Last winter while pregnant with our second son, I started to think about where we were going to put the little guy. Would we turn our guest room into the baby’s? Or have him bunk up with his big brother? My husband is the youngest of three boys, and ultimately made the call. Share a room. He grew up in New York. He and his middle brother, Tim, shared a bedroom in which they would invent games, do their homework together, throw a ball back and forth. Hearing him talk about it, I wanted our boys to make their own memories in a shared room. Practically speaking, this meant finding twin beds, which is easier said than done. I knew I wanted a sort of early 20th century iron bed frame. I love these Hamilton Steel Bed Frames from Schoolhouse Electric in Oregon, but at $1,250 each they were a little out of my budget:
And then I made the eBay score of the century—two brass beds from 1901 for less than the price of one of the above. These beds had been living in the Reno garage of a Berkeley professor’s parents. The parents had purchased them from the Tahoe Tavern (below)—Lake Tahoe’s first grand hotel, which burned down in the 1960s—and their boys grew up sleeping in these solid brass beds.
The frames are so heavy you can barely lift them—so much more substantial and enduring than anything you could buy new. I love the history behind them, and I bet they last another 110 odd years. They look great with vintage Superman sheets (another eBay score!) and a summer-weight cotton Ticking Stripe Blanket in Breton red from Brahms Mount. We picked up an eco-friendly Sultan Heggedal mattress and box spring from Ikea, and I covered the box spring with a fitted percale sheet with yellow stars from Garnet Hill for my little superhero instead of a dust ruffle for a less fussy look.
One day we’ll have both beds set up, but for now we just have the one along with a crib featuring more red stripes and this Roberta Roller Rabbit baby blanket for my littlest monkey!
