Twin Bed Makeover

Giving This Tired Thrift Store Find a Revamp Fit for a King or in this Case my Toddler!

I Present to You the Problem….My Son Has Outgrown His Toddler Bed

Not long before my son’s fourth birthday I realized that he would soon be growing out of his toddler bed, my husband and I debated on whether we wanted to upgrade him to a twin or a full, we decided that for now he really only needed a twin but could always revisit it later as he continues to grow (time slow down, cue ugly tears from me). I purchased a twin mattress from Amazon along with a “bumper” to avoid my toddler rolling out of bed and some new bedding-and we were ready to roll, we just needed to find the perfect frame!! So began the search for a twin bed frame with good bones. I knew that I wanted a simple design that didn’t have a lot of curved detailing as it is harder to strip as I planned to refinish the frame to paint it with the same custom paint that all of his bedroom is painted with.

I began my search on Facebook Marketplace along with various local thrift stores and after a few weeks of casually searching I settled on the perfect find buried in the back of a pile of bed frames at a local thrift store (a lot of times you gotta dig for these gems)! It had everything I was looking for, was solid wood (it’s quite heavy) had a headboard and a foot board (to prevent my toddler from falling off the end of the bed) and it didn’t have too many curved details that can be such a pain during the refinishing process. I’ll drop a before picture below.

Before:

Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t say it looked good in it’s current state, it was old, dirty had a lot of scratches and what looked like bite marks in one of the legs (hopefully from a dog….) and the hot pink “Power Wheels” sticker really completed the look, but nonetheless I saw the potential! Plus I only paid $35 which included the two side rails, like I said a real diamond in the rough!!

Refinishing Plan

My plan for this piece was actually pretty simple, I wanted to strip and sand the head and foot board, the side rails are made from a pressed particle board so only needed a scuff sanding. I then wanted to prime and paint to custom match the rest of his bedroom furniture for a cohesive set. I’ve mentioned this in an earlier blog post about the bedside table redo I did for my toddler’s room but this paint color is a custom paint from Sherwin Williams that was based on a bookshelf that was originally in my son’s nursery (ironically isn’t even in his room anymore but we’re already on this path so just moving forward with it, plus I really do love the color!!) I’ll include a picture of the paint ratios below in case you’re wanting to try to duplicate this color!

Refinishing Process

I began as I typically do by stripping the head and footboard with Citristip stripper, as I mentioned earlier I skipped this step for the side rails as they are made from a pressed particle board material that typically only requires a scuff sanding prior to priming! The head and foot board cleaned up really nicely with Citrstrip, I was pleasantly surprised by how easily this top layer of finish stripped off!

After the stripping process it was time to move on to some repair work that was needed. I added some wood filler along a few cracks in both the head and foot boards and also did some repair work with wood filler to the feet of the headboard and the footboard. I basically reshaped these feet so that they were restored to their original shape.

Sanding

It was now time to move on to the sanding process. I sanded the head and foot board with 60 grit, 180 grit, and then 220 grit sandpaper with my orbital sander, I completed this process on the curved detailing by hand (oh so fun)! I then scuff sanded the side rails with a 180 grit sandpaper.

Priming and Painting

After the sanding was complete I gave all of the pieces of the frame a good cleaning with Krud Kutter and a heavy duty scrubber brush that attaches to a standard drill. After allowing the pieces to dry I wiped with a tack cloth and then got to priming! I applied one coat of Zissner 1, 2, 3 Bullseye primer to all of the pieces of the frame. This is my personal go-to for priming furniture pieces, it adheres to all different types of surfaces really well and allows for the paint to really stick to the furniture.

After allowing time for the primer to dry I moved on to painting. I applied three coats of the custom color match enamel paint from Sherwin Williams, I used a foam roller to get a really smooth finish and I actually didn’t sand between coats, if I had been selling this piece I probably would have but I was on a serious time crunch to get this done as I had already moved the toddler bed out of my son’s room and there was no going back (he and my husband were out of town visiting family while I completed this project). I’m not sure if the paint is just super fogiving or if the foam roller made that much of a difference but it’s actually really hard to tell that I skipped this usual step! After painting on the three coats I followed this by one coat of the Varathane semi-gloss crystal clear poly top coat. Since this paint is a high gloss, enamel paint I was able to get away with only one coat of sealer, also bed frames aren’t a super high-traffic area so that along with the time crunch situation played a role into my decision to forgo additional coats of sealer. After allowing for dry time for the sealer the bed frame was finished!

Quick Reminder of the Frame Before Refinishing

And Here is the Frame After the Refinishing Process Was Complete

Final Thoughts

This was a perfect beginner-friendly weekend project DIY. If you need a new piece of furniture and you’re wanting to dip your toes into DIY I’d highly recommend starting with a bed frame, start pursuing your local thrift stores and steer clear of frames that have a lot of curved detailing to keep it easier! Plus you could easily get away with this flip with no tools, I used my orbital sander but you could sand everything by hand to make it more beginner friendly!
This project was also very budget friendly, I spent $200 on this project which includes the mattress and all of the bedding, it certainly helps that it is a twin frame but still that is very reasonable for a bed upgrade!
I also have a video of this DIY makeover up on my YouTube channel which you can check out here if you’re interested!!!