Master Bedroom Update | A New {Old} Bed!

Welcome to Flawed yet Functional! As you may have gathered, if you’ve been around this blog for any amount of time, I believe in pursuing hobbies that bring you joy. Do you love to knit? Do it with gusto! Do you love to garden? Dig until the knees give out in your jeans! Whatever you love, find time to do it. Hobbies are part of a fulfilled life just like health, food, and habits are. Today, I’d like to show you a master bedroom update with hand-me-down-furniture. You CAN have a stylish, revitalized home without buying new pieces. So without further ado, let me share the story of our “new” bed…it’s not all sunshine and roses…

Current Bed Situation

In our master currently, we have a king size mattress on a frame with two twin headboards stuck behind it. The twin headboards are too wide for the frame. Nothing is attached to each other, and it isn’t anything fancy. However, it has served the purpose of a place to sleep for over 5 years!

Potential New Bed

When my grandma passed this summer, I was able to take some odds and ends from her home as my mom and aunt were settling her estate. With every treasure I snagged, I had a great vision for what I could do with it in my home (So far: An old ship’s wheel mirror and antique arrows in my boy’s room).

In one of the basement bedrooms was a cannonball bed, a king sized cannonball bed! Given our bed situation, I jumped at the opportunity for a solid wood bed. A REAL bed with a headboard, foot board, and side rails!

As an after-thought, my mom mentions, “Hey, you should measure it because it might be a California king…” You know what’s coming, right?

It absolutely was a California king.

I went home moping that the free bed of my dreams (ha!) wasn’t going to work out…

The Genius of My Imagination

BUT WAIT!

I can think of a way to alter anything to make it work. The skill runs in my family, and we have a slightly degrading name for it. You don’t need to know what we say, but simply insert your ethnic background into this phrase: “_____________ fix job.” Basically, it means making something work by unconventional means with improper resources. You don’t need the right parts or instructions. Basically, where there’s a will there’s a way.

Oh, there was a WILL when it came to this bed.

I pondered and pondered, sulked and sulked about the bed for a few days, then it hit me. The side rails just need to be moved out!

A standard king size bed is 76″ wide and 80″ long, but a California king is 72″ wide and 84″ long. So the bed was too narrow and too long. I wasn’t concerned with too long because that just gives me more room to make the bed. Too narrow? That’s a problem. We love our mattress and have no plans to replace it.

I sweet talk my cousin into measuring the space between the edge of the side rails and the outer edge of the bed posts: 1.75″. Two inches would have been ideal, but CLOSE ENOUGH for me!

The following week, I load up my van to pick up my beloved bed and bring it home. My plans ever spinning in my mind. What color should I paint it? Should I keep the caning or upholster the headboard inserts? What shams should I make to go with the bed? I should probably get new beside lamps…and modify/buy new tables…it’s a snowball, folks, a snowball running down a steep hill. Once I get on a roll, there’s no stopping my imagination.

Converting a Bed Frame from California King to Standard King

The actual converting of the frame from California King width of 72″ to almost standard king width of 75.125″ was quite easy. Brackets like these attached the side rails to the headboard and foot board. I simply moved them out so the side rail was flush with the edge of the corner post. See the picture below.

A couple hours of sweating to move the brackets and the bed was converted! Note: it took forever because I measured wrong the first time and had to re-do it. Argh! The process was actually very straightforward: just un-screw and re-screw!

Dan cut some new slats and pieces of plywood to accommodate the new width. Voila! It’s a standard king sized bed!

Future Plans

It’s not all good news though, here’s what I discovered: the side rails aren’t actually in that great of shape. The wood might be slightly rotten/old?? In the process of removing and reinserting the screws, several chunks of wood came off the ends. I think the screws are still strongly in place, but time will tell!

Anywho, I’m loving our real bed (Dan is too!). Our bedroom looks much more finished and classy with a real bed. Visions of grander things are still bursting in my mind, but for now, the bed is staying as is. When spring comes, I’ll likely paint it and rebuild the side rails at the same time.

Ideas for Refreshing Your Home Using Hand-Me-Down Furniture

Wow, that was a lot of words to say WE GOT A “NEW” BED!

This new bed along with other hand-me-downs we’ve received has me thinking about refreshing and revitalizing your home WITHOUT buying new furniture. Let’s be honest, many of us can’t afford to go out and buy new furniture when we want to re-do a room. So how can you make the most of Grandma’s bed or Great Aunt Sally’s wardrobe?

• Think Outside the Original Color – Paint can liven up and modernize just about anything. Look past the color you see and think about what it could look like with a coat of paint.
• Work with the Original Color – Not all old pieces should be painted! Often, hand-me-down furniture is FAR superior in quality that what can be purchased at a reasonable cost today. Pair the piece with another of similar color then work in other modern pieces of contrasting or complimenting color. I have a wardrobe of similar shade of wood and plans to alter the side tables and wall color to make things more cohesive.

• Change the Wall Color in the Room – A non-clashing wall color is crucial to making old pieces fit and flow with a newer home and the owner’s style. I don’t love the muted purple with the new bed, and that is a relatively cheap and easy change to make!
• Embrace a More Eclectic Style – When you’re working with hand-me-downs, you’ll likely have multiple eras and styles of furniture going on. Embrace it! Matchy-matchy is never the way to a warm, cozy home. Keep the pieces you love and work over time to mix and match to your liking.

Our “New” Master Bed

Now I’ve talked far to much about a silly bed, so here’s a quick before and after photo so you don’t have to scroll up!

My plans are great and wide and long for this room, as with any room in our house! Hope to update with changes soon!

That’s my story of my new {old} bed for our master bedroom. Whenever I sit down to write out a story like this, I just have so many words. I’m sorry. Concise is not my middle name, more like verbose? If you’ve made it to the end of the supposed-to-be-short-and-quick update post, congratulations! You must like to read as much as I like to talk (write). I hope this master bedroom update with hand-me-down-furniture inspires you to embrace that old piece you’ve got hanging around your attic or garage. Happy weekend to you and may all your project dreams come true!

Do you dream up wild ideas for reinventing furniture/room layout/landscape design/etc.? Do share! I’d love to hear your hair-brained ideas too!