One Neighbor's Trash...(Updated July 2014)

...is OUR TRIPLE ROCKER!!  Thank you little J & S for prompting your parents to upgrade your sleeping situation to a set of bunkbeds.  First of all, I was a child at one time, too.  (If you ask my handsome handy husband (Triple H) he will tell you I still act like a child from time to time.  It's part of my charm, I tell him!) And as a child, I shared a set of bunkbeds with my little brother Michael.
 
Yes, my dad frequently called me Stevie Joe until his boy was born.  As the only male child with three older sisters, it was Michael's duty to torment us (me).  I being the closest in age to him became his victim/best friend.  I recall one morning waking up in my bottom bunk to find a fake plastic vampire bat hanging from his top bunk right in my face.  Good times!  Good times!  So, bunkbeds and siblings are a right of passage.  Have fun with them neighbor boys while WE (Triple H & I) have fun sitting on our front porch rocking the night away in our triple rocker made from your old discarded bed.

We spotted the bed about a year ago, I'd guess, in the neighbor's trash.  A quick call confirmed it was free for the taking.  So, we grabbed it.  It silently stood in our garage until this summer when it's number was called and work began on it's transformation.
We used the headboard in it's entirety. 



 



The footboard, however, was cut and became the sides of the triple rocker.  Not in half, mind you, because that would have made for too deep of a rocker. The newel posts on the footboard were removed and saved for another project down the road. We framed the rocker with wood we had salvaged from an old project.
 
There's the framing in of the seat.  Look at our Heavy Metal Industrial Entertainment Center peeking out behind it!  (Buy me for your Man Cave!  I'm one of a kind!)

 

At this point we started discussing options for the armrests.  That's when I remembered my little $3 table I had picked up when shopping for The Park Ridge Project.  It was a short table at 17".  Not really a practical height for a table if you ask me.  Weird really.  I suggested we use the table top for the armrests.  

Those table legs we saved for another project some day.  Or a sword fight among kids would be fun, too!  Always use your imagination people.  

After cutting the armrests, I sanded and stained them while handsome handy husband made the rockers...

Putty was used to fill in the areas where the headboard originally attached to the side rails.  The chair went up on the lift and the rockers were applied.  

Then of course we had to test it out and it rocked!  (We still see you peeking out from behind there you awesome head bangin' former dumpster dresser!  We love and adore you.)

Now that the construction was pretty much completed, it was time for yours truly to do the finishing work - painting & staining.  Fun, fun!  

While the bed was made from Maple, the table top turned armrests were Hickory.  I couldn't paint over that beautiful woodgrain, and as I mentioned above they were stained.  The rest was all painted black from our paint stash.  Then distressed and stained with an aged oak gel stain from our stain stash.

As is our way, whether it is a remodeling project or a furniture project, we ALWAYS sign our work.  I hope I'm a ghost one day (in a 100 years would work) and can see the reaction of the future occupants of our home when they find all of the little notes hidden inside the walls of this old house.  Then once they discover them, I'll jump out and yell "BOO!".  

I tend to leave longer notes if it's for the house's future owners or ourselves.  I wouldn't normally leave such a long note on a furniture project to sell.  This rocker is a keeper, thus the wordiness hidden under the seat.  

That was it.  After all of that work our neighbor's former bed was turned into our Triple Rocker.  Here she is in all her glory...

Some close-ups...

We love this rocker.  We imagine rocking many a night away in it.  Let's take one more look and then that's the last you'll hear from us on this until we make the next one.  

If YOU have a furniture flip you'd like to share with our readers, please feel free to email before & after pics with all of the details to me at furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .  If you have any questions on any of the flips we feature here, also don't hesitate to email us.  If it's not one of our flips, we'll put you in touch with the ones who did flip it.  

Finally, if you haven't subscribed yet by email to the blog, do so today!  We'd hate for you to miss out on all the cool furniture flips we share.  Only a small fraction are ours, the rest all belong to YOU talented people.  Thanks for coming along with us on this fun project.  Furniture Flippin' Facebook friends were treated to updates along the way.  We appreciated your support and encouragement throughout this Triple Rocker Project.  

Oh, handsome handy husband - YOU ROCK!  Without your carpentry skills this would just be a bed taking up space in the garage.  

UPDATE - July 2014 - Okay let me just tell you this...the Triple Rocker is totally awesome.  We love it madly.  However, it was totally uncomfortable.  Was being the operative word.  No longer though!  Thanks to our dear friend Elly of Elly's Custom Upholstery it is now all dressed up with a custom cushion and matching pillows.  I selected the indoor/outdoor fabric from swatches that Elly carries and she created this beautiful cushion.  Check it out...

Isn't it gorgeous?  I can't wait to sit out there on my porch and wave at all of the speeders and people who drive by while talking on their cell phones.  I'll have a better view of them now, seeing how the cushion is 3" thick and Triple H also shortened our too-tall front porch railing by a few inches.  I may even be able to get license plate numbers now!  Hehehehe...have you made YOUR Triple Rocker yet?  Send me a picture of it if you have!

Stephanie