the surface a bit so the paint will adhere better. This is the difference between the "easy way" and the "hard way". Some will say that you have to remove all of the old stain from the wood which takes a LOT more sanding. With all the details on this bed, that kind of sanding would have taken a year, so I decided to take try the "easy way".
Next, I gave the pieces one last good wipe down to remove all the sanding debris and gave it a good coat of primer. (sorry, I don't have pictures of this step. My husband took over before I got them).
Because this was a child's bed and will see a lot of years of wear and tear, our handy paint guy (ask Sherwin Williams!) suggested we go with a glossy oil paint. Once dry, oil paint is hard as a rock, easy to clean, and can take a beating much better than acrylic.
Because of all the detail in the bed, we decided to invest in a paint sprayer rather than try to brush paint. Boy, we are so glad we did. The painting was a breeze and the finish is
super smooth.
After the bed was painted, we allowed it to dry and cure for a week to ensure a nice hard, durable surface and viola!
This bed...
is now this bed!
Not too shabby if I say so myself! Now our "big girl" has her own "big girl room" that she loves. Her favorite part of her room is her bed.
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