A New Farmhouse Bed

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to pop in real quick to share a picture of our new bed for the master bedroom.

We have lots of family that live a few hours from us and so we have weekend visitors about once a month usually.  Our rental house was so small they had to stay in a hotel when they were in town.  This new house, on the other hand, has plenty of room, but we didn't have a bed for them to sleep in.  They were resigned to an air mattress.  Since we don't have a 4th bedroom to commit solely to a guest room we decided the best plan would be to put a double bed in our daughter's room and let that be a guest room when needed.  

Hubby has been complaining for quite some time that our bed was too small for his long frame.  Because of the way the footboard was situated he could never fully stretch out.  So, we decided to do a full out bed switcheroo.  We would find a queen sized bed for us (thus giving his tall self a few extra comfy inches), then we would pass our double bed onto our daughter (the antique style of it will fit perfectly in her room decor once we get it going), and our 3.5 year old son would receive our daughter's twin sized bed so that he could finally move out of his crib-converted-to-a-toddler-bed.

I had been scouring Craigslist, thrift stores, and used furniture stores for months to no avail.  I came across a few that I felt like maybe we could have made work, but they just didn't strike me as really being what I wanted and they weren't worth the hassle.  Never mind the fact that I didn't even really know what I wanted, I just felt like I'd know it when I saw it.  

And I did.

(Please excuse the room, this picture is not staged at all.  The room has yet to be painted, there's a hodge podge of sheets on the bed,  boxes are still everywhere, and bifold shutters are the only window treatments, lol!)

Finally, one night I found this bed on Craigslist and I just knew, this was it.  It had a big chunky farmhouse feel to it and the size of it would fit our large master bedroom much better.  It also came with a practically brand new memory foam mattress set.  This one was definitely worth the hassle of driving an hour away to the "big city" to pick it up.

It was already late that night so we couldn't call until the next morning.  In the meantime I started to feel anxious about it.  "Would someone else buy it before we could get a hold of them?  What if I get my hopes up and it's already gone?"  That sort of thing.  But I stopped myself, and I just prayed about it.  Because if there's one thing I've learned about God it's that, even though He created the entire universe and still keeps it all in motion, and even though He's everywhere at once and answering prayers the entire world over....He still cares about lil' ol' me and the little piddly things in my life.  So I told Him, "Lord, if this is supposed to be the right bed for us then I know that it will still be there for us."  And I went to sleep.

The next morning we called and they said they already had someone coming to look at it at 11:00am.  That anxious feeling started to come back, but I just prayed again.  I told God, "I know You're in control.  If it's meant to be then I know the other people will decide they don't like it after all.  Or maybe they'll be a no-show."

11:40 rolled around and I texted them asking if the other people had bought the bed.  They texted back, "They were a no-show, it's still available."  Woohoo!  That's my God for ya!  :D

So, we rushed out the door to make the hour drive.  Thankfully my in-laws were here visiting for the weekend and had their pickup truck with them, because the bed also came with a TV armoire that the people wouldn't separate.  We looked a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies coming home, but we made it.

I don't know yet what exactly my vision is for the master bedroom other than a farmhouse feel, of course, but this bed is versatile and will be a perfect fit for whatever I come up with.

                                                               

We FINALLY Have Curtains!!

I am SO excited to finally show you the curtains I made for our master bedroom!  I've had this all planned out in my head for forever, but it just took me a really long time to actually pull it all together.

Remember a few weeks ago I showed you this picture as a sneak peak of an upcoming project?  I shared the rustic sign that I made with some of the wood, but revealed that there was more to do be done with the rest.

Well, the other two pieces were for this area.

This barren and oh-so-boring window in particular.  Notice all the cords showing and the baby monitors so tackily in plain view?  

It needed help!

The window over the bed is much too narrow and needed some "oomph" to make it really stand out and have more presence in the room.

When I was trying to decide what I wanted to do for the curtains I knew for sure that I did NOT want the ones that went with this bedding set (not pictured).  Can we say overkill on the French country look?  Too busy and just not my style.  I thought it over for a few days and then as I was looking at the picture that came with the bedding set I realized the answer was right in front of me!

There in the background, behind the bed is some sort of burlap panels.  Burlap...of course!  It's perfect.

So, now with burlap in mind I began to try and figure out exactly how I wanted them to be hung.  I knew I didn't want them to be on a traditional black or oil rubbed bronze curtain rod, again, it would end up with more of a French country look and I wanted "farmhouse."  I thought of other rustic options like tree branches, etc. but nothing was speaking to me.

Then one day I remembered reading Michael's post, over at Inspired by Charm, about the curtains he made for one of his guest bedrooms and I instantly knew that was my answer!  I went searching on his blog and found the post again to refresh my memory.

(via Inspired by Charm)

Suddenly, I could picture just how I wanted it to be and I knew it was the perfect combination of rustic and creative that I love.

I had hubby measure and cut the boards to the sizes I needed, then I stained them with a vinegar and steel wool solution.  (I learned my lesson on the last go-round with this stuff and made sure I wore gloves this time!)

Next, I measured and marked off spots every 3 inches for the nails.

I had this box of rusty nails in my junk stash that I bought at the Habitat ReStore last year.  They were just perfect for this project!

Hubby used drywall screws to attach the boards to the wall and I colored over the shiny silver screws with a brown Sharpie permanent marker to help it blend in a little better. 

After I got the nails all hammered into the board it was time to start on the fabric.  I had already purchased the burlap months ago (used my 40% off coupon to make it cheaper) and had just been waiting for Hubs to have the time to cut the boards for me.  (He goes to school full time and works almost full time on top of that, so he's a very busy man.)

I needed to cut and trim the fabric into 4 panels.  Here's a handy little tip I came across over at Craftaholics Anonymous.  A way to easily cut a straight line in the burlap is to pull out one of the strings/fibers at the cutting point.  It leaves you with a nice little gap that serves as a cutting line.  Very handy!

I can sew some basic stitches, but I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to sew burlap and I didn't even want to try.  I just ironed a good stiff hem along the top and called it a day.

I bought curtain rings with clips to hang the panels.

Here's another great tip about burlap I came across, this time at Life to the T.  Burlap tends to be pretty stiff since it's more of a grassy type fiber rather than fabric.  To get a nice "wavey" look, shape it how you want it to look and use clothespins to hold it in place and let it hang and it will start to take on that shape.  Ideally, let it hang for a couple of days for the best results.  Personally, I'm too impatient for that and mine only stayed clipped for maybe a day.

My original intention was to let the panels hang straight like Michael did up there in my inspiration picture, and maybe add a bit of trim of some sort.  But after I got them up it just didn't look right for some reason.  Hubs wasn't impressed either.  We stood there and mulled it over and tried this and that.  (Now, he's a man's man, loves guns and hunting, he used to be a cowboy, he's currently going to school to be a diesel mechanic, his job is fixing huge semis, and in a perfect world his meals would be meat with a side of meat.  BUT...when I'm stuck and not sure what to do he's always willing to be my sounding board and I can just talk it out and run my ideas past him, and 9 times out of 10 he has great feedback.  This is reason #86 that I love him completely, all the way down to his oddly formed pinky toe.)

After talking it out with him an idea hit me and he liked the sound of it, too.  I wanted to make tiebacks, so I bought a couple of yards of jute webbing and some sticky velcro tabs.  Funny story - the lady who was cutting the webbing for me asked me what I was going to do with it and I told her "curtain tiebacks."  She responded with an, "Ohhhhhhh...." in a tone of voice like, "Here's a trophy for participating Sweetie, but next time you might wanna just stay home."  I got the same reaction when I bought the burlap.  Oh well, you can't let naysayers and criticism get in the way of a vision.  : )

I cut each tieback about 18 inches long, applied the Velcro, then I just wrapped them around the gathered burlap and pinched them together to hold them in place.

** Update - the velcro just did not stand up to the stiff burlap and they fell off after about 3 days.  I ended up using Aleen's Tacky Glue to permanently hold them in place. **

Cute, but still needs something.........

Ahhh...much better!

I found these adorable red wooden buttons at JoAnn's Fabrics and used my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupons on them.

SO.....are you ready to see the full reveal?  

The stack of tan patterned boxes are ones I've had for years.  They hold excess old photos and I put them there to help cover up the unsightly A/C cord.

I frayed the bottom edges of them by simply removing a few rows of fibers.  

So, let's compare a few "before" and "afters."

Notice how the baby monitors are well hidden now?  We can still hear them, but we don't have to stare at them all the time.

Ahhhh...such an improvement!!  And it only took me 1 year and 7 months to do something about it.

Why in the world did it take me so long to finish this project?  Oh well, at least it's done now.

I'm still lovin' my ladder bedside "table."

In this close up you can see the tiebacks peeking out over the top of the bed.

It's all coming along quite nicely, and I'm very pleased so far.  

So...I've done plenty of talkin', now it's your turn.  

What do you think of my "rustic farmhouse" curtains?  Would you give me a consolation trophy like Fabric Cutting Lady or do you think my "vision" was a success?

(If you want to see any of the previous posts about the master bedroom just find my list of previous posts over in the side bar and click on "Master Bedroom.")

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesdays - Savvy Southern Style
Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors
Sunny Simple Sunday - Sunny Simple Life

Vintage Industrial Style Lamp Makeover

Remember this sneak peek picture?

It was a lamp that I was working on.

I've been on the hunt for a lamp for Hubby's side of the bed in the master bedroom, and while this wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it was similar.  I found it at Goodwill for 3.99.

I removed the black plastic piece surrounding the bendable arm to give it a bit more of an industrial feel (and less of a plastic-y feel).

I gave it a coat of primer, and then a couple of coats of Rust-oleum's Hammered Metal spray paint in Dark Bronze.

And here's how it turned out.  I didn't notice until I was editing these pictures that the top of the lamp is slightly out of focus, but honestly, I just didn't feel like retaking it.  I realize that's a blogging no-no, but I just have too much going on right now to be too worried about it.

It's an improvement, but I'm still not completely happy with it.  It's not quite the right shape that I'm wanting, and I wish that I had gone with Oil Rubbed Bronze instead of the Dark Bronze.  If I get a bolt of energy and motivation maybe I'll change it's color.  But don't count on it.  (Hubby insists it looks like the Pixar lamp)

I took a close up of this little guy 'cause I thought you might be wondering about it.  It's an old rusty drain pipe/gutter guard that I got at a yard sale for .25.  I dropped in a votive and holder and voila...a cute candle holder.

It gives off a nice glow at night.

It'll do for now, but I'm still on the hunt for the perfect one.

In other news, I have nothing planned for the next 3 days.  Today begins potty training for Little Man so I'm sticking close to home the bathroom.  It took my daughter 3 days to be completely daytime trained, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for similar results with him.  He is very different from her in almost every way, so I'm not expecting the exact same results, but one can always hope.  : )

Wish me luck!

                                         

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesdays - Savvy Southern Style

Dressed Up Dresser

The master bedroom is coming right along and I must say I'm very happy with the progress so far.  Today I'm showing you some improvements to the dresser area.

Remember my confession of how the area looked before this makeover started?

{sheepishly hanging my head}

And then I shared about some of the progress I made, and this is how it looked at that point.  It still needed some sprucing up, but it was such an improvement over what it had been before.

Well, now it has been spruced.

I don't remember how or why, but one day it just came to me and I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like.

Over the next couple of weeks after that I used my 40% off coupons at Hobby Lobby and gathered all the needed supplies to make the two topiaries and the two faux metal industrial type letters.  Real industrial letters would have been amazing, but the larger, free standing ones like I wanted cost more than I was willing to pay.

So, I used a variation of my faux galvanizing technique and painted my own (more details on that and the making of the topiaries coming soon).

I still have to find a lamp for Hubby's side of the bed, but for now a little spindle-turned-lamp that I bought last year is working out just fine (that was a $1.99 thrift store find by the way).

So, what do you think?  Do you like how it turned out?  Do you think the letters look authentic enough?  I'd love to know your thoughts.

* Tutorial for the faux industrial metal letters can be seen {here}, and the tutorial for the topiaries can be seen {here}. *

                                                                  

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesday - Savvy Southern Style
Saturday Nite Special #138 - Funky Junk Interiors

New Sheets - Check

Another item checked off my "To Do" list for the master bedroom - new sheets.  A couple of weeks ago I shared the progress so far and mentioned that the sheets on the bed were leftovers from the previous bedding and that I was on the hunt for new/better ones.  

I knew that I wanted something with just a bit of pattern to it.  The original sheets that coordinated with this set had a polka dot pattern on them and I liked it really well, I just didn't like the $75 price tag.  So, I ordered another set that I thought would match nicely.  And they did, but it just wasn't the right look.  A bit too fancy.  Hubby's opinion was that there was enough pattern going on already and that the sheets needed to be plain.  So, I bought plain sheets and tested them out.  Bleck!  Boring!  No way.  They went back immediately.

Then I found this set at Walmart.  It's by Better Homes and Gardens and it's called Red Sedona Quatrefoil.  I couldn't find it on their website though.  I had to do a Google image search to find a picture.

Source

I loved the polka dots, and there's another subtle pattern in a tan that's not quite as visible that I liked as well.  I didn't particularly care for the big stripe of red though.  I think the set already has enough red going on without adding a ton more.  

So, I just folded the red part under.  That way, it gives another soft layer of pattern without grabbing your attention and forcing your eye directly to a distracting red stripe.

Before, with the tan sheets, I had the throw pillows directly up against the pillow shams.  I didn't love it that way, too much pattern right on top of each other, but neither did I want all the boring tan showing up so much either.

Before

Before

Now that I have improved sheets that I like, I was able to separate the bold patterns of the pillows and I like the outcome much better.

I'm happy that I was able to achieve the look I wanted for $27 rather than $75!

Up next is to get the curtains done.  I have the fabric bought, but I can't make them until I get some wood pieces.  I have a vision in mind and I need some pallet wood to make it happen.  I'm trying to convince Hubby of this want NEED and have asked him to bring me home a trashed pallet from work.

  It may take some more convincing.  I'll probably have to present it in a more masculine way of thinking.  Something like this, "It would be much better for you to bring me a pallet in your truck than for me to scratch up the Camry trying to heft one off the side of the road into my trunk."  

10 years of marriage gives me an advantage into his left brain way of thinking.

Never fear, I'll win in the end.  : )

P.S.  I'm hosting my first giveaway!  Be sure to join in the fun {here}.

                                            

Linking up to:

Saturday Nite Special #134 - Funky Junk Interiors
Wow Us Wednesdays #67 - Savvy Southern Style