Sofa Bed

Update 10th Jan - I wasn't very happy with the colour of the photos that I originally uploaded onto this post, so have added some new ones this morning.
The little Victorian iron bed that stood in our spare single bedroom was fine, until the mattress was placed on top...The photo below shows it without, but the 8" thick mattress, when placed onto the base, made the overall height approx 26" from the floor.

Given that the bed will mostly be used by our little granddaughter when she's old enough, I was worried that this height would give her some problems getting in and out and also be dangerous were she to fall out during the night. As I mentioned in a previous post, I managed to buy a beautiful old French bed at my local flea market, which will replace the iron bed in the spare room when we've done the work on it.

It seemed a shame to get rid of the iron bed though, as its very comfortable and we originally had to have the base and mattress specially made for it, as its a non-standard 2'9" wide. And with having three daughters, we often have their friends staying-over at short notice, so an extra bed is always handy!

We decided to try to create a sofa out of the old bed and slot it in under the staircase in the hall. We removed the castors from the feet and just used the wooden base on the metal frame, hiding the mattress underneath, which will keep it to hand if ever we need an extra bunk!

I've padded the base with various quilts and a duvet, which I've disguised with my favourite antique patchwork.

Any spare cushions that I could find were slung casually on top and a rolled-up eiderdown makes a comfy back support along the wall.

I'm sure it will develop and change over time, as nothing stays still for long in our house ;-))

- A painted bench that was here in the hall previously, is now in our master bedroom - I'll show this on another post, along with other projects (like painting the French bed) which I'm still trying to find the time for.

Niki x