Guest Bedroom: Striking Craigslist Gold
THE DEXTER HOUSE When I'm in the market for a bed frame, I like to buy vintage. As in used-on-Craigslist vintage, not the I-paid-a-fortune-for-it-at-an-antique-store vintage. There's such a wealth of beautiful old pieces on Craigslist, it would be a shame not to at least look. Well, that's what I tell Garrett when he catches me under the covers at 10pm scrolling through craigslist furniture ads ;).
So, as you probably already figured out, when we started this little guest bedroom redo, I hopped onto Craigslist for a bed frame. I had two things going for me: I'm in a CL-rich location (Seattle) and I was looking for a full-size frame, something not a lot of other people are looking for, but a common size in antiques. Not surprisingly, I found two gems, which were being sold together for $120 (!!!). I was in love.
The only problem was that the beds were located a good hour and a half away from Seattle. But have I mentioned that I have an awesome husband (I do!)? Garett volunteered to pick up the beds up and take the boys with him. He actually made a whole day out of it, taking a picnic lunch and stopping at the beach and an aquarium. By the time they made it home, Brooks had taken two solid naps and Wilder couldn't stop yammering on about crabs and seagulls. And almost as exciting as all that, were the two bedframes sitting in the back of our car.
Let me just start by saying that these frames are gorgeous and in really great condition. I found out from Mary, the seller (who I struck up an email conversation with), that both beds had been in her family for many years. The dark wood rope bed dates back to the 1800s and was a wedding gift to Mary from her mom, an antiques dealer in Wisconsin. The lighter maple bed (Mary called it birdseye maple; my go-to wood guy, Uncle Dougie, called it figured curly maple) dates back to the 1920s. Mary's grandparents received the bed in 1927, assumedly for their wedding. Her grandfather had come to the United States as a 13-year-old runaway from Canada. He went to medical school and later became mayor of their town in Wisconsin. Mary's grandmother was a botanist and "something of a tyrant...but hilarious". Mary's grandmother took a teaching job at a seminary after her wedding. Because of her job, she had to hide her marriage and live apart from her husband for a time. She eventually switched careers and worked in the office of her husband's doctor practice, which meant they got to share this beautiful bed again. They kept the frame until 1999. 72 years! A good omen, if I do say so myself!
Now that you've seen the beds, I should show you the progress we've made on the space we're going to put them in. These photos aren't too great, but at least you can see what the wainscoting looks like:
Up next is painting the walls. Like I said on Tuesday, I'm planning to go black.
I'm curious, which bed frame would you use? I'm planning to keep both of them (hopefully the boys will get to use them when they're a little older), but of course, only one will fit in this tiny guest bedroom!
xoxo
-Cathy