Bed Makeover

For my first project for the Tween Zebra Room I chose to do the easiest and quickest piece of furniture in the room....the bed.

BOY WAS I WRONG. How hard can it be to spray paint a metal frame?? Well if you live in South GA where it's 100% humidity most of the time, getting paint to dry is a hassle. Not to mention this time of year is so hot and the afternoon brings nasty thunderstorms that leave even more moisture in the air in its wake. SO, this wasn't the easiest and quickest project as I expected!

Here's what I started with: plain white metal frame bed.

After taking the bed apart I lightly sanded the headboard, footboard and rails so the paint would adhere well.

I used Valspar Paint and Primer In One spray paint in Black Satin. This is the first time I've used Valspar spray paint and I'm not highly impressed. It's suppose to spray at any angle and didn't perform well in that area. It seemed to take days for the paint to fully dry, which honestly I believe is due to our wonderful weather here too.

As you can see below I had to prop my pieces up and I protected the entire area with plastic. Because of this and the unexpected dry time, I had issues. I sprayed one side and let it dry overnight. The next day I flipped the headboard and sprayed the other side and let it dry overnight as well. When I went back my frame was stuck to the plastic and messed it up in several spots on the first side I had painted.

I was not happy. I touched up the damaged areas as best as I could. But I'm a perfectionist so this really bugs me.

In addition to that issue, I ended up with another:

TIP#1 Don't walk on the plastic barefoot haha







I finally finished spray painting the headboard and footboard with a couple coats of black, plus fixed all the imperfections I created with "obviously not completely dry" boo boo's. I wanted to make sure I protected the new finish that I worked so hard on and added a clear coat.

This is the headboard. As you can see, that didn't work out so well either. The "clear" coat had a yellowish tint and looked horrid. I seriously wanted to cry at this point.

This is the footboard, and as you can see it looks perfectly fine without the clear coat. 











I sanded the headboard down AGAIN and spray painted it AGAIN. And then just like before had to fix imperfections from the headboard sticking to the plastic, even though I waited DAYS in between for it to "dry completely". (The world was against me at this point)

TIP#2 As suggested by my dear friend Louise, rig the headboard to hang in the air from the rafters, etc with cup hooks, i hooks or some such contraption. (Dunce moment) Thank you Louise!

Still wanting to protect my newly painted finish, I bought a non-yellowing clear coat in a gloss finish, made by good ol' Krylon. My fav. I never should have cheated on you with Valspar. I'm so sorry.

After a good coat of clear finish was added I let it sit and dry. For 3 days. On the last day I baked it in the 100 degree sun for good measure ;)

This is going to look great in her Tween Zebra Room! Now on to some other smaller projects that hopefully will not test my sanity as much as this bed did....