I love old stuff!

I'm not a normal "modern" woman.  I LOVE old stuff.  I love the look of it, the stories it could tell if a piece of history could talk.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE modern conveniences...and wouldn't want to do without my smartphone, my coffee maker, or my remote start on my car...

As I have been slowly decorating our house I find I pick things that either look old, or are old.  It's an eclectic mix of old and new.  The headboard in our master suite is old barn wood, the quilts in our guestroom are old handmade from when my mother-in-law was young.We have barn wood shelving in our master bath, and my husband used barn wood to make a nice entry bench and coat rack.

My last bedroom that needed a bed and decorating is what I refer to as the back bedroom.  It was supposed to be a nursery, but that isn't gonna happen...so it was time to turn it into something other than a catchall for my yarn and fabric stashes.  I didn't take a picture of the disaster area, but suffice it to say you couldn't see the floor at all.  There were piles and bags of yarn and fabric all over...

I had already painted the walls, so I didn't want to repaint.  I started looking online for beds that I may like and fell in LOVE with a vintage style metal bed at Nebraska Furniture Mart

Vintage bed $220, suggested retail $400

I wasn't about to pay that price for a reproduction bed.  I didn't want to pay that price for any bed!  I know our headboard was expensive because of the cost of the wood...but still.  I started surfing on Craig's List, and on the Facebook Swap n Shops...I finally found a full size bed that I loved, so I contacted the seller and negotiated the price down to $100.

I met up with my husband after he got off work and we went to look and purchase this super cute bed.  It was in solid condition, with the original rails.  The original wheels were on it, and it was heavy so you knew it was the good stuff.  We loaded it into the truck and headed for home.  Today I started doing research on the type of bed, and what it could be worth.  There was a great post on eHow.com on determining the age of an antique bed (link here).  I was able to determine it was authentic because of the rails, and the details.

There is an online antique shop down in Texas that sells iron beds, they actually have quite the selection.  I found the style of bed that I purchased so I was able to find out even more about it!

Picture from Loading Dock Antiques

The bed is called a Shell and Bead, and is circa 1900-1920.  They sell them for almost $500 "as is" so I think I got a pretty good deal on mine!  But you can visit their site to see all of the fabulous things they have...and maybe even get an iron bed of your own!

We don't have a mattress for it yet, or sheets etc.  I would really like to make a quilt to put on it, and I think I know which quilt it will be.  I just need to dig that fabric out to make sure it matches the wall color!