Fixing Up an Antique Bed

For some reason, my family has three or four lovely old “spool” beds with turned-spindle headboards and footboards, all stashed away in the attic, out of sight and out of use. Why? It’s simple — the beds were all made over a century ago, in the time when people were very very short. And in my family, I’m the only one who qualifies as short, or would be remotely comfortable sleeping on one of those antique beds… even if we could find a mattress in size Extra-short…

Now, we could replace the wooden side rails with longer ones. That would be the logical way to extend the length of the bed and make it the right size to accept both a modern mattress and a modern tall male… except that the side rails were custom-cut to fit into certain-sized holes in the headboard and footboard, and the hardware has long long ago gone missing.

I’ve just spotted what may be a solution, however.

The Bed Snap™ comes in two sizes and specially designed brackets are for connecting wood side rails to the head board and footboard. They are perfect for repairs, reinforcements, or for building your own bed. Designed for screw-mounting, the Bed Snap™ gets mounted on the inside corners of the wood rails, where they meet the headboard and footboard.

I’ll have to chat it over with He Who Hogs The Power Tools, of course, but this bed frame repair kit looks promising — and I pass along mention of it here, in case anyone else is out there hoping to give new life to an old wooden bed.

But no problem if we need to replace the side rails, in the end. We’re not talking about priceless heirlooms here, just nice old everyday antiques. Amd the real beauty of an old bed is in its headboard and footboard, isn’t it?