Progress

Progress is being made.  The old sliding doors on the bathroom and pantry that were falling apart were removed and the two salvaged doors...

...were in place on the second day.

They're all trimmed out and ready to prime and paint.  Not sure about the orange X.  I think it means, no victims found, take the door.

I think it's a great improvement and I don't think Sam put any more than about 10 hours into the project.

Katy Elliot left me a comment the other day that she had a spool bed in her guest room (seen above).  Great mix of patterns, right?

If you don't know Katy Elliot, you should check out her blog.  She's been blogging since 2005 (can you imagine?) and has worked for House & Garden and Domino magazines.  In 2008, she and her husband Greg bought a 1750-ish house in Marblehead, Massachusetts and they're renovating it pretty much on their own.  I can't believe the projects they tackle on their own.

In the post on her guest bedroom, she had a link to another post on Jenny Lind beds where I saw this image above.  I love this room but is that a princess phone hanging on the wall?  Regardless, I'd be really happy if I could make my bed look like this.

Here's a reminder of what mine looked like when I bought it.

I here is the transformation in progress.  I'm using Minwax Brazilian Rosewood gel stain.  If you've never used it, it's an oil-based stain that can be used on wood, fiberglass or metal.  It's semi-transparent so you can let the underlying surface so through if you want.  I thought the underlying color of the paint would be a great base color for the stain to make it look more like real wood.

The original paint color is very close to Benjamin Moore Roxbury Caramel, HC-42.

You can see on the top rail and corner post, I've allowed some of the original paint color to show through so it has more depth.

The spools look pretty good but the flat surfaces need a second coat.  It does seem to take a few days to dry really well so plan accordingly if you're going to give it a try.  

I'm really pleased with how it's turning out.

And I'm thinking a light color rug will really help highlight the details of the bed.