Basement

I am named after my grandmother, whom we refer to as Nannan (my oldest cousin’s rendition of Nanny). Born in 1920 she grew up in western Kansas in the heart of the depression and dust bowl, which means she throws away ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Not only does she not throw things away, but thanks to a good ole Kansas basement, she has plenty of space to store everything. Probably you would refer to her as a hoarder… but in my world this just means a world of treasures that was available when I went to set up my own house.

When I moved into my house I had absolutely zero cash to invest in good furniture pieces, so I went to the only place I knew that I could get quality furniture for free… Nannan’s basement. As I go through the house tour you’ll notice that several pieces of furniture originated from her basement and got facelifts before taking up permanent residence in my house. (I’d show you a picture of the basement, but everyone deserves a dirty little secret or two… so I’ll leave Nannan’s a mystery)

One of my favorite pieces of furniture to come from her basement is a single oak bed. It had been passed over by aunts and cousins because no one needed a fairly ornate single bed. HOWEVER, this fit my goal for the office perfectly. It is a great second guest room option (especially for when my now widowed grandmother comes down to visit with my parents) and I didn’t mind the single size.

The only drawback was that after being in storage for so long it was in pretty sad shape. A piece of the side had chipped off and it had a white film over most of the bed. Sadly I don’t have any before pictures for you since I spruced it up before blogging. But I will tell you this stuff: Howard’s Feed-N-Wax is a miracle worker. Twenty minutes later and my sad looking wood bed was shining like it was brand new. And this stuff smells citrus-y so it was nice to use.

I love all the intricate details that add so much character to the bed. I also love that it belonged to my great grandparents, so it feels like it has a lot of history.

As for the chipped off corner, I used a little wood glue and a clamp put on overnight to fit the piece back on to the corner, and now you can barely tell it was ever missing!