Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts

2.28.2013

Winter Pinterest Challenge: Big Boy Room Box Spring



Hi friends!

As part of the Winter Pinterest Challenge, I decided to tackle a project for A's big boy room. While he's not technically in his room yet, he is officially in his bed boy bed (as of last week).

If you are new here, our little guy learned how to escape his crib at 19 months. This transition to a big boy bed has been slow, as A is affectionately known as the world's worst sleeper. After a short stint in the dog bed, he's finally sleeping through the night. And after a week in his big boy bed? He is still sleeping, which is amazing! We're thrilled that he loves it. After a year and a half of really bad sleep, we're finally in a good place.

Moving on...

I wanted to share how I covered A's new box spring in burlap, rather than using a bed skirt. My inspiration? This pin, on Pinterest. I had to make a few tweaks as I went along, but in the end, I'm so happy with how this turned out.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

After our big date day-trip to Ikea, we were the proud owners of a memory foam twin mattress, and a plain white box spring.

  

Once we realized what a pain in the rear-end the protective railings would be install, I decided that the box spring had to be covered now. I knew that I didn't want a bed skirt, and there was no way that I was taking those railings back off to cover the box spring... well, let me rephrase that. There was no way I was getting C to do anything more than once, especially taking the railings off after he spent 2 hours trying to get them on correctly. 

I sweetly asked everyone to stop working, while I made a quick run to the fabric store.

My mother-in-law joined me for a trip to Joann's, and after some quick math, we realized that the only way to have one seam on the boxspring was to wrap it like a present. $25 and 8 yards of fabric later, my father-in-law helped me start the project.

Tools needed:
fabric (you do NOT need 8 yards)
staple gun (& staples)
scissors 
hammer

I'll let the rest of the pictures explain how this should work, but in essence, you start "wrapping" fabric around the box spring only covering the diameter. We started stapling to the bottom, so that when the bottom was done, we could lay the boxspring back down on the bed and staple the top. I know, it's confusing... maybe the pictures will help!
stapling along the bottom, and wrapping the corners like you wrap the corners of a present
the one and only visible seam - just the two ends of fabric folded over, and stapled on the "top" and "bottom"
once you've stapled the entire bottom, you'll have all the extra fabric on top
securing the top - we also cut off a lot of the excess fabric before stapling, so that it would not impede the Angelcare monitor

A few things to note:
  • It helps to hammer in the staples as you go, so that they sink into the boxspring and are less of "hazard" for little fingers
  • If you are using burlap for this project, it will get everywhere. Be prepared to vacuum little pieces of burlap up for at least a week.
  • You can avoid buying so much fabric if you are OK with two seams, or, are interested in sewing smaller strips together (like the tutorial suggests). I didn't have that much time to figure it out - we started this project at 4:00 and A's bedtime is 8:30!

Here's the finished product. In hindsight, I wish I had gone for a darker burlap. But knowing me, I'll be redoing this in a year anyways, so for $25 and 2 hours of time, I consider it a success.

Oh, and I considered taking down the railings so I could have a pretty picture of A's big boy bed to share in blog-land, but honestly, this is a big boy bed for a 22 month old, so the railings are keeping it (very) real.

yes, the cover to the thermostat is off... this is how I found it after his nap today. A cover for it has been ordered. Thank you, wild child.
the new view from the hallway

If you are curious, you can see what the room looked like before here and here.

Linking up for the Pinterest Challenge with these awesome bloggers!
 
Young House Love
Bower Power Blog
Decor and the Dog
The Remodeled Life



9.24.2012

{Pallet Headboard}: Tutorial

Thank you all for your sweet comments & emails about our bedroom!

Today I'm sharing how we made our pallet headboard. Please know we did not take step by step pictures, but I've done my best to explain how we did it.



Let me also say something upfront about this project: our headboard is nailed directly into the wall. I know this isn't feasible for everyone, so before you keep reading this tutorial, I wanted to share that information upfront.

Materials:
1) 2-3 pallets (depending on the size of your headboard)*
2) tape measure
3) level
4) table saw (or hand saw)
5) nail gun

* We chose to purchase our pallets from a business that had stored them inside. We didn't want to take any risks with rotting wood (or bugs!).

Prep Work:
1) remove each board from the pallet
2) remove nails from each board you plan to use
3) sand each piece
4) determine a rough size of the headboard

Once you've completed all of the prep work, installing this is quick & easy!


Step One: nail in two of the larger, end pieces to make up the sides of the headboard. These will be part of the frame, so be cognizant of how far they stick out on each side of the bed. To ensure that the two pieces are level, mark the wall with a ruler prior to nailing.


Step Two: nail in the two pieces that will make the top of the frame. Before nailing, make sure each piece is level.



Step Three: starting at the top, start nailing in the smaller pieces to fill in the rest of the headboard. You'll want to stagger the seams, so that you don't end up with a straight line down the the headboard. This part requires some patience, as you will most likely have to cut each piece as you go. Before you leave the room to cut, just make sure to re-measure the empty spot you are looking to fill.

Try to not over think the pattern of the headboard: it is meant to look rustic and imperfect. Here is a closeup of the headboard, so you can get a feeling for just how many gaps there many be between rows.



The spaces don't bother me at all (which says a lot, coming from a perfectionist). If we had to do it all over again, we would have painted the wall behind the headboard a darker color, so that the gaps would be less noticeable.

That's it!

Please don't hesitate to email if you have any questions!

Happy Monday, friends!

Linking up with
Uncommon Slice of Suburbia