Arts and Crafts find #1

Car boot sales are remarkable places to discover traditional hand tool woodworking and to discover hand tool methods and techniques for creating hand inlays you might not access in antique shops without drawing attention. No one usually bothers at car boots. I found this Arts and Crafts bed quite lovely–creative and inspiring. What do you think?

Arts and Crafts inlay motif

Arts and Crafts profiled top rail

Imagine buying a genuine piece like this double bed for £150. Look at the inlay work in panels of quarter-sawn oak and framed with a framework exemplary of solid joinery. The colours are gently absorbing and so too the shapes encapsulated within the frame of inlay satinwood and ebony. Had I need of a bed I would buy it and remake it into a conventional sized bed.

This bed has cast iron supports that carry the spring frame, but it’s a simple thing to adapt it if you can find the right sized mattress and box spring, which might be a challenge. But, anyway, I love the shapes and the inlays and the oak. I find the simplicity of Arts and Crafts pieces really inspiring.

Arts and Crafts profiled top rail