The Jenny Lind nightmare and the make-do headboard

So you might have noticed in the shared kids bedroom reveal that something was missing. Something I told you I started working on way back in February.

Remember Jenny? Jenny Lind?

I got this headboard and footboard out of my parents' basement, but once upon a time, it was in my great grandmother's house. The finish was not good, so I decided to paint it and make it a fun big girl bed for Elise.

I briefly wondered if I should try and put the bed together to make sure everything was OK before I got started, as older beds can be slightly different dimensions than modern mattresses. But I was pregnant and that sounded like a lot of extra hassle. So instead, I got to work and figured whatever happened, we'd be able to make it work. This, my friends, is called foreshadowing.

It took me about 4-5 hours to sand both the headboard and the footboard. Thanks to some unseasonably warm and sunny February days, I was able to do 90 percent of the sanding outside. I used one of those foam sanding blocks; they are so much easier to use than regular sandpaper, especially when sanding something with a lot of curves and details like this. I'm a fan.

I was excited to get a custom-mixed enamel paint, but after a quick trip to Sherwin Williams, I learned that they couldn't mix enamel in a deep pinky red because they don't have a base for it. My options? Go with regular latex paint or pick a different color of enamel. I left the store with their advice so I could think about it.

I didn't want to use semi-gloss in this situation, so I decided just to get some flat paint mixed and then follow up with polyurethane. More coats, more work, but I could get the color I wanted AND that hard glossy finish. I ended up buying the paint at Lowes, though, because I didn't really want to make a special trip back to Sherwin Williams.

Then it was time to paint! I started out with my favorite stainblocking primer (Kilz Premium Latex) and followed up with a coat of flat gray paint in hopes that would cut the number of coats of pink I needed. Painting deep saturated colors on top of pure white primer is a lot of work.

It was around the second coat of pink paint (in total, my fourth coat) that I began hating this project. Why did I have to choose such a saturated pink? Why couldn't I have just used white enamel and have been done in two coats? Because my girl wanted a pink bed. And although I'm sure I could have talked her out of it, I wanted her to have a pink bed too. After the fourth coat of pink, I decided it was good enough to stop. The middle of a project can suck the soul out of you sometimes.

(Spray paint would have been a good option here, but being pregnant and winter, it wasn't going to happen that way.)

And then I went and had a baby and the bed sat in the basement for over a month. But near the end of April, I picked the brush back up and gave it two coats of polyurethane to finish it off. The shine! So pretty.

Then it was time to put the bed together. Sorry, no photos of this process. You'll soon find out why. My dad brought over the metal rails and the box spring just wasn't fitting. He thought maybe he had more longer rails still in his basement and maybe he picked up the wrong ones. Fast forward a couple of weeks, he brings a collection of six rails over. Dan and I struggled to get everything assembled and we discovered the first pair was way too long. Like six inches too long. We try a second pair, they were again too short. Like an inch too short. We try a third pair that seemed just about right and we put the box spring in and the whole thing was crazy wobbly, not to mention crazy high.

I don't think this old bed was intended for use with a box spring. It probably had some sort of platform missing. Anyhow, it wasn't working with the box spring. And it wouldn't work with just an unsupported mattress either. So we took it all apart again.

I talked to my dad and we decided that maybe we could just attach the headboard and footboard to a modern metal bed frame. Wait, make that just the headboard. The metal bedframe wouldn't be long enough to be able to attach the footboard as that end is usually open. OK, I thought, I'll sacrifice the footboard.

When he went to attach the headboard to the metal frame, the heights didn't line up well. The legs were all spindly where the metal frame would attach. There wasn't a flat surface where the two should meet. Not only that, but the headboard is slightly warped. (I noticed that before, but didn't realize it was going to be an issue.)

So now I have a beautiful but useless pink Jenny Lind headboard and footboard taking up space in my basement. All that time wasted! Eight coats of primer, paint and poly! Kills me.

I put so many hours into this project, I'm not ready to quit them just yet. I'm hanging onto them until I figure out if there's anything else that can be done with them. I've seen benches, etc. made from beds and cribs, so maybe they still have a future.

But what's the new plan for Elise's bed? We ended up using a plain metal bed frame to get everything up off the floor. At this time, I'm not ready to spend a lot of money on another headboard. The cheapest new ones I liked were still over $100. And after this debacle, I'm more than a little scared to go the vintage route.

For now, Elise's make-do "headboard" is two giant throw pillows from Home Goods. It is what it is, but I think it kind of works? It is a kid's bed after all.

I also think that it might be wise to wait until Etta's eventually out of the crib and then just buy two matching beds. The long-term plan is to move them upstairs in a few years and matching beds would look so good. Plus it gives me a few years to casually shop for a deal. And maybe my new-found fear of vintage beds will wear off a little.

Any ideas of what I could do with my useless headboard and footboard?

Photobooth photo wall art

OK who likes photobooth photos? Everybody? Thought so.

But they are kind of hard to display, you know, other than tacking them up on a cork board or refrigerator.

I wanted to include this one on my bedroom gallery wall, but they don't make long and skinny frames for photo strips.

I decided to go homemade and scrounged up a long and skinny piece of scrap wood in my stash. Weirdly, the size was exactly 1.5 times the size of the photo strip and perfectly proportional, give or take a couple of sixteenths. Sometimes things are easy.

I scanned in my photo strip, enlarged it to the dimensions of my piece of wood and printed it out in two segments (since it was longer than could fit on one piece of paper). After the ink was dry, I sprayed the printed photo with a water-resistant clear sealer. (This is so the ink won't run later when the photo gets decoupaged.)

I painted the piece of wood black, trimmed the photos and used Mod Podge to adhere the photo. A pretty straightforward decoupage job. No tricks!

Taking inspiration from a vintage hatbox

I say, you can never have too many pretty storage boxes.

My mom gave me these unfinished wood boxes we found in her basement. I sat on them for months (well, not literally) because I didn't really know what to do with them. That was until I saw this:

A vintage hatbox I spied at an antique mall. So mid-century, but also so modern. The lines were also very brushy looking, so I knew it would be easy enough to steal the idea.

One went black and the other white, but both got the brushy gold stripes. Those brass rivets on the seams are probably supposed to face the back, but I love them so much.

Bedroom details: Pillow + foot stool

I'm not a fan of a thousand throw pillows on my bed; one is enough.

I made this pillow with a couple of fabric sample swatches I had been hoarding for just this purpose. It's a simple square cover with an invisible zipper on the bottom. I made it to fit a down pillow insert I picked up on clearance at Bed, Bath and Beyond for something like $4. Add on a couple bucks for the zipper and we're all in for under $7. Cheap cheap!

Onto the second project!

I transformed this foot stool to give our elderly kitty cat an easier way to get up on the bed, but the only one who's been using it is Elise. Can't teach an old cat new tricks. Ah, well. 

It started out as one of a pair of counter-height stools. I bought them something like 10 years ago, but we weren't using them anymore and they were just wasting away in an upstairs closet. It was time that I did something with them or got rid of them.

I had my dad cut one in half, making the top cushioned part about 14 inches tall.

I painted the legs black then recovered the top with an upholstery remnant I picked up at Hancock fabrics for $5/yd.

I wrapped the cushion like a present and stapled the fabric to the underside. I treated the corners very simply, just folding the fabric at a 45 degree angle and stapling the excess underneath.

It was so easy I'm trying to decide if I want to cut down the other stool and make another, but, you know, I'm not sure we actually need another...

Turning a negative space into a design feature

This was bothering me.

This weird triangle of negative space between the curtains, exposing the wall, the trim and the top of the blinds above our bed. I know this is not the type of thing that normal people worry about, but it was shouting out to me every time I saw it. It's the same on the other window, but it doesn't bother me there like it bothered me above the bed. It was like an arrow pointing to nothing.

So what to do about it?

Hello, little bit of drama.

I picked up this scrolly mirror at a thrift store for $2 more than a year ago, but it never had a home before now. I tied a ribbon through the holes of the mirror and onto the curtain rod above. Yeah, I know it's hardly a tough project, but it makes everything look so much grander!

Final reveal: Bedroom mini-makeover

Wanna see my bedroom? The mini-makeover in our master bedroom is done!

What we had before was fine. Boring. There was nothing special about it. 

But I took most of what was already there (the furniture, the curtains, the colors) and just layered on top of it. It was missing all those finishing touches that make a room look put together. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking from here. I will have a couple of follow up posts about some of the details, but please let me know if you have any questions in the comments. I'd be happy to answer them!

Vintage industrial: Updated bedroom light fixture

Look up! We got a new ceiling light in the bedroom! The old light left a lot to be desired. Not only was it one of those basic, boring dome (a.k.a. "boob") lights, but at 12" wide, it also didn't feel like the right scale for the space.

I wanted something just a little larger to hold the space better, but I didn't want a ceiling fan or chandelier.

Nothing wrong with those things, but our ceilings are eight feet high, the room is small and I didn't want anything hanging too far down and intruding on the space. My husband also nixed anything sparkly. He doesn't ask for much in home decor, so I gave him that.

So with that tall order, I hunted and hunted and finally found this slightly industrial, slightly vintage-looking fixture (Independence by Hudson Valley Lighting). This was my one splurge for this room at $200. But in the wide world of non-big box store lights, that price is not outrageous. I mainly arrived at that price point after finding nothing I liked second-hand or at lower prices.

My dad put it up because I'm not prepared to deal with our house's old wiring. (Modern light fixtures also don't screw into old junction boxes in the way they do to updated boxes, so expertise and patience is a must.)

I loved it when I bought it, but after it was up, it took some time to grow on me. Our room is so small, you mostly see the light from underneath. I wasn't anticipating that.

In fact, the only real way you can see the side profile is standing in the hallway. Maybe it belongs in a larger space so that it can be viewed from all angles?

Once I got the new bedding in place, I liked it much better. Why? I have no idea. But everything started to gel together.

What's that? The new bedding isn't in the photos above? Final room reveal tomorrow!

Bedroom family photo gallery wall

For whatever reason, we don't have a ton of personal photos displayed around the house. I guess I'd just rather decorate with art and other things. But for a long time, I've wanted to turn this wall in our bedroom into a family gallery wall. There were already a few photos there, and in my Photo A Day project last year, I took so many great photos I wanted to display.

The thought of doing all black and white photos briefly crossed my mind, but with the cool colors of the room, it might of looked too monochromatic and dull. In with the bright color!

I scoured the house for empty frames, painting some, finding glass for others. By a quick count, around half were new, bought specifically for this wall, but most were $3 to 5 a piece.

First, I hung the largest pieces and then filled in around them with smaller ones. I didn't have a complete plan when I started; I hung a few frames at a time, paying careful attention not to box myself in too much. And I tried really hard not to line anything up (though honestly, that really wasn't that difficult to accomplish).

I made sure to hang photos with small details in the range of eye level (between about four and six feet off the floor) and larger "closeup" photos above and below.

I wanted to hang photos all the way down to the baseboard, but I ran out of frames (and photos), so this will  likely be an on-going project. I'm sure there will be some minor rearranging in the near future, and as time goes on, I hope to swap out some of the photos with those yet to be taken.

While they are all photos of just our little family, they aren't all portraits. Some of my favorites are anything but. It's been really nice to lay in bed and stare at all the photos I love. I really underestimated how much I would enjoy that.