Stripping in the Heat of Summer. . .

Hannah has been begging me to redo her room. She decided a year or so ago that she wants a light turquoise and white room. I got a vision a while ago and have been keeping my eye out for elements to fit the vision.

One thing I had been searching high and low for was an antique iron bed--can't you just see it piled high with crispy white, slightly foofy bedding? I definitely can. I searched craigslist daily and three times had to convince Hannah she did not need whatever bed Rob saw in some random store and offered to buy, right now. She has a weakness for the "buy it right now" temptation. But we pulled through.

Then a couple weeks ago I remembered that last year my neighbor was trying to sell an old iron bed. I had looked at it, but had not bought it because it was full and I really thought I wanted a queen because we had a queen mattress set already. Guess what? They don't make antique iron beds in queen and if you get an altered one they are a small fortune. So I walked across the street and asked if they still had it. . .

They DID! Yeah me. Plus it was lovely. . .

. . .or at least it would be once I stripped the paint and painted it antique white.

Which is just what I proceeded to do.

I scrapped and sanded and picked. . .

. . . through white, pink, red and green layers of paint. . .

. . . until I made it bare metal.

Then we sprayed it down with Rustoleum rust killing primer. . .

. . .and painted it antique white.

The actual color was Valspar's Porcelain.

It's not perfect, but it IS lovely.

I would have loved to have had it sandblasted and powder coated, but Rob thinks I will get sick of this bed in a couple years--so it wouldn't be worth it. He is so wrong. This bed was in my neighbor's family forever. She raised her daughter on in, had it before that herself, and before that it was her father's bed--back when it was new. I love knowing that.

It has history! It has character. It's going to look fabulous in Hannah's room.

Just you wait and see.