How to refinish a wooden bed.

In this how-to post I'll be showing you how I refinished a wooden twin bed frame with paint. When we bought this house we found three twin bed frames in the third floor attic space. One stands alone and two are part of a bunk bed set. Seeing as we have two children I chose to reuse the two matching ones, even though we are not going be stacking them or even have them together in the same room. 

They started out looking like this.

I think that's a day bed frame (or crib) behind it, but I haven't put it all together to find out.

Orange wood finish, right out of the 70s.

I was still unsure of how I was going to be finishing them, another stain or paint? Hmmm...  I did know that before anything was done, they would have to be sanded down to take off the glossy finish.

Tools and materials:

• sheet-pad sander (if you don't have one, you can rent one or the project can be done by hand)
• 150-grit sandpaper
• dust mask (make sure to use a good quality mask, one that is rated for toxic dust and/or lead paint)
• safety glasses

Safety glasses not pictured, in case you were looking.

I sanded the rounded sections of the posts by hand while the flat parts were done with the electric sander. Use caution when using the sander as it can easily take off more than just the finish and mar the wood. Make sure to always sand in the direction of the wood grain. Wipe off the dust with a tack cloth.

Half sanded!

Here's your new bed...sorry, you have to sleep on the floor.

See that pile of wood in the background? I salvaged it all from the bedroom. It was behind the paneling when I removed it from the walls. See how I reused it in a later post.

I used some of it for new bed slats.

When I decided to start this project, I was still right in the middle of renovating the bedroom and getting a little ahead of myself. So the frame went back into the attic sanded, but unfinished until the room was closer to done.

Fast-forward about a month (or two)... 

Once I painted the walls with gray tinted primer in preparation for the finish color (RED!), I fell in love with this particular shade of gray. It was a dark battleship gray that despite being a flat finish had a lot of depth to it. I even contemplated leaving the walls that color, but Zeke would have none of that! Then I started painting the finish color and loved how the red and the primer gray went together. Aha! I now knew how I was going to finish the bed frame! 

I was at a lull in the bedroom renovation (remember we're on a strict budget), but was far enough along that the bed could come back into the room without being too much in the way. 

Tools and materials:

• 2" paintbrush (a foam brush would work great too and wouldn't show brush strokes)
• gray paint (I used white Zinsser primer that had been tinted)
• drop cloth (or something to protect your floors, however I like to live dangerously and only used four pieces of cardboard under the legs and I'm a pretty neat painter - but do as I say not as I do!)

Because I'm clearly a professional! ;-)

Once I painted the entire frame with two coats (still going with in the direction of the wood grain), the gray seemed lighter than it did when it was on the walls, but I still loved it. Next came the question of the protective top coat. It definitely needed something as primer has a very flat and dull finish and with a piece of furniture that will be getting hours of daily use, having a protective coat is necessary to keep it looking nice for years to come.

I could have brushed on a clear polyurethane finish, but would have to wait for one coat to dry, lightly sand, and do another coat and wait for that to dry. It also smells a lot. And we have two dogs that seem to get their fur stuck to everything even if they never enter the room. 

I could have also sprayed on a clear coat, but you really need adequate ventilation and should do this outside, but being in Maine in February this was not an option. 

A third option is to use finishing wax. You can get a nice finish in a fraction of the drying time of a brush- or spray-on urethane, plus I had some on hand after refinishing the wood floors. That will be in another post, so stay tuned.

I love this stuff!

Tools and materials:

• Minwax Paste Finishing Wax
• cheesecloth

With a folded square of cheesecloth, rub the wax over the surface of the wood. A little wax goes a long way. I started at the headboard and worked my way down to the foot of the bed, rubbing in the wax and making sure I got in the grooves. You want to work with this in a ventilated area and opening up a window sufficed. Another tip - shining a  flashlight (or other moveable light source) helps to see if you've missed any spots. Before the final step, you won't see a big difference and the light helps to see the bare paint vs. wax finish.

Wait 10-15 minutes. In the time it took me to finish waxing the foot board, fifteen minutes had gone by since I had done the head of the bed so I could immediately start the last step. 

Yes, I renovate in my PJs. Don't judge.

With a clean piece of cheesecloth, lightly buff the surface, again making sure to get all the grooves. I felt like I was shining shoes on the rounded posts. You don't have to rub too hard and will immediately see the shine. 

Voila!

With minimal tools, money, and some elbow grease, I turned this old bed into something new. Here's the before and after side by side.

Paint is one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to change up a room or piece of furniture that makes a huge impact. Because the bed came with the house and I had all the tools and materials leftover from other projects, this "new" bed cost me NOTHING! Even if you didn't have any of the materials on hand, the cost for this project is minimal. You can find "ugly" bedframes super cheap (or even free) on Craigslist or on the side of the road...which reminds me of something hiding in a closet at the old house that I just got super excited about!!!

Cost of materials: 

• sander: $49
• sandpaper: $4
• toxic dust mask: $25
• safety glasses: $3 
• paint: $10 (you need less than a quart for this project)
• paintbrush: $4 (or a foam brush for less than $1)
• finishing wax: $10
• cheesecloth: $4

If you don't have or want to invest in an electric sander, this project can be done for less than $60. Not only are you saving potentially hundreds of dollars with what a bed frame would cost new, you are saving something from the landfill, and most importantly get a huge since of pride from making something old new again with your own two hands!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on refinishing a wooden bed. Stay tuned for more projects and the big bedroom reveal. Sign up to receive future HomeRevived posts in your email at the top of the page so you won't miss a thing.

Have you ever breathed new life into an old piece of furniture with paint? I'd love to hear about it. Thanks for visiting!