Repurposed for the best reason!

  I am all for making use of whatever is on hand instead of running out to buy new.  It just seems that we all turned into a "throwaway society" a while back.  It makes me happy to see the so-called "weekend crafters" turning unwanted items into useful things.  While this is all fine and dandy, what does make me sad, is to see folks cutting into, repainting, lopping in half all sorts of antique furniture.  Come on, folks!  If you dismantle and demolish something that is already useful as is, you are defeating the purpose.  Plus, those precious antique pieces that were made solely by hand, can never be replaced. I can say, though, that you are doing the antique dealers a fine service as once you deplete the source of antique furniture, the dealers can raise the price astronomically!  Not good for collector but good for the shop owners! However, if you take something that is beyond any sort of use and repurpose it into a new and useful thing, it is helpful.

  For the past thirty years or so, I have held onto a weird assortment of bed pieces.  By pieces, I am referring to the fact that I had three bed posts. five unmatched railings, one footboard spindle and five headboard decorative pieces.  All except for the railings, the items came from the same bed.  Just about the time that our first house burned to the ground (due to faulty wiring in a brand new radio!), some acquaintances' house caught on fire.  While we lost everything, their fire was contained to two rooms.  This is how the headboard and posts came into our possession.  Even though we were in dire straits ourselves, Mark went to help these folks clear up the mess.  He was sent home with the odd pieces.  Even though some were quite charred, I kept the pieces all of these years because I knew something fantastical could be created with them!  I was right!

  The need has suddenly arisen for the Little Bayou House to have a toddler bed.  My grandbabies are coming to visit!  The grand-princess is in need of a bed!  I posed the dilemma to Son and let him ponder the answer.  He is always good at solving things.  Sure enough, the next thing I knew, he was pulling the strange pieces of wood from the shed.  "Can I use these?" he asked.  I assured him that he was more than welcome to start creating....and he did.

  
  Son sawed, sanded, drilled and fitted the posts, railings and other pieces until he created a toddler sized bed.  He toted the parts inside and assembled his creation!  I was elated.  "Sorry it does not look like much." he said "I had to use a bunch of different types of wood.  Some are unfinished while others have different stains."  A thought went through my mind.  I can fix that!

   The whole thing was slathered with two coats of soft beige latex paint.  By slathering, I mean that I took no pains with getting a good coverage.  I just wanted a base for my next step.  Since nothing in the Little Bayou House looks "new", I did not want the little bed to look out of place. I took a hint from my gourd art.  My next step was to wax the bed with...of all things...shoe wax.  I used a dark brown wax over the entire bed and then buffed it with a shoe brush.  Yep, make do with what you have is a good mantra!  We added a crib mattress and the toddler bed was complete!  

  The great thing about the way Son made the bed is that when Grand-princess Mary Ruth is not using it as a bed, it can be used as a bench! Son built the thing sturdy enough to hold two adults and made the legs adjustable so it can be raised to bench height.  Now...tell me...is he smart or what?  

  His creation makes me glad that I am sort of a pack rat.  He looked at the other odd post and told me that he could make a great candlestick!  I do think I should show him the rest of the odds and ends of scrap furniture that I have saved over the years.  Perhaps now is the time that the weird assortment shall be repurposed into useful items!