Nesting... Upholstering a Headboard!

Well, I have definitely been nesting. I am a nesting fool, actually. I love projects. Not just for the baby, but for the house in general. I want to get this that and the other thing done before the baby arrives because I know it'll never happen AFTER the baby arrives... so it's go-time, people.

This past weekend was our Baby Shower, which was WONDERFUL. My friends and family were so creative and thoughtful it was just completely unbelieveable. I posted more about it on my family-blog site, so check that out for more details on the shower (rather than my being repetitive).

And because my mum wanted to bring out my old cradle and rocking chair and be here for the shower, she DROVE out last week and got here last Wednesday and stayed till today. In fact, I just got a text saying she was in her seat on the plane and shutting off her phone. So au revoir, mum! But while she was here, we went to work on my nesting. I wanted new curtains (either for us to make them or buy them) and a new upholstered headboard for our master bedroom. I also want to paint our master bathroom and put in new towel-bars, those 2 projects we didn't get to, but I will take care of them no problem (don't worry, I'll use VOC-free paint!).

So we found curtains that were JUST what I wanted at Target for $19.99 per panel, score! And then we gathered our goods to MAKE the headboard. I found the "how-to" on this website: BeJane.

We modified a LITTLE, but not much... we went to Home Depot and got a giant piece of 1/2" MDF board instead of plywood because it's not supposed to warp like plywood does. And then while there we asked the nice man about the brackets in the BeJane directions and he suggested French Cleats instead with these nifty "EZ Ancor" screw anchor things that go into drywall so you don't have to hunt for studs. So we got them and man the french cleats worked like a charm! We also got an electric staple/nail gun and staples since we didn't have one yet. Next we went to JoAnn fabrics to gather the rest of the goods... the 2" foam (which was on sale!), the quilt batting, and the fabric of my dreams, a gorgeous green and gold demask that goes with the color scheme in our bedroom beautifully. We were also planning on doing some tufting with buttons using the HGTV quick version of tufting (cheating), using a staple gun and glue gun to stick the buttons on... but that didn't work, so no tufting for us! No matter, it looks great. Anyways, so after stockpiling all our goods, we got to work!

First we had to cut the foam to the right size and then glue the 2 pieces of foam together with special foam glue and we ironed the fabric... didn't take a pic of those steps. Once all the layers were ready, we laid them down... Fabric first, then quilt batting, then foam and finally the MDF board:



Then we started with the quilt batting... because we were unable to get a piece big enough to really wrap all the way around like the directions indicated, we decided to staple that to the MDF first so it wouldn't bunch. I think it was the best decision we made. It really made things neat and tidy. I was SO glad we decided to do that.


Next we did the same with the fabric, being very careful to pull evenly so it was a nice even pull from the front side, and we folded over the edges kind of like a hem before stapling so it wouldn't come unraveled at all. My mom is the nursing corner master, so I let her fold and figure out the corners, and dang she did a nice job, didn't she?!



After that came the moment of truth... how did it look?! So we propped it up to take a look... NOT TOO SHABBY!!! LOVES IT! This is when we put blue painting tape on where we were going to tuft buttons, but after attempting to put them on, the staples wouldn't go through the 2" foam and the batting and stick into the wood, so alas, no buttons, but I'm okay with it, it looks fantastic.


So, moving on. We then attached the french cleats to the back of the headboard and to the wall. We were very careful in our measurements here, ensuring that we had our cleats evenly spaced on the board, and then placed perfectly on the wall. I wanted the headboard to go down about 4-6" below the very top of my mattress, so we made sure when measuring that we accounted for that. We centered it on the wall and the french cleats have a neat "level" feature that truly tells you when your cleats are level. They are awesome!
(and yes, of course we signed the back with the date!)


Anyways, once we had the cleats in place on both the board and the wall, we mounted the board onto the wall. PIECE OF CAKE! It was awesome! Thank you Mr. Home Depot guy for introducing us to the french cleats! And you can just kinda slide it back and forth until it was centered where we wanted it. Fabness.


Then we moved the bed back into place, made it up and VOILA! Fabulous new "adult-looking" headboard! Okay! Now I'm ready to have a baby! :)
Thank you Grandmummy-to-be!!! :)

So! If you're interested in doing this, it's TOTALLY worthwhile and definitely rewarding. It was NOT as hard as I was afraid it would be (especially with those nifty french cleat and EZ Ancor things!) and you can do it in any color/pattern you like! I recommend reading through the BeJane instructions on the link above, and then change what you want like we did!
Go forth and be crafty. ;)
*alliwilli

Nothing says "Happy Anniversary" like Sonic Drive-Thru and Cold Metal Bleachers... :)

Ha! Yep, that's how we spent our 4 year anniversary evening yesterday! But that's just who we are, so why should anyone expect anything different!?!

Yesterday, October 14th, 2009, marked our 4th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been 4 years!?! Craziness! It seems like just the other day we were planning for all the hoopla! But what a great 4 years it's been. :) So yesterday I drove my fabulous husband into work and then came home and we both worked full days. Then I went to a 5:15 TaeBo class, grabbed some Sonic Drive-thru for dinner (mm, tater tots) and met Ryan in the very fancy lobby of his Lockheed work building, where we dined on our take-out... after eating he changed into his softball gear and we headed north to Arvada for his Wednesday league game at 8:15pm.

The game was a real nail-biter... whichever team was at bat, was the team winning, which was scary because Ryan's was the visiting team, so they would not have had the last bat! However, at the end of regulation, it was tied, so it went into "extra innings" which has all different rules (to keep us from sitting out there all night long, kind of like "sudden death" in football/soccer). Each player only gets ONE pitch... if you don't swing and it's a strike, you're out. If you swing and it's a foul ball, you're out. If you swing and miss, you're out. If you don't swing and it's a ball, you get to take first base. And if you swing and make fair contact, then the ball is in play. Sheesh! Anyways, our team was able to produce 4 runs during this wacky inning, but when the home team came to bat, they were only able to produce 2 runs, so we won! Hooray! Ryan played like a crazy-man out there. The catcher on the other team said to him about half-way through the game when he came up to bat, "Hey, no more of that monkey business in the field, huh?"... HAHAHA! He was THRILLED with how well he played, but boy is he feeling it this morning... achy braky back (and neck!)... :)

We got home at around 10:30 and hit the hay. And that was our 4 year anniversary. :)

We plan to celebrate out to a nice dinner at the Brown Palace Hotel's Palace Arms Restaurant in downtown Denver either this coming Tuesday night, or in a couple weeks when things slow down for us a bit. Either way, we will honor our special day with a special dinner sometime soon.

Here we are, the happy couple, this past Sunday at the Rockies' NLDS Game 3... it was MAYBE 30 degrees when the game STARTED at 8pm and probably closer to 18 degrees when the game finished at midnight. We were SO bundled up we looked like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum... and to top it all off, we bought some 2XL shirts at WalMart to sport over our 80 layers of warmth, just to show our team flare. :)


Oh yeah, and I'm still pregnant... uh huh, you betchya... just entered my 3rd Trimester and am doing GREAT. For more info on that, you can check out my OTHER blog, as usual, since that's where I talk about all things pregnancy and family. :)
Later taters,
*alliwilli