Jul
21
Here is my new vow to you. I am going to aim for bi-weekly (wait, does that mean twice a week, or every other week? I mean to say twice a week) entries. I may not have as much to say, but I’ll say it more often.
So to honour this new commitment to you design-thirsty out there, here’s a little idea that came from my first (annual?) girls week-end at the cottage- no husbands, no children. It was bliss, although we all missed our babies dearly by Sunday night!
My sister has been decorating her place for the past year, and doing a stellar job at it. She got some amazing fabric at Designer Fabric Outlet the other day, and wanted to get a headboard made, but she didn’t want to spend a lot of money doing it, and she wanted it done quickly. She came up with a brilliant DIY headboard that anyone can tackle.
Start with a piece of plywood, 40”x60” if your bed is a queen. (You can get the guys at the lumber yard to cut it for you). Buy some 1 or 2” foam, also measuring 40”x60”. Get a bag of batting as well. ( A local upholsterer should be able to help you find foam, if there isn’t a foam selling place close to you). Place the foam on top of the wood, then cover it with batting, wrapping the batting around the edge of the wood to the back. Secure in place using an electric stapler.
Then open up the fabric, and place it on the floor, face down, with the pattern centered and straight. (You may want to iron the fabric first, and consider spraying it with Scotchguard). Place the wood on top, centered and straight. Wrap the fabric around, and secure in place using the electric stapler. It helps to do the corners first, then place a staple in the middle top, bottom and side of the headboard, and then work your way across each side. Don’t pull too hard on the fabric or it will pucker.
You can secure the headboard to the rails of your bed using bolts (you’ll have to drill through the headboard to do this), or you can use a heavy gage cable to “hang” the headboard on the wall like a picture. Then use the weight of the bed against it to keep it in place. Without the fabric, you’re probably in for about $60 worth of materials, and about 1 hour of work, max. I would have taken a picture, but we’re going to shoot it for a story for next summer. This is like a way way way advanced preview of things to come.
More on Thursday.
