BILLYE'S NEW BED

     A few weeks ago Wallace and I took a trip and we bought our daughter a bed at the Covesville antique store.  It needed quite a bit of work.  After a lot of lacquer thinner and steel wool, the bed looked like this...

The foot-board in the foreground has been cleaned up with lacquer thinner and steel wool.

The entire bed was very dry.  When I applied linseed oil, the bed drank it up so eagerly I could almost hear a slurping sound.

The headboard on the left has been oiled.

The oiling is complete.

I've taken advantage of the Labor Day sales and acquired a new mattress and box spring, so after rubbing on an application of paste wax, the refinishing will be complete and Billye will have a new place to dream sweetly.  

EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK

    Wallace and I opted for a break today and made a road trip to Covesville, Virginia to what I will from now on refer to as my FAVORITE antiquing spot.  I thought fondly of my mother-in-law as I know how much she would have adored just "banging around" (which is what she used to call shopping with no real purchase in mind).   (I love you B)

    Our loaded down Ford today reminds me of an antiquing adventure Wallace and I went on with his parents 

25 years ago.  

We 4 came the 1 1/2 hours home in the Oldsmobile station wagon ...

Charlie driving, me sitting on Wallace's lap (newlyweds), 

and B lying in the rear happily snuggled up next to a couple of painted benches and a blanket chest.

    We, however, were not just "banging around."  I was on a mission in search of an antique twin bed for my daughter's new bedroom.  Well guess what!?!  We had enormous success.    I found not only an antique rope bed (already set up with L-brackets on the side rails), but also assorted Windsor and plank-bottom chairs (late 1700's & early 1800's) for the dining room, an early 1900's Bar Harbor wicker rocker ( back when wicker was really wicker, not rattan, rolled paper, or plastic clad aluminum) and an old painted industrial boot rack.  If that is not grand enough....we got everything for less than Wallace and I we paid for a small pine table and jelly cupboard back in 1987.  Yay us!

Bolt covers on the rope bed

Blue painted table - 1800's

Chairs galore!


Oh yes, I mustn't forget the leather-topped Hepplewhite desk and antique ice cream parlor chair (future plant stand)!