Get Your Head (board) on Straight

So I've been hemming and hawing over what type of headboard to adorn the guest bedroom with.  I had lots of ideas that I loved (lord  knows, I pinned plenty...), but I just couldn't commit.  UNTIL I found these babies at the habitat store...

Those would be frames that you would use for replacement windows...  At only a buck a piece, I snatched up 5 since I had no idea how many I would actually need to make the headboard with.  Once I got home, I figured that 3 would be prefect for a full bed.

Step two involved spending a million hours at Jo-Ann fabrics hemming and hawing over which fabric to use.  I finally settled on...

A dark purple and two festive prints.  I loved the colors and how they reflected much of the same palate as the Matisse prints also in the guest bedroom.

The rest of this process is very exact and precise.  You must follow my every direction or you will fail.

Turn frame over, lay fabric over the frame, pull tight and staple gun the shit out of it.

See easy...  Just repeat for all the panels...  I suggest drinking a bottle of wine and watching Modern Family while doing this.

And then do the top parts the same way...

The next step was to figure out how to attach everything.  After a lot of hemming and hawing at Lowe's (man this project involved WAY too much indecision), I grabbed a couple of 48" pieces of oak (dimensions 1/2"x2").

To attach the frames, I flipped em over, and attached the boards across the back...

Finally, to hang 'em, I picked up a packet of picture hanging stuff that can handle a heavy load...

I just attached the little eyelet guys at the ends of the boards...

And ran the wire between them...

And from there, it was just like handing a picture.

So how did it turn out?

TA DA!  LOVE IT...

And for a more vertical view...

And a slightly wider angle (man this room is hard to take pictures of...)

Not bad for a couple hours and less than $30.00.  Now I just have to figure out what to do the blank space all around the headboard...

Stripping

Get your heads out of the gutter- I am not talking about taking my clothes off.  Rather, I took sometime off in June and spent the whole time in my garage trying to strip down a dresser.

To properly frame this adventure, we must go back to my days in high school.  My parents were fairly awesome in that they let us all paint and decorate our rooms however we wanted.  For me that meant dark purple walls with lime green trim AND a mural of a sun on the ceiling.  Looking back, I am fairly certain that this gave my dad a nervous tick and may still account for why he is a little odd...

When Seth and I moved to Greensboro, my mom was kind enough to give me my dresser, which I had painted lime green.  I am fairly certain she just didn't want that in her house anymore.  So for a few years, this has sat in my house.

Lovely right?  Seth was beyond thrilled when I proposed stripping this bad boy down and giving him (her?) a nice coat of dark pretty stain.  And so the adventure begins...

I started by moving everything out to the garage and removing the little knobs.  Its worth mentioning that when I originally painted this thang that I wasn't smart enough to remove the hardware first, so some of those knobs were a bit painted on stuck.

In doing some stripping/Lowe's research, I determined that chemical strippers were the way to go.  However, not wanting to kill myself, I went with a water based more eco friendly stripper.

In my naivety, I figured that this would be an easy project.  Dump stripper on, let it sit, remove and  move on.  Well, that wasn't the case.  After just one coat of stripper, I realized I was in for some real fun.

Progress?  Almost none.  So a second coat it was...

Progress?  Negligible.  Onto a third coat...

Hmmm...  Still not so good.

Finally some progress.  But not really enough for my liking.  I think part of the problem was the temperature.  The stripper recommends only trying to use it if the temperature is between 65 and 85.  Seeing as this was NC in June, the temperature was above 85 and the stripper would dry before it could really be effective. 

So, I busted out my sander....

MUCH BETTER!  So, I sanded the whole damn thing.  I also started getting pissed off, so there are no pictures of the process.

Once I had everything nice and sanded, I gave the whole thing a nice wipe down with a barely damn rag.  With my surface ready to go, it was just a matter of staining.  Two coats did the trick.  And with a quick trip to Target for some new knobs, this baby had a new lease on life...

Not too shabby, eh?

A couple quick notes on stripping-

• I recommend skipping the messy chemical strippers altogether.  In the end, my sander was way more effective and left me with a better work surface.  You can pick up a cheap little hand sander from Lowes, or the likes, for around $20-$30.  Not bad considering chemical strippers will run you around $10 a bottle and you'll need multiple bottles.
• Due to beginning with chemical strippers and the cheap nature of this dresser, my prepared surface was still not 100% perfect, so there are some obvious flaws if you get close enough.  But considering that this is the guest bedroom and we already had it, both Seth and I are totally pleased with the results.
• If you have a true family heirloom, I recommend hauling that baby to a professional.  They will do an A+ job of carefully and precisely stripping her down, so that you can get back to where you want her.

So without further ado, how about a comparison...

BEFORE

AFTER

Anybody else tackle any crazy projects this summer?

House Tour

I got really excited and was all ready to write a to-do list kind of post.  You know all the millions of things we still want to do to our humble abode and then it occurred to me that I may be getting a little ahead of myself.  So lets back up a step and take us a tour...

When you first enter the house, this is what you see...

This is important because to understand the layout of our house, you have to use this point as the central point.  I will work around this center point, moving to the left as we go.

So first up, the kitchen...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this kitchen.  When we started, there was no island and it was very sad, so this became one of our very first projects.  My uncle was kind enough to supply us with that beautiful granite.  A light change and a couple coats of paint later and there you have it.  A wonderful, sunny kitchen.  And it has a pantry-

The pantry tends to be a bit messy and unorganized...  It also important to note that the other door into the house is in the kitchen.  Luckily this one is outside of the fenced in area, so you can get in without tripping over the dogs...  And yes, you read that right, we have two front doors and no back or side doors.  Just one of the fun things about living in a 60 year old house that's had at least 3 separate renovations done...

So, as we head out of the kitchen and head to the left, we come to the guest bathroom...

Small and Bright, eh?  This bathroom is still very much a work in progress.  We have grand plans to replace all the tile and bathtub, because this is what we are dealing with...

Blue tile and a really uncomfortable tub, so sad and ugly.  But we have replaced the light, added storage and put a little curtain around the sink.  It mean really, no one wants to see exposed piping...

So heading to the left again, and we get the guest bedroom...

In all honesty, other than painting and adding all those sweet Matisee prints, we haven't done anything to this room.   And luckily it doesn't need much.

So that completes the left wing of the house, back to center...

Our big blue living room.  This room is pretty awkward, but it was worse when we moved in.  See that back wall with the floating shelves?  That didn't use to be there.  And you see the spot where the purple chair is sitting?  There use to be weird columns there.  I wish I has some before pictures, but trust me when I tell you it was well worth the money we spent to drop that wall in and pull the columns out.  Quick PSA:  The columns were in place for a reason- they are load barring, as is the wall we popped in.  In order to do this without bringing down your house, you need to install a header in the attic to support the ceiling.  This isn't so hard to do, but it could have some nasty, bad side effects if done incorrectly.  I strongly recommend using a professional for this type of work...

So onwards we go...  Behind that beautiful wall, we have a hallway...

Which is brillant, cause before you could see directly into that bedroom to the left... 

And that brings us to the "man room."

I would like to say that I hate the concept of a man room, lets be honest, I don't have a lady room anywhere.  And before anyone says "well the whole house is a lady's domain" be aware that Seth has been involved with every single decision that has been made in regards to our house.  His opinion, likes and dislikes are just as important as mine and we have worked hard to create a space that we are both happy with.  Rant aside, this is also the place where all of Seth's cigars, legos, model tanks and other odd things live.  He is happy with this space and I rarely go in here.

Back to the hall way and you can see our itty bitty laundry area...

Thank God for stackables...

And turn around and you're in the master bedroom...

We tried to keep this room pretty serene and it really does feel that way...  Or maybe that's just because I like to sleep...

To the left of the bed, we have Seth's closet...

And to the left of Seth's closet, we have the master bathroom...

Side note:  I have too many products...

And for a final bit of the tour, we head all the way back into the main room to find the TV room...

This is by far the room that we spend the most amount of time in.  Ava has a cat perch in here, Tilly likes the brown chair and Oliver likes to snuggle between Seth and I on the couch.  When picking the colors for this room, we wanted to highlight the fireplace and create an nice cozy feel.  Missions accomplished. 

So, as you can see, the whole house is painted and furnished.  That was a major task.  Most of the big projects have been tackled, but we still have a number of items on our to-do list. 

Where are you on making your house a home?

Simple Project: Calendar Art

Even before becoming a disciple of Young House Love, I have always been a big fan of using what you got.  That was certainly the case when it came to decorating the guest bedroom.

The guest bedroom has been fully functional for a while now (paint on walls, bed, bedside tables, dresser), but has lacked pizazz.  I am a big believer in pizazz.  Luckily, pizazz has been achieved. But first let me back up a step...

I love having a calendar in the kitchen and for 2010 we enjoyed this lovely-

image source

Not wanting to simply toss this beauty out and recognizing that the guest bedroom needed a lift, I came up with an easy solution.  I framed each month and hung them.  Easy peasy, right?  Want to see?

Fun right?

Directions on how to make your own fabulous calendar art
1- Start by measuring your calendar, pick up frames that are the same size or slightly smaller.  These frames came from Michaels and we're around $8.00 for a two pack.  Cheap and Easy= LOVE
2- If you picked out smaller frames, cut your pictures down to size.  I find it helpful to place a ruler or long level on the page you are cutting so that your knife (I use a box cutter) can follow the line more easily
3- frame 'em
4- hang 'em.  In order to hang them, first measure and draw out (in pencil) a nice grid pattern.  Pop your nails in and erase your pencil lines (magic erasers work great for this).

In total, this project was less than $50.00 and took less than 2 hours to fully complete.  And I totally love the results.  Happy projecting!