I turned a white bed.. into a.. white bed! TA-DA!

At the end of May, Josh and I had had enough of the bickering amongst our seven-year-old twin girls and decided to transform our rarely used guest room into P’s new room. Of course, this decision set a whole series of actions into motion. Our twins have been sleeping in the same room since the womb and I really wanted to make sure they enjoyed and were comforted in their new spaces and to be a reflection of their personalities. Naively optimistic, I hoped that having seen their mother work hard on all the projects they would value the effort and, possibly, take care of their rooms more than if I tossed their existing belongings into the space and wish them luck. I know this is asking entirely too much from seven-year old’s, but you can't blame me for trying!

Our kids are all unique and I knew I wanted to go with a more delicate, feminine, and sweet aesthetic for C’s room. C’s bed had a broken spindle and I thought this would be a good opportunity to refinish a wood bed. So on to Facebook Marketplace I went! I found this painted French inspired full bed. After commandeering my brother in law's truck, my sister and I pick up the bed and I immediately see that it had to have been painted, possibly 6 times or more over its lifetime.

We get this bad boy home and I can tell before we even strip the paint off that this bed is made from different woods and looks to be someone’s remedy to a smaller bed as it looks to have been cut down from a larger bed and fashioned in to a full bed. Josh says “Are you sure you want to do this?” and “Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just buy a new bed?” about 32 times over the following weeks. Already my dreams to strip and bleach the wood is seemingly dashed, however, I decide to stay the course and make the bed work. It was time to get through the many coats of paint and stain and see what I was working with.

I applied the Citristrip generously and let sit under plastic wrap for a few hours. Although its fumes are far less offensive than other furniture strippers, I still had to wear a respirator as it was affecting me. Using a plastic putty knife, I stripped away white, brown, tan, green paints, and brown stains. This was the point where I was doubting everything. I doubted all decisions that led me to this point in my life. Did the girls really need their own rooms? I might be doing them a disservice by separating them! They will be better individuals and twins having spent more time together, right?

Since I have invested so much time and warded off from Josh’s doubts for a week I soldiered on and repeated the stripping process to remove even more paint and stain. After stripping was finished, I used Afterwash, which is a really important step as it removes any residual stripper and any tough paint or stain that didn’t come off. Using my hand sander and 150 grit sandpaper, then again with 220 grit sandpaper, I started feeling better about my decision and see a mahogany wood veneer inset on the bed’s head board. My dream is somewhat reignited as I decide to bleach the mahogany insert and paint the frame that looks to be a combination of mahogany, oak, and maple. Oh and that very appealing emerald green paint is on what looks to be pine!

I researched bleaching wood and some of the less red woods can be lightened by simple house bleach. If I were to use this on the Mahogany it will show as pink, which C's a girly girl, but I do not think I want to go there. I found that for Cherry and Mahogany woods a two-part wood bleach by Zinsser Wood Bleach, which Josh ordered from Amazon. I applied “A” with a large paint brush with the grain direction, let sit for about 15 minutes, and while still wet I applied “B” with a different paint brush and the instant gratifier in me started to sing as I witnessed the reaction nearly immediately. I bleached the wood on the headboard twice, because I wanted a pretty light appearance. After it dries it needs to be neutralized, which means it needs to cleaned so it does not continue to bleach the wood. A mixture of equal parts of white wine vinegar and water and a rag is used and wiped off followed by another washing down with clean water and the head board was ready to dry for a full day. The bleach brought up the grain of the wood so I sanded the wood inset with 220 grit sandpaper and used a damp microfiber towel to clean any dust.

I was pleased with the wood’s appearance, but I wanted a little richer of a look. I used some stain and a grain whitening wax by Minwax and tried a few options on the side of the headboard. The stain seemed too dark for the look I was going for. I found that I liked the look and feel of the wax as it gave a lighter look to the grain, but gave a depth to the wood on top of the protective benefit I decided this was the one! I took a liberal amount and wiped in a circular motion and then wiped away 5-10 minutes after.

I was so happy to have some exposed wood on this project and then had to decide what color did I want to do for the frame. I knew the color scheme for C’s room was going to be blush, cloud blue, and white. I was not liking the idea to paint the bed pink or blue, and even though I was completely aware of the absolute ribbing I would get from Josh for taking a white bed and working so hard to make it not white to only then paint it WHITE would be relentless, however, I knew this would work the best under the circumstances. I thought the white would transition well over the next many years.

I painted the headboard and siderails and once I got to the footboard, I faced the reality that some work needed to be done here. The footboard had been cut down leaving an awkward routered design and an unfinished top. I could even tell that it had been sawed off unevenly. I used white wood filler to fill the routered design, removed the casters, and sanded the top of the board to make it even. I then added a 1x2 piece of unfinished poplar by drilling holes in the top of ends, the 1x2, and the unfinished wood finials and placing dowels in with wood glue. We clamped and left them overnight. The 1x2 was pretty sharp and since my little rascals will be crawling, rolling, and bumping into the bed I didn’t want it to be harmful. I sanded it down to an eased edge then painted the footboard to match.

Looking back, I think I would have passed on this bed even though it was only $60, but I am really happy with the result. I felt a little honored to take something that someone had worked hard to find a sleeping solution utilizing the items they had at hand and with some sweat and elbow grease turn it into something for my little nugget. It is really pretty and the lines are just what I was looking for her sweet bedroom. She is really pleased that she has a bigger bed until she heard that I was painted her sisters to look like an antique brass bed. Then she wanted me to paint her bed gold. SMH. “Have kids” they say.

What do you think? Would you have painted the bed pink or blue?