A place to rest your head

You might have noticed a headboard in some after pictures of a previous blog about some not so sassy lamps? This just so happens to be a project I completed the same day I painted the lamps. Yes it was a very busy day. Since a lot of people like the look of a fabric covered headboard, but don’t really know where to start I thought I would give a step-by-step guide so you can make your own. Trust me, it’s easy peasy!

Step 1 – Pick out your fabric

   I knew for a while that I wanted our guest bedroom to have a grey and yellow “theme” so whenever I went to a fabric store I kept that in mind. One day while I was in Hancock Fabrics I found this interesting print. It is a little busy, but had all the colors I wanted to use in the room! It was about $10 a yard and I knew for a full size bed I only needed about two yards. Twenty dollars for fabric!

Step 2 – Build your frame

   Since I have champagne dreams on a water budget, I set out to find a cheap but sturdy option for the frame. Some headboards I’ve seen have used a plywood or MDF board as the back drop. I would say that would be the best option for a bed that you use on a daily basis. For me however, the guest bedroom is only used every so often, so I thought an open frame would work fine. Again, you could have gone with 1x2 boards or something like that, but while I was shopping at Hobby Lobby I found these square dowel rods for CHEAP.

Just purchases some “L” brackets and straight brackets to attach everything together. In hindsight I probably would have sprung for the 1x2 boards and just had 4 boards to put together instead of 6, but you live and you learn. This I would say would be the hardest/longest part of the whole project. Either way you choose, make sure you measure twice, cut once! I left mine just a ½ inch longer than the bed to account for a comforter to fill in the space.

Step 3 – Attach your batting and fabric

  After you have a frame or board cut to size, your next step is to attach the batting and fabric. I ironed my fabric first to get out the creases and to keep a nice smooth surface. Once that was done I put the fabric on the floor followed by batting. It’s a lot of personal preference for your thickness in batting but one tip, if you’re going to use a lot, cut a few layers to the exact size of your frame and just one a little longer to wrap over the frame, that way you’re not having to staple through a lot of fabric and batting.

Once I had the batting and fabric down, I put my frame on top. Using a staple gun, I began stapling the batting to frame, and then the fabric. TIP: start in the middle of one side, the go to the opposite side and vice versa. Be sure to keep the fabric tight enough to not cause wrinkles or ripples.

   Keep stapling all the sides leaving the corners for last (it’s easier that way). Once you have the corners, pull and tuck till you get a neat looking corner. It’s a lot like wrapping a gift, and folding the corners of the packages.

Here's what it looks like when I finished covering the frame.

Step 4 – Hang on the wall

   After you have finished wrapping and stapling your fabric to the board, you’re ready to hang it to the wall.  Since mine was a very lightweight headboard, I just used a few nails into the wall and hung the headboard like I would a picture frame. If it was a heavier headboard, I would suggest either using heavy duty picture hanging hardware or attaching it to some sort of leg and standing it up behind the bed. Once you’ve hung your headboard, you’re ready to dress your bed and enjoy your new piece of bed jewelry.

   Here are some "after pictures."

   The room is coming together nicely, I think I just need to change the paint color again, it looks a little blue and not so grey. Other things to add include: curtains, a cheap dresser, artwork and some seating. For now it's a nice start!

   More than likely I will be doing this again to my other bed! I mean for less than $50 I have a pretty good looking headboard. Many I’ve been searching for on the internet have been upwards of $300 dollars. Way to go me for being cheap frugal!!

From Shabby to Chic with just a can of spraypaint

I’m in the process of updating my guest bedroom. So first I started with the bed and made a DIY fabric headboard (I’ll post on that in a couple of days) and then I went for accessories. The room is black, white, and a little bit of yellow. So I knew it would be easy to find accessories – only problem is I didn’t want to break the bank. I don’t have an endless supply of money, so I needed to be creative. Enter Salvation Army and Goodwill. I spent a day going to different thrift stores and antique malls looking for inspiration or diamonds in the rough. And I got lucky!! Check out these beauties.

I know what you might be thinking, Alli those are hideous, ugly, brass, and beyond help. I know, I know, but I looked beyond that and saw a great shape. Yes the shades are gross too, but that is an easy fix. So they became mine and at only $8 for each I stayed in my “I’m only going to spend $20 for stuff” budget. There is nothing a little can of black glossy spray paint can’t do.

Out came my trusty can of black glossy spray paint. First I made sure to clean the lamps really well to get all the dust and grime off so I could have a nice clean surface. Next I took them outside and began to paint. If I could give you any tips on spray painting it is to be patient and keep it moving. If you leave the can in one spot too long it can cause a drip and that is an unnecessary headache you’ll have to fix. Plus you’ll want to do a couple of light coats till you get a nice even coverage, so don’t try to make it your color at one time. You’ll thank me later J

After the paint dried I stopped by my trusty Walmart for some inexpensive shades. At only $11 each, I was still able to keep the price down. I’m sure I could splurge for a nice drum shade or something like that, but they’re for the guest room, so something easy is a fine choice.

So without further ado here are the “after” pictures!

I LOVE them. I couldn’t be more thrilled, and since this was my first real attempt to spray paint anything, I think I’ve caught the bug because I want to repaint everything. I even think they look similar to these lamps from Pottery Barn.

And those babies are about one hundred dollars. Not too bad to save $80 per lamp. This calls for one big WHOOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!

Oh and if you notice the other object in the after picture, it was my little owl guy. And since I got sick with spraypaintitus I decided to transform him too. I picked him up at HomeGoods for only $14 but I decided he should be white so it’s not soo matchy matchy if i painted him black. I love him, and he is starting my slight obsession for owls… this could be bad. I really want an owl lamp but that might be too over-the-top.

From this:

To this:

So for the final breakdown of the dollars here we go:

Lamps - $16 for two

Shades - $22 for two

Paint - $5 for can of glossy black

Owl - $14

Paint - $5 for can of glossy white

Total = $43 for the two lamps (making it only $21.50 for each! SCORE!!)

            And $19 for my owl (a little more than what I should have spent, but I do love him)

Have you all spray painted anything lately? Please pretty please share what you’ve done. I love to see things get a second lease on decorating life!

PS - you can find the Pottery Barn lamps here in case your more of the "spend a lot of money on pretty lamp" type. :)