Hope you all had a great weekend! We spent today outside enjoying the 70 DEGREE WEATHER (yes, and it’s only March in Massachusetts). We walked to Captain Dusty’s for the first day this season… I anticipate many more times of spending $9 for two ice-cream cones. Oh wait, mmmm… I could buy three half gallons of my favorite Turkey Hill Chocolate PB Cup for that, whatever, it’s the experience of eating ice-cream at the harbor playground. Or should I say, trying to eat it while Drew is grabbing it out of my hand and letting me have the occasional bite.
Saturday night we had a wild night. We finished our bed! I told you we were working on a project, didn’t I?
Here was our inspiration from West Elm:
Armed with the knowledge that we could do it far cheaper than the $349 price tag we set out to Home Depot for supplies. After spending $52 for wood we went home and the next day AJ cut apart a desk that had literally fallen apart on us (picture one side of the desk at an angle and the drawers falling out the back). The salvaged desk legs became our bed frame legs. Don’t they look similar to the West Elm bed?
Here is the handsome guy working magic with his table saw.
Then his helper joined him for the all important task of screwing the pieces together.
Drew loves the drill. Actually, he is obsessed with all tools and likes to walk around with a hammer and a screwdriver… but then I have panic attacks thinking of him falling on them and I take them away (much to his dismay).
After laying some supporting beams for the boxspring to sit on AJ and I laid on the bed to test it out.
As you can see: NOT SO SUCCESSFUL (do you see how the mattress has fallen?).
CRACK went the bed and we couldn’t stop laughing.
AJ went back to the drawing board with 3 1″x5″ boards and they have supported us for a week now. 🙂
These are the desk legs cut down to size and inserted into the corners of the bed frame.
Here are the new, and stronger, boards.
Notice how our boxspring is not exactly flat. We had to cut it to get it through our stairway when we moved in. Love those seven foot ceilings. AJ ended up screwing the boxspring to the bedframe to keep it flat.
Here’s the view pre-upholstering, and how we lived with it for the past week.
We wanted our fabric to match the headboard I made so I went back to Joann Fabric armed with my 50% off coupon. I got 2.5 yards for $15. I knew I needed at least 80 inches for each of the long sides of the bed. I laid out my fabric and cut 3 14 inches x 2.5 yard pieces. I didn’t need fabric for the back of the bed since it would be hidden.
The most tricky part was making sure when I sewed the two long pieces to the shorter piece at the foot of the bed that the seams would perfectly line up with the corners of the bed, I needed the piece at the footer to be exactly 64 inches from seam to seam.
The first seam was perfecto. The second seam was almost the same way but ever so slightly off, it doesn’t look bad so I chose not to worry about it.
Then came the complicated part of making the fabric wrap around those legs. AJ did a great job of working the fabric around that. I wish we didn’t see the staples at the top but the bedspread covers it. Any ideas how to prevent that?
I then covered our boxspring with a white fitted sheet since it it popped up over the bedframe.
Now for the final reveal (except we haven’t figured out what color to paint the legs yet)!
What were you up to this weekend? Any big projects or ice-cream runs?
Linking up to:
Love how it looks with the headboard. Love see the lil guy trying to help.
WOW you were busy! LOVE the bed!! Everything is coming together beautifully!! And love your new blog header and photo, what a handsome little guy! How is the running going? I have been lax with my workouts lately it has been soooo nice, 80 in Chicago in March is unheard of so I can’t bring myself to go workout inside!
Jen, it looks so amazing! You guys worked some serious magic 🙂
Wow! That’s amazing. What an incredible job you both did. I love the final look.
I’m a new follower and I’d love for you to follow me back.
wow. totally impressive. and inspiring. can’t wait to see the final final (if that even exists?) product of the master bedroom.
Fantastic headboard! You did a great job.
Thanks for sharing.
Hope to see you on my blog:)
Beautiful! So nice.
Thanks everyone! 🙂 it was fun!
Upholstery tack strips, for the no-staple-showing look. Intimidating to learn how to use (I’m learning, myself), but they make the best finished result!
Personally I feel you did a fantastic job and the fact that you recycled an old piece of furniture is a plus.
Kuddos to both you and your husband! Well done. -Brenda-
Footnote: Re ‘mdp’s’ comment
Re the hiding of staples. The key is to plan the application of the fabric as to what parts are done first and allow sufficient seam allowances for stretching/tacking/ stapling/sewing. ie: Usually on the visible side– Fabric is stapled to the frame on the wrong side of the fabric … then the strip is applied on top of that again with staples. The fabric is then PULLED OVER IT concealing what you just did, which in turn creates a staple-free clean straight edge. The rest of the fabric in this case then would be pulled to the underside of the bed frame, stapled again and any excess fabric is evenly trimmed off. (On small projects prior to application, I usually machine Serge these edges rather than leave them raw.)
For corners, the key is to eliminate and trim off any excess bulk so staples can be flush.
FYI: The strips are usually made out of cardboard and can be purchased at any Upholstery Shop at a more than reasonable price.
That is amazing! You guys did a great job!