Condo Blues: Guest Bed Progress

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Guest Bed Progress

I took advantage of the tiny break in weather to scurry into the garage and make over the guest bed.
Once I gave it a up close and personal looksee, I realized the bed frame  was a bit more beat up and damaged than I originally thought. But hey, it was a freebie from an old boss, so I’m not complaining.

 
It is difficult to tell from the photo, but this bed is pretty beat up.

After repairing some unexpected cracks and dings with wood filler, it was time to sand the finish off the bed to prep it for painting. This is when my Mouse detail sander earns its kibble because the point allows me to sand the curves, nooks, and crannies I'd have to do by hand if I used an orbital or finish sander to sand the finish off this bed.

 
You can learn more about my Mouse detail sander here.

Before you paint a piece of furniture, it is important to thoroughly sand the shiny finish from the piece so the primer and paint sticks to the piece. If you don't, well, this happens.

 An uneven and incomplete sanding job = bumpy and uneven spray paint.


The paint will not coat the finish evenly or it can bubble up and create a rough bumpy and ugly finish. I created both problems because when I epic fail, I do it BIG!

To fix cracked and bumpy spray paint, sand the area smooth, thoroughly wipe any dust from the area, and repaint it.

It isn't a difficult fix, just an extra time consuming step when I have a three day warm enough to spray paint weather window.

I used Krylon Spray Paint and Primer to paint the base coat since I had such a short work window. If the weather was warm enough for four coats I would have used my paint sprayer to prime and paint the bed in separate coats.

My apologies for the horribly backlit photo. 
The weather wasn't cooperating here either.

Now I am in a mild panic stage on how to funafy this work in progress bed in a work in progress room I don't have a 100% plan for yet.  I considered leaving the bed as it was but the new paint job highlights some of the flaws the old beat up finish hid. One step forward, two steps back.

I originally wanted black and white checks or stripes on the bed rails. Then we got Polar Vortex: The Return which moved the project inside the house. I really didn't want to prime and paint endless coats of white paint over the black base coat with a brush. So I grabbed my Sizzix and Mod Podge and decoupage white dots on the rails. I'm more of a polka dot gal anyway.


Dots!

 I'm marinating on an idea for the head and foot boards. I'm leaning toward decoupage but I haven't found the right item yet. Scrapbook paper is too small. Apparently we are in the low season for pretty wrapping paper. Book pages maybe?

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