Using my Head(board)

  When we decided we were moving, I knew I wanted to completely redo our bedroom... especially our bed. We hated our bed. Mainly because we felt like we spent too much money on a low quality product. I had seen tons of DIY tufted headboard tutorials on pinterest, but when we walked through our house for the first time we found this lovely headboard in the closet.

The previous owner had quite a bit of furniture in the house and we texted him pictures of things we would like to buy from him and this pretty (ugly) thing was one of them. We got this for a whopping $10. It was shaped exactly like this headboard I'd seen for $240. I had read a few blogs about painting upholstery so I thought I'd give it a try.

Here's what I used...
- 2 bottles of Textile Medium
- Leftover latex paint from my dresser project
- Empty Windex bottle
- Pint sized measuring cup
- BIG paint brush

First, you fill the empty spray bottle with water, and completely spray the area you will paint first. 

For the first coat, I mixed 1/2 cup of textile medium, 1/2 cup of water, and 1 cup of paint. When brushing this on, it looks almost like a glaze. I would paint where I had sprayed water, then spray another section, and so forth. After it dries, sand it.

For the second coat, I still had paint left in my measuring cup, so I just slapped it on there, but looking back I wish I had added water each time, because in the end mine was pretty stiff.

It took about 4 coats to cover up the watercolor-like stripes. It started as a sateen-like fabric and now feels almost like pleather. It isn't hard and scratchy, but you wouldn't cuddle with it. But who cuddles with their headboard? I don't, so I absolutely love it.

That's the way I stripe it...

 Well, it has been a long, long, long time since I last blogged, but that is about to change. I have many, many, many DIY projects to share. First up is my striped duvet.

A few months ago, I saw this striped duvet from West Elm via Pinterest. Honestly, $70 is not bad for a duvet, but when I saw this nearly identical duvet at Target for $25, I was sold. That was until I got home and realized the bright white stripes looked absolutely horrible with our ivory trim. So what's a girl to do? First option... paint the trim. Yeah, that's not happening. Second option... search near and far for a navy and ivory duvet. Nowhere to be found (at a reasonable price). Third option... make my own duvet.

Here was my plan.
-Get two navy queen sheets sets ($18.97) and one ivory queen flat sheet ($14.99)

-Cut the ivory sheet into 5 twenty inch strips.

-Fold each strip in half, making it a ten inch strip and sew it closed.  (Now the ivory is doubled up so you will not see the navy through it.)

-Lay one navy sheet flat and then lay the ten inch strip across it. Pin it in place and top-stitch it along both edges.

-Repeat, repeat, repeat, and repeat.

-Once all the stripes are sewn on, pin the other navy sheet to the front of the first sheet so it is inside out.

-Sew along the outsides but leave one area undone to create an opening for the filling.

-I was intimidated by buttons, so I chose to put in a zipper. I forgot to write down what the cost, but I think it was like $6.

So in total, it cost me roughly $60 and a lot of man hours, but that also includes two fitted sheets and four pillowcases I would not have received if I bought the West Elm duvet. I am extremely happy with how it turned out. I love my super thick, bold stripes that don't clash with the trim. And that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I stripe it. :)

Also in this picture, there are 5 more DIY projects that I'll break down in the near future... and that's just this side of the room.