Saving a French Style Daybed

wedge hidden among pillows

wedge pillow ready for a bookworm

Psalm 37:7 Rest in the Lord

note the one brass clad foot and the brass applique on the footboard,aslo the wood inlay...just love it

Maybe 10 years ago at the good ol' Salvation Army my eyes fell upon a dusty dirty headboard and footboard.It was very diminuative in height and I wasn't quite sure at the time what it was,perhaps a child's bed, for which I had no need. As I looked more closely,underneath the dirt and dust ,I could see some ornate embellishments, inlaid wood designs and a brass application on the footboard and one of the legs. The other legs were missing theirs...I really didn't have much use for it but the $30 price tag beckoned to me.
I dutifully carried my treasure home and shoved it in my overstuffed garage always keeping it in mind but never really figured out what to do with it.
Since it was in relativeley poor condition I prevailed upon my husband to cut it in such a fashion that I could use it in constructing a window seat in one of the bedrooms...thankfully and as usual he dragged his feet in helping me out with this,my latest scheme,poor longsuffering man that he is.
While waiting for the carpentry work to be done,I began to take a closer look at the bed and it's one little brass cladded foot and it's lovely inlaid wood design. A surge of guilt fell over me for planning it's demise. A good cleaning with orange oil brought out the true beauty of the piece,flawed as it was...so logging on to ebay I promptly ordered 2 bed rails and plotted what could I do with this poor rescued waif.
Having recently discarded our monstrosity of a computer for laptops, I no longer had the eyesore planted in the middle of the loft.After moving furniture around a bit ,I found the perfect corner.Until now I had a sofa in there along with an antique library book case and a couple of odds and ends,making our loft area a very nondescript area,serviceable but not really decorated and certainly not "victorian".Now this orphan daybed has inspired a whole new approach.
Using a mattress left over from my daughter's twin bed and tons of pillows covered with great coordinated upholstery materials(more thriftstore finds that had been lurking in my linen closet for years)A beautiful french style daybed brightened the room. I also covered a wedge pillow in coordinating fabric for curling up and reading a good book.
Welcome to my home sweet orphan, I will love and cherish you and relish your presence and will be only too proud to introduce you to to friends and relatives.
Just to show how I covered a 13.00 wedge pillow to add comfort to my daybed and show how well it looks concealed among the rest of the pillows... I just made an outline of the pillow on a double fold of the  fabric adding  enough for seam allowance. I then stiched it  up placing it on the wedge and slipstiched the bottom seam that was left open for squeezing the wedge pillow into it. It's much more attractive than the hot pink it once was.(See picture at beginning of article.