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?

Vintage yard stick growth chart

Elise has been upright and walking since July. And even before that, I have wanted to make her a growth chart. This has been one of those projects that I started months and months ago, so I'm super excited to finally be finished with it.

This image of a wooden ruler backsplash has stuck with me since I first saw it, so I used it as inspiration for this creation. My dad found me a piece of wood and cut it to 6 x 48 inches. I had planned on painting it, but when he showed me it was a piece of cherry from a felled tree, my plan changed. I didn't want to cover up that pretty woodgrain.

I scrounged around for some vintage rulers or yardsticks, but couldn't find anything. So I bought a few new yardsticks at Ace Hardware, cut them and painted them up. But they ended up looking like used popsicle sticks. The colors weren't what I had in mind; they lacked any depth and generally just made me want to puke. Fail! Project on hold until I figured out how to proceed.

Fast forward to an antique mall trip where I found these wonderful vintage yardsticks for like $1 a piece. (The whole group of them, including the ones I bought, were from places in Minnesota. Kinda strange.)

My second run through, I decided to leave the sticks whole instead of chopping them up. I very simply hot glued them to the plank vertically. The first row set the standard for the measurement and I left the area to the left empty for marking heights.

I used a black craft marker to draw the measurements for three to six feet.

Then I coated the whole thing with a thin coat of satin polyurethane, which really brought out the woodgrain.

My model was basically non-compliant for the photo session, but I was able to mark her first height on the chart.

I hung the chart in our playroom-to-be, but the colors are so neutral, it really could have gone anywhere in our house.

Kind of stupidly, I hung it on a little strip of wall where I couldn't get any distance to take a decent full-length photo. Sorry about that.

I pieced together a close-up in Photoshop so you can see the details up close.

Click here to see the finished playroom!

Fail Fail Fail: My attempt at Crock Pot crayons

I'm super eager to get Elise coloring and creating. (I've been looking forward to it since before she was born!) She should be ready for coloring in a few months, so I decided to make her some toddler crayons for Christmas. Why don't I just buy the kid some crayons, you ask? Remarkably, I don't think Crayola makes big chunky crayons, or at least I haven't seen them in stores. And I am a Crayola-only crayon snob.

Melting old crayons into new crayons is another one of those kid's crafts that is all over the internet. I didn't have any broken crayons, so I picked up a couple of boxes of Crayolas for 25 cents a box at Target. Hooray for back-to-school sales!

I was excited to find this cute animal candy mold at Michael's. It's designed for making chocolate-covered Oreos, so it's thicker than a normal candy mold. And that should make sturdy crayons for little hands.

Looking to eliminate pouring of hot wax, I was generally following this tutorial to make crayons in a Crock Pot. I was a bit skeptical about heating the candy mold in the Crock Pot, but the tutorial noted the use of a candy mold, so I went for it.

I sorted out the crayons into color families, peeled them and broke them into little pieces. If you look closely at the above photo, you might be able to spot one of my problems. I had trimmed down the mold to fit inside the crock, but the crock is tapered and the mold still wouldn't sit on the bottom. I created a platform with some stoneware, but two corners of the mold were hanging out in the open with nothing to support them.

I should have realized this might be a problem, but I chose to ignore it, not realizing the mold was going to soften with the heat and warp.

I'm lucky I saw the wax spilling out when I did. Don't worry; with a lot of hot water, scrubbing and a cycle in the dishwasher, I was able to make the crock good as new.

Look at how cute they were going to be! All marbly and chunky. I have to figure out if the mold is still useable or if I need to pick up another one for round 2. Yes, I am going to try this again (except without the Crock Pot this time). The good thing is that I will be able to re-melt the crayon blobs. Wish me luck!