Transforming an Old-fashioned Bed to a Modern Queen or King Size

Antique beds are rarely set up for modern day queen and king sized mattresses and box springs. Many people want regular queen or king bedding, or at least the old standard, a full or double size.

In between 100 to 150 years ago, before fitted sheets, the exact size of a bed and mattress wasn't so important. The average height was much shorter, and beds might be any size with feather beds or home-made mattresses.

Within the 1890's, manufactured bedding came out, and the standard double or full size was about 72" x 52." Antique dealers refer to the older, smaller-than-double size beds as "three-quarter," although they are able to vary an excellent deal in size. Complicating the issue are European beds, created to entirely different dimensions.

The typical problem is how you can enlarge an antique bed to a contemporary desirable size with out ruining the proportions and appearance of the original bed.

Our cabinetmakers have carried out conversions for many years. We utilize regular brown steel rails for either full/double or queen/king length. We attach these rails to the headboard with bolts that go securely via the headboard itself. Sometimes, we need to add a sturdy piece of wood to have a secure place to bolt the rails. At the footboard, we attach a rugged steel plate fitted with welded-on bolts. (We have by no means been able to discover such plates, so we created them and have them fabricated in a machine shop.) This application is carried out on the inside of the footboard so absolutely nothing shows from the outside. This allows the steel rails to be attached extremely securely with nothing showing on the outside of the antique footboard. The bed can then be set up and taken down repeatedly by merely unscrewing the nuts and bolts at each corner.

If it is ever decided to return these "converted" beds to their original sizes using the original wooden rails, the steel fittings may be taken away without any noticeable harm to the bed itself.

An additional aspect in utilizing antique bed frames for contemporary regular bedding will be the thickness of springs and mattresses. Most bedding shops adore to sell very thick or "pillow-top" mattresses that may be too tall and cover a lot of the stunning old headboards. If much more of the headboard should be showing, thinner mattresses and springs should be ordered from the bedding shop. The point would be to measure from the steel rails as much as the specified top of the mattress to determine what thickness could be perfect prior to ordering a new mattress. The eventual appearance ought to be as thought out, not the delight of a foot taller than expected!