As you know, I have been working on Ella's bedroom... slowly but surely I am getting there. I purchased a beautiful antique iron bed off of Craigslist but needed to check it for lead paint and seal it before I put it in her room.
Here is a little cell phone teaser picture to give you an idea of the bed {I will show the full pics when I show the completed room!}.
I headed to The Home Depot to pick up one of these Lead Check test kits. You can find them in the paint section. {I did this before I had the baby, when I was hugely pregnant... you can see my baby bump sneaking its way into the picture 🙂 P.S. sorry about the bad pics... I was working in the garage on a cloudy day}
Two swabs came in the kit, and I used them both on different areas of the bed just to be sure.
All you do is follow the instructions enclosed in the kit to prepare the swab to be used. You basically squeeze the section it tells you to squeeze, which breaks a vial inside the swab. Then you shake while squeezing until the tip is saturated. Then you just rub the swab on your surface for 30 seconds. If the swab turns red or pink, there is lead present. If not, you are in the clear.
Thankfully mine was not red or pink, so we were lead free!
As you can see, there was still some chippy-ness on the bed, especially on the frame and I didn't want to put that in Ella's room without sealing it.
To seal it, I used this awesome clear satin finish Polycrylic. It won't yellow like a Polyurethane will. {Miss Mustard Seed also uses Polycrylic to seal pieces that DO have lead paint... see here} A little bit went a long way, and I actually only ended up using one can for the whole bed. I used 3 coats on the bed to give it a nice seal, and because of the satin finish, you can hardly even tell it has a protective coat on it. You have to look really closely to tell. I really wanted it to look as original and untouched as possible so I was really happy about this!
It has been in her room for 4 months now and has held up beautifully. That finish is extra solid and I love it.
I can't wait to show you more when the room is finished! I did give another peek during our Christmas home tour {here} and also asked for your advice about the bedding {here}. We are getting there!
Michelle H
Beautiful bed! K. Joy, you can get side rails for the bed that just tuck in between the mattress and box spring. I've also read of people using pool noodles rolled into one side of the fitted sheet. If the bed isn't up against a wall, maybe you could sew pockets for a noodle on each side? Depends on how wiggly your guy is. My now 4 year old would literally lunge up into the air in his sleep!!
Marie Blackburn
Hi Kristen - I was at Home Depot the other day looking for these and they didn't have a clue what I was talking about in the paint section and otherwise. I'm wondering if this is another amazing product not sold in Canada!
Marie@TheInteriorFrugalista
K.Joy
I have an iron bed nearly identical for my 2 yr old but have not yet put him in it. My concern is how high it is off the floor (if he rolls out) and have considered just using the mattress without the box spring. Have you had any issues with Ella and her bed height? also, its so high he may need a little stool to even climb up to it! Suggestions?