McKenna's Bed Painted for Maple's Lab

We weren't really sure how to title this puppy so people could understand what they were getting into, haha.

Basically we are in the process of painting McKenna's Loft Bed set a (purposefully-mottled) crimson color to be the main focus of Maple's "Criminal Investigatory Laboratory." We are using an Indian Red Oxide heavy body Acrylic paint.

At first we kept the three pieces separate so it would be easier to work on them.

Bed top

Left side

Right side - As you can see we took cork board and glued it over the purple cushion board that was above the table and we also glued it onto the blank backside of that wall.

We cut off the green elastics from the cushion board before we glued the cork board onto it. For this part we used a spray adhesive, so the glue wouldn't get overly wet that it might damage the cork board.

We asked Miche Designs where they had gotten the cork board for the bottom of their doll espadrilles - and they had found it in a craft supply store.

So we went to Michael's and found some as well. It is very thin and mostly perfect for what we needed - cork board that we could easily cut to shape. But because it is thin it breaks easily. So you have to be careful when working with it (and buy more rolls than you actually need to play it safe).

Then we bought "utility grade soft copper" - 1/4" O.D. x 2' - from Home Depot. We cut it to the lengths we needed (with a metal cutter thingy - yes, that is the technical term) and then glued the copper pipes around the edges of the cork boards to make them look "finished."

Hint for hobbyists: We used bags of dried beans and dry rice to weigh down the copper pieces into place as the glue dried.

Before and After shots

Here you can see all three pieces together and some shots of the copper pipe edging on the front side. (We forgot to take pics of the backside - but we will do that eventually as the project progresses.)

Once we were taking flash photos of the bed we could see little bits of purple here and there that are not visible in normal room lighting. So we'll have to go over these areas with more crimson paint.

The top scrollwork of the bed will eventually be decorated with a series of gears and sprockets to create a clockwork system. And there will be a clock face at both ends of the bed, connected to the system. (No, the clocks won't work - well, they'll work in Maple's imagination, haha.)

Right now, we have only just started this clockwork process - so our pics reveal a semi-pathetic stage of this aspect of the project. Haha. They also reveal more little bits of purple we must paint over. ;-)

And we still have to work more on painting the inside of the cabinet and the undersides of the shelves. Not easy to get a paintbrush into all of these cracks and crevices. Heehee.

Any questions about the project?

Feel free to ask!

Stay tuned to see pics of the Quietude Quilts bedding set we revealed yesterday on zee bed!