This piece was commisioned as a companion piece to an armoire I had built a year earlier. The earlier piece was a hybrid French Provincial design. While this piece has a strong visual grounding in the French Provincal style, there are no beds that looked remotely like this—in order to retain the small cabriole leg in the design (which was one of the several motives that tied the bed to the armoire), I realized that Chinese beds gave a stronger basis to the design. I found the mix of two quite different styles to be a lot of fun, and ultimately created a successful design.
This piece was also built from a supply of exquisite walnut that had come from his grandmother's Missouri farm nearly 50 years before.