Restored QLD Maple full size bed.

[Gravestone]

I posted a few pictures of this bed suite in the welcome forum and thought I'd share the restoration process with you all here.
During a long search for a new bed on second-hand sites I spotted this frame. It was cheap and uncared for but the design was something different. On inspection what looked like a a japan black stain in the pictures turned out to be some horrible deep green stain / paint wash, beneath however you could see there were nice quarter-sawn open grain boards, which, coupled with the fact it was full-size frame and not queen as advertised made me suspect it was an older piece that could be worth the time to fix up.
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Stripping the boards back took quite sometime due to the open grain having really soaked up the previous finish. With the old finish nearly removed I ditched the orbital sanded and began working by hand starting at 240 down to 800grit raising the grain for the last few passes. From here I spent alot of time reading up on finishes and making trips to Goods & Chattels in Ferny Grove before trying my hand at french polishing. With 15 or so patient coats of shellac over the course of about 2 weeks I managed to get a very even glass like finish with no 'orange peel' effect or drips. Finally I buffed with wax and 000 grade steel wool to slightly dull the high gloss look.

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I have made (will make) two changes to this bed; the first being replacing the herringbone patterned veneer for the footboard with all new timber as the original was too porous and could not be stripped enough to remove the old finish. Secondly I cut and extended the original steel bed rails to fit a custom mattress of queen length to accommodate my 6'5" frame.

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For very little financial outlay I ended up with an interesting bed suite and a couple of new skills to boot. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the final result.

[crowie]

Now that's one very nice and well restored piece of furniture...You've certain put a whole heap of TLC & patience into the restoration, well done.
One might hope you can find the rest of the that beautiful bedroom suite to complete the room. CXheers, crowie

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Queensland Maple is a beautiful timber and you have done a great job of restoring its beauty - well done indeed. It will look even better when you finish the footboard. You will either need some pretty spiffy figure for that or else perhaps look for some maple veneer to reproduce the original effect. Restoration always tries to keep the item as original as possible.

[artme]

What they said .

Fabulous to see that gorgeous grain reveled!!