Headboard Over Heels!

For months now I have been pinning images of DIY'ed headboards. It is something that I really wanted to try but was worried it would be too hard or not be cost effective.  I finally bit-the-bullet and decided to go for it.

I used this tutorial here if anyone is interested. 

I first wanted to find a fabric that I loved. I thought I wanted to do a yellow headboard but the more I thought about it I decided to keep it neutral so I could keep it if I decided to take the yellow out of our bedroom. Problem: our walls in our bedroom are grey, but a coat of paint is cheaper easier to change than the headboard to I decided to make a grey headboard and paint the wall our bed is on (more on that in a later post). Finding the right fabric took some time but I found it... for $9 a yard no less.

As mentioned above I also bought the foam during that trip for 50% off. I bought the 3-inch stuff as recommended in the tutorial and I am so glad I did. I don't think I would have been happy with anything thinner. I also bought the batting for 40% off and saved some dough there. Actually now that I think about it I bought everything for at least 40% off using coupons or just buying it when it was on sale. Here's the breakdown of what I used:

• 66 inches of 3-inch foam
• high-loft batting
• 2 1/2 yards of fabric (I bought 3 yards just to be safe)
• 44 buttons and a button cover kit
• 66x40 pegboard
• spray adhesive
• staple gun

I first cut a piece of fabric to cover all the buttons. I traced the template that came with the kit and counted off how many button I thought I would need.

This is where I hit my first road-bump. Because I was using a thicker fabric (velvet) the backs would not go on the buttons so I had to re-cut every circle into a star pattern. It took some time but I got it done.

You can kind of see the star pattern I cut out of the fabric in the plastic container at the bottom of the photo.

I laid out the peg board (I had it cut at Lowes, 66x44 inches) and decided on button placement. After some rearranging I came up with a layout that I liked.

The next few steps were pretty easy. I circled all the holes where I wanted buttons. I then laid the foam underneath and used a sharpie to mark all the circles. I then took a knife and cut out each section to make the tufts really deep.

This didn't take very long and was pretty easy. I then used spray adhesive to attach the foam to the pegboard.

Placed the batting over it

and then the fabric.

Now its time to get down to business. You start with the tufts in the middle and work your way out. I didn't really take a lot of photos of this process. It's kind of a two four-handed process. After about 6 tufts I recruited Benjamin to work the staple gun. After I got the buttons in and the fabric how I wanted, I would hold the thread taunt and he would staple. The back would look something like this.

Below is an in-process photo.

Here it is after all the tufts are done but the edges are not stapled down yet.

I then started in the middle top and pulled the fabric tight while my trusty side-kick stapled away and tah-dah! Its done!

I am so in love with how it turned out!

We still need to install the hardware on the back so we can hang it on the wall but as for now it is actually the perfect height and rests on the hollywood frame of our bed.

If you want a better step-by-step process, please visit the Little Green Notebook for her awesome tutorial.

Meet Karl...

the newest member of our household!

We started the hunt for a new sofa once we moved into our new house. We host the youth group every Tuesday night and with numbers in attendance reaching near 20 we decided now was the time.

This is what our living room looked like before (minus the shelves and some other things we have added since this picture was taken):

Not bad, but not a great use of space.

We decided on this sofa (in Isunda Grey) and choose to purchase the sofa for each other for Christmas and we also received some money from Ben's family to put toward it as well.  

We took a marathon trip to IKEA with my friend over at ohwrite and her husband and we all got more than just a sofa.

Ben and I decided to purchase nightstands for each other for Valentine's Day (sensing a theme?). I know not very romantic, but I have discovered that after buying a house I am more open to those kinds of gifts.  We had decided on these tables. 

We picked up two in boxes, but after walking through the scratch and dent section, we found actually Kate found it, I walked right by it, the exact same one with not a scratch or dent on it for $20 less! I am guessing someone returned it because the drawer caught when you opened it, but after a closer inspection it was just because they had put one screw in backwards. Their failure was our triumph!

We also picked up some random items, picture frames, more fabric, etc. This was our haul (combined with our friends) after just a couple hours.

 

Luckily we had borrowed a pickup from Brett's parents, so it didn't take much to get things loaded. 

I know it totally looks like Ben did all the loading, but somewhere in this photo Brett is also lifting. The guys who help you load things at IKEA were impressed (and so were we) with how Ben and Brett (also know at Brip) lifted the entire shrink-wrapped package in the back and shouted at them "That's how we do it too!" 

Here's shot of Brett just to prove he was there and helping.

We got everything home and began the unpacking process. It was a little overwhelming but in no time we were assembling.

We then hit our first problem. We were missing a bolt that fastens a bracket to the corner piece to hold one of the side pieces (if that makes sense). Ben ran to Lowes to try to find a substitute while I cleaned up the house laid on the cushions in the living room floor and watched TV. Had I been smart, I would have checked all the other pieces before he left to make sure we had everything else but I didn't.

After he got home we realized that NONE of the nuts fit ANY of the bolts. It was like the threads were off or something. Ben then left again (this time to Ace Hardware) and came back with 16 nuts that would fit the bolts. While he was gone I contorted my body to fit on this tiny section of the sofa.  This was over 90 minutes into the process and I wanted to sit on it for goodness sakes!

                                           

Finally we had all the pieces and began the assembly. And here he is...

I love the finished look of it and I really love lounging on it! It fits perfectly and seems like it was made for our space.  I am now on the lookout for a round-ish ottoman to break up some of the lines and for a fun fabric to recover my chair that goes in the corner. (You can see the chair in the first picture but it is now in the other corner).

It really helps out on Tuesday nights with the youth group and after our first meeting I found out that chocolate and melted Jolly Ranchers come out pretty easily (The new rule is only soda and chips on the sofa). :) 

I am still trying to decide if I want to paint or stain the legs. They are still birch for now but don't be surprised if they get the ORB treatment!