French Provincial Bed

In 2003 I saw an magazine advertisement for a French Provincial bed with gentle curves and low hung stature that appealed to my eye.  About the same time I had a chance to buy some select grade curly cherry from a local saw mill.  I tucked the wood away in my drying attic to cure and proceeded on other projects and life events.  Like many things the bed project got put off  until the time was right – 12 years later.  Well here is the results of my procrastination.

The foot post were turned on a lathe and attached to the foot rail. The frame is shown before the slats (leaning on the wall in the corner) are installed.

The curly cherry was very cooperative and did not exhibit a high degree of grain tear-out during machining. Gentle curves removes all potentially sharp corners on the headboard and lathe turned foot post. The low hung stature of the headboard was abruptly changed when the most difficult client – my wife – decided the headboard should be higher.  I would recommend that when you order this bed design you retain the original 48 inches high headboard instead of the 56 inches high headboard shown.

Specifications as shown

Cherry although any fine furniture grade wood could be sustituted

Queen size mattress (60 inches width) with 56 inches high headboard.  3.5 inches floor clearance of bed rails,  22 inches mattress height from floor level.

Finish

The French Provincial bed  has a custom stain made with Penetrol (65%) Linseed Oil (10%) Sherwin Williams Polyurethane (10%) Indian red artist pigment (8%) burnt sienna (7%).  It is top coated with Varathene Waterborne Polyurethane.

If you would like more information on ordering your french provincial bed, please contact me at findoutmore@wccwood.com.  Other questions and comments are also welcome.