From Brass to Black – Antique Bed Makeover
For our bedroom makeover, I knew after all of 5 minutes on Pinterest that I wanted a black brass bed. It brings in such a timeless, 19th century look that goes right in with my “antiquey” style. Plus, I figured it would be nice to finally get our stacked mattresses off of the floor and onto a bed frame after 3 years. Yeah, we’re fancy around here. 🙂
My friend helped me track down the PERFECT brass bed on Craigslist for $80, and a few months had to pass before I could finally get around to refinishing it. I wavered a little bit during that time on whether I should actually paint it, because I do love brass and wanted plenty of gold touches in the bedroom design. But the bed itself was in pretty poor shape finish wise (lots of oxidization and rust), and no amount of sanding was going to fix it. Plus I knew the black bed would add such stunning contrast and visual interest to the room, so I took the plunge!
What I used:
– Pneumatic sand blaster (but you could use wet-to-dry sand paper 800 grit and do it by hand if you are extremely hardworking and patient)
– Klean Strip Green Odorless Mineral Spirits
– Rustoleum Self-Etching Primer
– Rustoleum Flat Black
I know from experience that glossy surfaces and paint don’t mix, so my first task was the sand the ever-loving life out of the bed’s surface. This was going to take for-ev-er by hand, so after several hours and few blisters my husband pulled together a pneumatic sandblaster for me and did in 30 seconds what had taken me literal hours the day before. Gotta love the right tool for the job! Life saver.
The surface of the bed was very well roughed up now, so after I washed it down with a rag and mineral spirits, I knew I could start priming and painting. I decided to go with Rustoleum’s self-etching primer, which simply adds more grip and texture for the paint to adhere to. I would be too nervous to skip this step, especially if we hadn’t been able to roughen the bed by sandblasting.
We had a humid few weeks here on the east coast, so I actually had to wait on the weather to tackle the project. I tried to paint a test patch on a particularly damp day but the paint seemed tacky and simply wouldn’t cure. The instructions are on the paint can for a reason!
Once I had a day with a good humidity level, I went to task with the priming and painting. It took about several cans of each to get two coats of good coverage. I’d advise you to stock up on the spray-paint cans if you have a painting project of this size and detail.
Once the bed was dry to the touch, I knew it would cure better indoors, so I carefully brought it inside and within 24-48 hours I had a much more reassuring, hardened coat of paint on the bed. And yes, I immediately LOVED the look.
Once I tied it into the room, with my IKEA pintstripe duvet and green wreath and gold decor, I was 100% glad I went black and didn’t look back! It definitely bumped the fancy factor of our room up 100 fold!
