house projects

SO, this was the easy headboard project that turned into the easy bed skirt project that moved onto the those-pillows-don't-really-match-that-fabric project that finally ended after making the cute decorative pillow - whew - I'm glad this project is officially done.



In college, my mom and dad and I made the cutest headboard ever for my apt my senior year. Unfortunately, it was super heavy and then it had to be posted into the wall to stay up. So when I saw this tutorial for a headboard made out of an insulation sheet, I was ready.

When Jills, my mom, and I went to the beach in May, I found about 5 yards of this fabric being sold at a closeout store - you know how I love a deal - so I snatched it up.



the headboard:

So I layered my sheet of insulation and 2 mattress egg crates


and held it altogether with spray adhesive. I love this stuff.


Then I wrapped it all up like a present with my fabric and after trying a staple gun and a hot glue gun, I finally realized I could use some more of my spray adhesive to hold the fabric on too.

Best part - it only took a few pieces of industrial strength velcro to stay on the wall!




the bed skirt:

I had a ton of fabric left over and our bed skirt was too short and then I remembered somewhere in my blog stalking, I saw a strip of fabric hemmed and pinned on for a bed skirt.

So I sewed all my left over strips together (not ideal, but it works)


and then ironed and hemmed it - the worst part of this whole project was the ironing! I hate ironing!


I used safety pins to pin it onto the boxspring - the mattress covers it up.


and ta-da!


the pillows:

It was starting to look a little busy with the headboard and bed skirt, so I decided to try to make some shams. I'm on a mission to clean out my fabric stash, so I used a drop cloth that I'd picked up from Lowe's a while back (lots of people are using these for curtains -so cute!)

I have no idea how to actually sew shams, I just did what made sense to me - I made pillows like I always do, just made them a couple inches to big and sewed a line down the sides. I also added some interfacing to the sides so they wouldn't slouch down. I bet this is so wrong but it worked :)



And last:
I had this little pillow packed up to take to storage, but decided the bed needed just a little something else so I used the last of my painter's drop cloth to sew a pillow case.
On Microsoft Word, I found a font I liked and printed it out.
I used a blade to cut little holes in it and traced it onto the pillow.
And last, I used fabric paint to paint over it.
James said it looks like jandj but it's supposed to be J and J :)




And altogether:



pretty monograms by Emily


the skirt

(I'm not even talking about the dark green carpet and pale green walls - renting)




Ooh - and the lamps - Salvation Army $12 each (which I think is a little high for thrifting, but it's a good cause, right?) I wish I'd taken a picture of the shades because they were horrible. I immediately donated them back, but even felt a little bad about that.

Before:


A little paint and some Target shades that I got for a steal at Dirt Cheap and
After:



The funny thing about this whole project - I never make the bed. like never. unless i'm absolutely sure that someone is coming over and positive that they're going to look at the bed, i never make it up. I think it's just more comfortable to get into an unmade bed. I know, terrible, right? :)