DIY Master Suite Headboard.....yes, again.

My poor husband must think I'm crazy. I love change. Maybe I'm addicted to it? We've lived in our house for about a year and half now. And our bedroom has changed probably....at least four or five times, and that depends on the degree of change. If you count everything...its probably more like twenty.

Well. A week or so ago. I got one of those visions in my head. Don't you just love them? And I couldn't get it out. I knew I wanted to change up the master bedroom a little. I already painted all my furniture. But my vision was telling me that this change had to be more dramatic.

And so....it starts.

Here's where its at so far. Yep. That would be my 3rd....yes, t.h.i.r.d....headboard in a matter of a year in a half.

But isn't she a beaut???

I followed the same steps when making this headboard as the now 'retired' one I did in this post.
It only took me an hour to upholster once I got the base how I wanted it. don't you just love DIY headboards.....or DIY anything :)
Here's the original headboard....and thus, essentially, the before - before picture of my bedroom:

And making progress with the nightstands:

And after! Voila:

All in all....I think it is a good change.

And of course....I had to make it dramatic. Its 80 inches tall, thats six and half feet!

And faux white leather.

I got the fabric half off, so all together, this baby only cost me $30 to make!

I tufted it simply by aligning 9 points and stapling them with a staple gun.

Then got my hot glue and glued on some bling!

Now for more drama!!! My beautiful tan walls are now going to be colored mocha!

My curtains are coming down, and new ones are going up... and I'll actually have art on the walls! I'm so darn excited!!! ......sorry babe :)

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DIY Planter Boxes

So.

I admit.

I was a little MIA.

For awhile.

But, that's what the summer will do to ya' now huh?

You know another thing summer will to do you?

Make you spend gobs and gobs of money on flowers and plants.

Take my word for it, I know by experience.

So, now with my newly acquired gobs and gobs of flowers and plants (which obviously replaced my gobs of money), I need a place for them now don't I?

*ding*ding*

Problem solved.

Planter boxes!!!

So, I had this great idea (and totally easy by the way) to create a long rectangular planter/window box.

But, my husband didn't just want them to be 'rectangular', so he took over and gave them a little attitude with a nice angled edge.

Which by the way....making these took for.e.e.e.e.e.e.ver.

Like forever as in if we would have stuck with my original plan, it would have been done a week earlier.

Anyway.

Since he did these, I helped a little, but......really,

all I know is that the magic number is 15. (for the angle)

So, a picture speaks a thousand words right?

Well, here you go, cuz I'm not spending the time to explain how to make these :)

We made the longest at 3 feet long, the smaller ones at 2 1/2 feet.

These are made out of cedar planks and secured by cut up pieces of 2x2.

We drilled some holes in the bottom.

Painted and sealed.

And .....a week in a half later.

We finally had our beautiful planter boxes!!!

So. Then we came across a little problem.

How does one hang these newly assembled planter boxes on a railing?

Any ideas??

No?

Well. We batted this back and forth for awhile too.

And came up with this stuff:

Thats right....screen door pulls and felt bars.

(felt bars so it wouldn't scratch up the rails)

See how they work....

Ingenious huh?

I guess we'll see how they stand up to the weather and weight and what not.

Here are our babies now:

We're hoping the flowers on the ends will start cascading over the boxes.

*Cross your fingers* cuz we all know I'm a plant killer.

And my Max buddy helping momma:

I think he's happy with the planter boxes too.

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DIY Candlesticks / Plant stand

Ready to beef up those DIY muscles? What do three pieces of wood equal? A magnificent candle stand, plant stand, do.whatever.you.want.with.it stand.Yep.

Here are the supplies:

8 foot 4x4 of Douglas fir.

however long 2x6 (I think it really measures to 2x5 1/2) of whatever wood

drill

screws

wood filler

wood glue

paint

And if you choose to go with my direction:

Compound Miter Saw

Router/Router table

Alrighty. Now lets get started. I cut the douglas fir into three different lengths with the miter saw. Choose whatever lengths you want. Then cut the 2x6 into 6 squares. These will really have sides of 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 once you're done.

Use the router to decorate the edges of the squares to your liking.

Next. Use a large drill bit to make a hole a quarter of the way down on one of the squares side...this part will be the top and bottom of the stick...so make sure you think that through considering your routed edges.

Now apply the wood glue to the 4x4 and press one of the squares in place and center it. Let it dry.

Do this to the other side.

Now your drilled 'hole' should be visible if you did this right.

Now drill a screw through the hole on both sides. I had to use 2 inch screws for this.

Now fill the hole up with some wood filler

Let dry for a few hours and sand.

These are what you should have come up with:

See. You can't even see the holes anymore if you look reeeeeal close.

Now Paint Those Babies!

(excuse the dog...he wants to be involved in everything)

Okay. Sand the edges to distress them a little bit.I did this pretty much on every single edge.

Then stain the now distressed edges.You can use a furniture fix-it marker for this or real stain.

I did both and can't even tell which one is which.

And there you have it!

I added a stencil on the top to have a little pizazz.

I routed the edges on the bottom of the top square and the top of the bottom square. You can barely see it in the pics...but trust me...they.look.gorg!!

See. You can put whatever you want (and that will fit) on it.

Candles, vases, plants, dog, cats, kids, a cup of milk, some soda....whatever....your dinner.

Hmmm. I guess the possibilities are endless.

Okay. Now for those of you who don't have a router.

Get one.

But....until then.

You can do it this way to add a decorative edge.I just used plywood for these squares.

I cut one at 5x5 and one at 4 1/2 x4 1/2. Wood glued them together. Then used the same technique as above to finish the project.

Looks good eh?

(side note...do these pics look really yellow to you? I have two computer screens and one says yes..and the other says no.)

Anyway. These ones are super tall. like 4 feet I think about. I stenciled all the way up and down.

I think they look like they belong in a cathedral.

I'm not sure why.

Here's the same technique...only smaller...in white.With burlap.And ribbon.

*sigh*

I really have no idea what to put on these. Because...as you all should know by now....I have an OBSESSION with candles. Like I have about 60 candles (very rough estimate) on the first floor of my house alone. I really don't burn these candles...they are just for decoration. Oh....Add 4 more to that...I just remembered where I had more. Anyway. Some of them are burned....some not.

Anyway.

OBSESSION.

So, with these 'candle sticks' I was trying to not put any candles on them. And these were lying around. hmmmm. What do you think?

Alright girls!

Now get crafting!

or...woodworking!

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Headboard upgrade...for cheap!

I loved my bedroom before but it just always felt like something was missing....maybe color on the walls? Well, I'm not quite ready to take that big step, so as you can see below, I figured I would add my own color via a sheet draped over my headboard.

It worked for a little bit, until I got tired of the dang thing always moving. So, I made my own headboard sans moving the sheet :)

Supplies needed:

• plywood cut to size (they cut it at the homedepot for you), 
• 2x4s cut in half, 
• brown sheet or fabric of your liking, 
• batting, 
• pretty decorative buttons, 
• staple gun, 
• hot glue gun, 
• drill, 
• screws, 
• tape measure and so on...

I didn't want to spend a whole lot of moola on batting, which can be quite pricey, so I just folded the amount I had in half and stapled it in the center of the plywood. Click here to see what this headboard looks like with a lot more batting.

I then wrapped my $4 sheet (yes, it was cheaper than fabric and much wider) around the board and stapled it on the back side making sure the corners were crisp and it pulled tightly.

I just had to have the tufted look, but I wasn't going to spend the time and energy creating it for real....so, instead. I just got the good ol' staple gun out, measured the distances, and stapled down three times on two rows along the batting region.

I then used the hot glue gun and glued on some bling :)

Here's how I got it to stand up (this should be done before all the rest of the stuff goes on, of course). I made sure the 2x4s were at an equal height along the plywood and screwed them in with the drill in two places on each 2x4. =Not pretty. But they hide behind the bed anyway, so who really cares?

Here's the finished product:

And here's my new and improved room :)

Total cost of headboard? $16! By the far the cheapest and easiest way on how to make a headboard :)

UPDATE::::
I've made two more headboards since then using this awesome tutorial :)
A new, bigger one for my master bedroom (click here or on picture to see post)

And another one for a guest room (click here on on picture to see post)

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