This is Not Your Father's Hospital Bed

You may recall several months ago, when I wrote this post regarding my feelings about getting Dear Son's new hospital bed. I was worried that it would look institutional and not feel like home. I thought I'd share with you the changes I made.


He received his hospital bed a while back. The bed had metal and plastic universal end pieces which meant the headboard and footboard were the same height. While perfectly functional, it looked odd with the headboard so short. I wanted to make the bed look more inviting, like a teenager's bed might be and more modern so I made a few changes.

Here is the before picture. Note the dreary color of the headboard and footboard and the low height. Very boring.



I took the bed apart and painted the headboard and footboard black. I decided to create a faux headboard to create some height to the actual headboard. This was a tad difficult since I could not remove the headboard on the hospital bed since it was functional. I decided to create something to sit behind the actual headboard that visually would look like the same headboard.

My initial idea was to create a mosaic glass tile headboard in shades of yellow to match the spread. The goal was the one inch glass tiles would mimic the pattern in the spread. I soon learned that not only is it difficult to find glass tiles, but there was a minimum quantity to order. The most difficult part was that yellow was the hardest of all colors to make so the selection was quite limited. I never found what I was looking for so I went to Plan B.

Plan B involved creating a faux headboard out of bamboo. I spray painted the bamboo a gloss black to match the newly painted headboard and footboard and had Dear Son's Dad attach it to the wall. This creates more height to the headboard visually and allows the bed to remain fully functional.



Here is a picture of the entire bed where you see both the headboard and the footboard.


After I finished the headboard, I labeled the items in his nightstand.


I still have a few more things to do; reline his nightstand, swap out the knobs from pewter to shiny silver ones to match the side rails, but other than that, it's done. I wanted it to reflect Dear Son so the picture above his bed is one I took at the Arboretum last fall. Dear Son loves the outdoors and we love to walk there. At least now, it feels more like a room and less like a hospital bed.

What was most surprising was Dear Son's reaction when I put him to bed. He couldn't stop looking at the headboard and smiling. He got up at 4:15 a.m. the next day and was staring at it. Any time he wakes up and needs his diaper changed, he looks at it and smiles. That's the best part of any makeover. Even Dear Son can see that.