Tuesday, January 31, 2012

DIY headboard

Last weekend I sold my white bed seen here.  Bye Bye Bed, I'll miss ya!  But to make up for it, I made a 567% profit. Woot Woot.  Anyway, I now had $100 in my pocket to make a headboard for our king size bed.  

The first step was to determine what headboard style I wanted, but my budget helped with this decision.  Elaborate headboards with tufting or nail head trim dramatically increase your costs. I stuck to a simple rectangular shape.  For this go-round, I'm glad I made it easy on myself.

To start, I picked up a 4x8 sheet of 5/8" plywood from Lowes (~$20). The nice men at Lowes cut it to 80" (King bed width). Unfortunately they can only cut off length and not height (no rip cuts), so when we got home Joe cut it down to the width of the foam.  Foam is expensive! This is what determined the size of our headboard because I was only willing to buy 80" of 2" thick foam from Joann Fabrics. It cost $30 per yard, but I got 2.44 yards with a 50% off coupon bringing it to about $20 for the foam. I really didn't want to buy another 80" piece to the make the headboard higher, so that's what we were going to work with. To make a straight cut, Joe clamped a spare piece of wood as a guide for his circular saw. The distance from the blade to the edge of the guide was 1.25" on our saw, so the wood was clamped at 25.25", and a clean cut was made at exactly 24".


Here is he lining up the guide plank.


Once Joe cut the board to the right dimension, I took over.  I used spray glue from Joann's to attach the foam to the plywood. I did this step outside (volatile chemicals).

Joann's had a 50% off sale on batting, so I acted fast! So I bought a full size piece pre-cut for about $7. I laid the plywood/foam on the batting like this and laid the foam-side-down on the batting.


I used a staple gun to staple the batting around the wood on all sides.


Then, I laid the fabric down on the carpet (after ironing it) and pulled it taut around on all sides. I used my staple gun to affix the fabric to the headboard. I really chickened out when I bought this fabric. I was having an "Oh No" moment at the fabric store when I couldn't decide on a fabric. There are so many options and since I was on a limited budget I couldn't decide. I had another fabric in my hand, but when I was waiting in line to have it cut I thought, "this fabric is going to need nail head trim or something to make it special" since it was plain gray microsuede fabric. I spotted a white diamond fabric in the quilting section right by the cutting counter so in my head I thought "ok this fabric has a slight pattern to it, it won't need anything else." WRONG. You'll see below the error in my "Just Choose Already" moment at Joann's.


Here it is all stapled on and ready to go.


To hang the headboard, we used a flush mount picture hanging metal bracket from Lowes. One piece is drilled to the headboard and the other attached to the wall. This mount was $10.


Joe used a framing square to mark the mounting holes on the headboard.





To attach the wall piece, we used no-drill drywall anchors (studs weren't in the right place), and screwed the piece on. The flush-mount kit includes a mini-level that attaches to the wall piece, which was useful for aligning the drywall anchors.

The two of us lifted it up on the mount and here it is! Not thrilling, is it? I was sort of bummed about the way it looked. Very plain jane and looked as if it were floating on the wall.


So the search began for what to do with it.  I knew with the 2" foam that nail heads were out of the question and I still had some money left over from my budget for fabric so the search began for something more interesting.  Stay tuned! Tomorrow we'll have the complete and finished headboard for you.


xo
Cathleen

Monday, January 30, 2012

Hallway

Please bear with me as I try to describe makeovers that happened a while ago. I'm trying to get this ol' blog up-to-date so everyone can be caught up. Hopefully at some point, this will be a blog that is a play by play of our every day activities. I apologize if some of my readers have seen these pics before, but I'm going to attempt at catching everyone up to speed.  So here is our hallway makeover.

When we first did our house tour, I tried to snap pics of everything. Here was how our hallway looked. It had parquet flooring and off white walls.


During the first few years it looked like this. We added several big photo frames and all of the frames were black. Apparently we also kept our hamper at the end of the hallway for all to see. I also remember we used to keep our big black metal coat rack at the end of the hallway too. However that went up into the attic when our first child pulled it over. First time parent rookie mistake.


A hallway is pretty easy to paint, since there is no furniture against the walls, so one day I decided to paint it with Olympic's NO VOC interior latex paint in "thin ice." It's a sort of light gray.  We also replaced the flooring in the hallway with Lumber Liquidator's laminate in a light color to match the boy's room and the dining room.  More on that makeover later. The rug was purchased at Overstock and we love that it keeps our feet warm in the winter and also helps protect the floor when the attic ladder comes down.


Most recently I gathered some old frames we had in the attic and some around the house and turned one of the walls in the hallway into a gallery of pictures. Some frames include photos, some original art by the kids, and other framed pieces are just things we like to look at. Here is looking down the hallway:


This is the other end of the hallway. You can see a pic of the two boys in the left hand corner and our wedding photo below that. That black and white girl is my grandmother when she was young.


These are some close-ups of the things we framed. Here our sweet little MVP in his cloth diaper at age 3 months or so. He was a big boy! 10 pounds, 11 ounces!


My Mom framed this one for us. It's a section of stores where Joe's Grandfather J. Winfield Pearson owned a bicycle shop in Oakland California.


My oldest son CAP made this in Kindergarten this year. It's a charcoal drawing of an elephant. I just love it.


This frame already had the clover print in it, but I liked it to much I added my own little cut out of a quote that I really like "Mother's hold their children's hands for a short while, their hearts forever."


Here is a close up of my Grandma when she was a child. I just love how stylish she looks with her wool hat, those cute bangs and that jacket. People ask me if it's a photo of a movie star. Nope, just my Grandma. She was very stylish her entire life.


We kept this Pottery Barn frame up but switched out the old wedding photos for some that included our three children. The top photo is Joe and I circa 1998. The middle four pics include at least one shot of each child and the bottom photo is a family pic from May 2011.


In this collage at the very end of our hallway, I framed each child in black and white during their first Christmas. I kind of wish they all wore the same outfit, but I couldn't find the matching socks to CAP's pajamas, so they each wore their Christmas best.


This little frame includes Joe's Grandpa Carlin, his cousin Mary Beth, Uncle Jimmy, Grandma Toot and Joe all the way to the right with the very blond hair. Look at those long legs!


Just a reminder of what our hallway looked like in the beginning:



And here is our hallway as it looks today. We love all the white frames and how they can easily be changed to add things we like or to update the children's art or their current pics.


Hope you enjoyed this little peek into our Hallway. :)

xo
Cathleen

Friday, January 27, 2012

Home Goods trip

One of my favorite Home decorating stores is Home Goods. They have great prices and you can find pretty awesome things for your home. Plus, we are lucky to have one about 5 minutes away.  I took my camera on this last visit and took pictures of things that caught my fancy.

I headed immediately to the bedding section. Hmm, could anyone guess why?  

Look at this DKNY King Quilt. It was only $59.99 and I saw it online at Bed Bath and Beyond the same day for $179.99!  This plum color is so beautiful. If only it was teal, I would have snatched it up.


Here are some King sheets from Medallion Home that looked like they could work for my bed. But for now, my white sheets will have to do.


Diane von Furstenberg? Wow. You really can find awesome brands at Home Goods. I love this graphic blue pattern. This was a King Fitted Sheet.


When I spotted this animal print cube foot stool I was in love. So sad that I didn't have $129.99 to spend on it. It is so awesome.


This was a cute little ruffled throw pillow that I thought could look nice in my living room since there are hints of blue in some of the art.


Oh my gosh! How glamorous is this lamp! Look at all the sequins! I bet it just sparkles in a room. Definitely a show stopper piece.


This lamp shade is too cute with it's Moorish clover design.


White ceramic animals are so trendy right now. Why not snatch up this guy for $9.99.


This was a pretty light orange capiz chandelier. It had candle holders on the inside but you could probably reconfigure it for a hanging electric light.


Hoo doesn't love a gray ceramic owl? hardy har har. Isn't he cute? Gray is so popular right now. I think I need this little $9.99 owl for my bedroom.


PeaHen Peacock! Wow, this peacock is big and shiny.


They had several white lamps. This one reminds me of a painted gourd or a Jonathan Adler design.


How cute are these black and white with hints of green stacking storage boxes?  I love that they have a little box for a label on the front.


Next to those were these storage baskets with handles. These would be so cute in a bookshelf or on their own. You could corral a lot of kids toys in these.


I thought these hand towels were cute in turquoise with the graphic clover pattern.


This little sofa table in a blue croc material was too cute. It could even be placed bedside to hold your books or laptop.


I'm pretty sure every garden is not complete unless it has a gnome in it. This one stood over a foot tall and was made of green ceramic.  Precious.


I heart Home Goods.  I can spend hours in there. They always have new items and it's worth a trip if you're decorating or redecorating. Whatever the case may be.  

xo
Cathleen

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Mama's new kitchen pals

After my cute pink Cuisinart toaster went Kaputz, it was time to get a new one. So sad, since my Mom had given me the pink one as a gift. We tried fixing it, but couldn't. It was officially in toaster heaven. During a trip to Macy's for the after Christmas sales, I decided to wander around the appliance section upstairs in the home goods area. I decided to purchase this sleek looking new friend. Here she is all brand spanking new on the counter.


We love those curved lines and the retro feel. This toaster is also by Cuisinart so hopefully she'll last longer. I saved the box and receipt this time just in case.  You can find the toaster at Macy's still, but we got a significant savings since it was on sale after Christmas and I had a gift card.  


My other new pal in the kitchen is my whistling tea kettle from Home Goods. It's made by Palm of Stainless Steel. My old tea pot didn't have a whistle on it and I think about twice I forgot about it and almost melted the whole thing. 

 

This tea kettle is so cool. It has a removable whistle spout cap so you can poor the water. It also has a nice big lid so you can easily wash the inside. And surprisingly the whistle cap, the lid, and the handle don't get hot when the water is boiling.



Anyway, my new kitchen friends make life easier. 4 slices of toast at a time? A mother of three kids needs this! A tea kettle that won't burn the house down? Priceless.

Have you purchased any kitchen tools that made your life easier and also look good on the counter? I think it's time for some toast and tea.

xo
Cathleen

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