A New Headboard!

I finally got our headboard made! It only took me 2 years.... I've been itching for an upholstered headboard since we got our new bed 2 years ago. I've been pinning headboards on Pinterest for a while to get some inspiration.

After a lot of thinking about what I liked, what I was willing to build and how much it would cost. I decided on a slight curve on the top with nail head trim around the edges. I found the fabric in the remnant pile at Hancocks. It's an upholstery fabric in a dark greyish-brown.
This was my inspiration pic of what I wanted to make.

Source

I'm going to give a rough tutorial on this, or rather what I did.

Since I wanted a slight curve on the top of the headboard, I took the plywood to my dad to cut the curve for me. After cutting it down to the size we wanted (38"x76"), we found the middle and I used some freezer paper to to draw half of a curve, then flipped it over to the other half. This is so both sides are exactly the same. Then my dad cut it using his jigsaw.

I took it home and sanded all the edges down and wiped it down with a wet cloth. I brought it inside and laid it down on the floor of our bedroom to work on. I started by cutting the foam down to size. When it fit just right I used some spray adhesive on the plywood and then laid the foam on top using heavy books to keep it in contact with the adhesive.

If you do this I have some tips. 1. I wouldn't suggest doing this inside unless you can open some windows (which I did). 2. It's a spray so there will be over-spray. Use a drop cloth.

I also sprayed the top of the foam and laid down some quilters batting. This helps hide the foam seams and softens the edges. I highly recommend this step. The batting was about $5 with a coupon at Hancocks (or JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby), for a package. I have a king sized bed so using the batting for a twin sized quilt (it says on the package) was perfect.

While waiting for all the adhesive to dry, I cut my fabric to size and ironed it.

Then I flipped the headboard up so I could lay the fabric down and then flipped the board over. This was the fun part in my opinion. I like to staple!

Pic courtesy of Trey

I'm sure there are tons of ways to do this and everyone has their own way so find what works for you. For me, I like to start on one end and staple it with a few staples, then move to the next side. When I get to a side that the opposite side has been stapled (clear as mud?) I start pulling to get it good and tight.

Now, for me after I finished putting in just a few staples on all sides I flipped it up and saw a big wrinkle. So, I just stood it up and pulled staples out of the top and redid all the staples pulling it as tight as I needed.

I was intending on using nail head trim all around the edges but I ran into a few problems. First, I didn't have anywhere near enough. I'd bought 4 packages of 24. I knew I didn't have enough but that's all I could get my hands on locally. Second, I think I should have done them before stapling the whole thing, but I didn't know for sure. After talking with David about it we decided to go without. I'd looked on Amazon for nail heads and it would have cost me about $25 to get the rest of the trim and I wasn't willing to do that. We also figured that if at a later time we wanted it we could probably do it.

We decided to hang the headboard on the wall instead of hooking it to the frame. We wanted it to be very secure. My dad suggested using a 2x4 attached to the wall (in the studs) then attach another to the headboard and then sit the hb 2x4 on top of the wall 2x4 and then screw 4" screws into both boards from the top. I hope that makes sense, if not and you want to know what I mean leave a comment and I'll try to explain better.

Ok, so after all of that, we were done!!! We put the mattresses back, remade the bed (with my new $17 king size sheets from Kohl's, thank you Black Friday!) And 2 weeks ago I made some new throw pillow covers. I love the patterned ones, they add so much life to the room. I tend to lean to monochromatic in my decorating, even when I try not to! So this touch of bold pattern (it's bold for me!) is just right for this room.

I LOVE IT! It finally feels like a real bed, and not just a set of mattresses shoved against the wall! It's cushy to lean on too. The wall that our bed is on is an outside wall and we have an old house and so in the colder months that wall is cold and without a headboard you could feel the cold air seeping into the bed. Now our bed will stay cozy! And David loves it too.

Ok here's a before:

And now the after again:

SO much better!

So that was my big project finally finished! If feels so good to be done and I'm so happy with the way it turned out.

Have you ever made a headboard? Was it upholstered or something else?

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Plant Pot Cover Tutuorial

Happy Thanksgiving! This will be my last post till next week, while I spend time with the family and work on completing some projects to share next week!

A couple of weeks ago I shared about some things that I'd received from my great-aunt, one being a plant stand. Well, I just found out that it wasn't originally a plant stand. It was my great-great-grandmother's pedestal that she kept in her foyer with a basket on top to collect calling cards from her guests! I thought that was so cool!

Anyway, I had 2 plants in the living room sitting right next to each other on the little stool. But the pedestal only has room for one plant so I took the other to our bedroom and moved the stool.

I've been trying to figure out what to put on the dresser and I really like the plant there.

However.

I did not like the pot it was in, so I decided to cover it.

Several years ago, we were at a Christmas party and they were having a dirty Santa/white elephant thing going on. And one of the "gifts" was a plant cover supposedly from Pottery Barn. I snagged it because I knew I could use it. I've always liked it.

So I set out to make something similar.

Here's what you need:
concrete form
knife (not a good kitchen knife)
spray paint (optional)
painter's tape or masking tape
fabric
hot glue gun/glue
fabric glue (optional)
trimming (optional)
lavender oil

I picked up a concrete form at Lowe's for about $8, it was on the side wall in the lumber dept. It's more than you will need for this project but you never know what you could use the rest for in the future!

Then at home I checked to see if it would fit around my pot and it wouldn't. SO, I decided to change pots to a skinnier version. The new pot didn't have a water catcher thing on the bottom so I found a plastic party plate to put under it. My pot is intended for outside use not indoor plants but that's all I had on hand. The concrete form only comes in one size, so it was either come up with another option or get a new pot.

After moving the plant around, I measured how tall I wanted the cover to be. In my case I chose 9" tall. And then marked the form on one end all the way around.

Then I used some painters tape to mark a horizontal line around the form.

Now take an old knife or one you can sharpen, I have what I call a garage knife (old kitchen knife) and started cutting along the tape, using it as a guide. I also used the tape to help keep the edges a bit smoother. It probably isn't that big of a deal but if nothing else it helped give me a clear line for cutting.

After cutting it I kind of smoothed the raw edge as much as I could (it's just heavy duty cardboard). Then I took it out to the garage to paint it. Since the form is an orange color I didn't want it to show through my fabric, so I grabbed a can of grey primer and just gave it a quick coat. The lettering will still show through but I wasn't worried about that, just covering the orange.

If your fabric is dark or thick you could skip this step.

It didn't take very long to dry. I sprayed it then jumped in the shower and it was completely dry.

Now the fun part!

I got my fabric in a remnant pile for less than $1. It's a small weave, soft burlap type of fabric. I measured out it out, I wanted at least an inch of an overhang on the bottom and a couple on the top, so I cut it 12" tall. As far as how wide I didn't measure, I did a dry run with the fabric around the form and made sure I had enough to overlap.

I then ironed a "hem" of about a 1/4" on both ends. I didn't want a raw edge to show when I overlapped the ends. Then I used some fabric glue to glue the hem down. You could use hot glue if you don't have fabric glue. I used the fabric glue because I knew it would hold the fabric down flatter than the hot glue, which can leave bumps. Of course the edges would be in the back but sometimes I get picky about these things.

Then I started hot-gluing the fabric around the form. I glued the first edge, then every few inches I'd glue a little more. I wanted to make sure it didn't slide or gape. Then glue the second edge down.

Next start gluing one of the ends. I ran a very small amount of glue along the edge of the fabric. Then do the other end.

Now, you are probably wondering why I put lavender oil on the list of things you will need. When working with hot glue, you WILL burn yourself. So be prepared to treat that burn. Two days after making this I still have a blister.....

Lastly trim it out with some ribbon, twine, rope whatever you want.

Now it fits in with the room a LOT better and adds a bit of character. When this plant grows some more and fills in at the top it will look better.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. For less than $10, it's a great solution.

Now to figure out what else to put on the dresser! I'm on a bit of another master bedroom workover. I'm excited about the new changes and can't wait to share them when they are completed. I'm hoping to share them next week. And one of them is BIG!

Ok, so do you have ugly plant pots that need to be covered? Have you already covered any? Any master bedroom decorating plans?

A Fall Garden

This is just a little post to show my fall garden.

As you may recall, we had lots of tomato plants that we planted in the courtyard and then in September they were totally destroyed by the tomato horn worms. So, we decided to plant our fall crop in the courtyard since we pulled out all the tomato plants.

We planted spinach, beets and carrots. They only took about a week to sprout up. But they've stayed small for a while. This is the first time we've grown these veggies so I have no idea if they are on track or not.

Oh, and we had planted some garlic in the spring and they didn't amount to much so we left them and they are now doing pretty well (at least their greens are). And we have a couple of rogue onions in with the carrots.

Carrots

Beets

Spinach

Garlic

I spent some time this last weekend weeding the garden and no I didn't finish.

So, is anyone else doing a fall garden? If so what are you growing and is it doing well? Do you think mine is good or is it behind?

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Craft: Baby Leggins

I've seen these a few places and thought that they were so cute and functional. And I've wanted to make them for a while but I don't have a baby to put them on. So, I'm making them for my friend's baby for Christmas.

Here's how I made these:

I bought 4 pair of knee socks at Target 2/$5 but one pair was on clearance for $1.75.

Then I kept both socks together and cut the heel off the leg part.

Then I cut the heel off the foot part.

Then I cut the toes off the foot part. Giving me 2 pieces: the leg and the foot

Then you take the small piece, the cuff, and fold half inside itself. Sorry kind of hard to explain here's the pic. Make sure the part you want to show is on the inside.

Then feed the leg part through the hole of the cuff and line up the raw edges.

After all the pieces are lined up and you are happy with it start sewing. You can pin this if you want, I just sewed slowly so I could keep everything lined up the way I wanted it. I also used a zig-zag stitch.

Turn the cuff up and your done! The cuff part goes on the baby's upper thigh.

I think they are so adorable! Now go find a cute baby to put these on!

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