Ain't She Crafty: furniture

Showing posts with label furniture. Show all posts

Friday, November 30, 2012

How To Build A Headboard From An Old Door

FINALLY!!!! Don and I have been talking about these headboards for months, but our schedules and the weather made this much more than a weekend project! We are SO thrilled with the results and wanted to share this how-to with you, so without further ado I am tickled to welcome my first guest blogger...my husband Don!

Hey everyone, this is my first attempt at blogging, and it shows due to my lack of pictures of the process. Regardless, I hope that you find this blog helpful in putting together your own recycled door headboard. You can find the instructions here, and if you are unable to download it from the link just contact Beth at aintshecrafty@gmail.com and she can email it to you directly. Please let me know if I can answer any questions if you are thinking about building your own headboard or need some help along the way. Good luck and happy building!

We had been looking for headboards for both our guest bed and our own bed for quite a while. Beth loves catalogs like Pottery Barn and we both like antiques, but we aren't crazy about paying the sometimes ridiculous prices. Beth pinned this headboard several months ago, and after looking at the Anna White Queen Headboard plans that the original poster used we headed out to a local salvage yard to find some reclaimed wood. What we found was something even better (albeit a little more challenging), some old doors with great distressing and character. We brought them home and after cutting them down to size (remember to see my instructions for detailed information and measurements for each step of the project) I built the legs and cap around the door.

After building the frame, the next step was painting. Since these are headboards that are pressed against a wall I only painted the front facing side, which was much easier and a big time saver because I could just lay it on the ground and paint one side. I painted the entire queen headboard black...

but for the king headboard we wanted to retain some of the original color and distressing, so I masked off the panels with painters tape and some of Beth's scrapbooking cardstock.

After the paint dried it was simply a matter of mounting the headboard to the bed frame - and we had some beautiful new headboards for a fraction of the price we would have paid for buying one.

Thanks for checking out my first blog post, I look forward to your comments or questions. I hope you enjoy building your own headboard! --Don

Friday, September 3, 2010

unused bathtub + clever friend = total cushy awesomeness!!

We have been living in this house for almost three years...and almost every day for those three years I have been lamenting that the tub in our master bath is an eyesore.

Neither Don nor I are bath takers, so there it sat - empty, taking up LOTS of room and gathering dust (and all other kinds of weirdness) with no useful purpose whatsoever. We were told by our realtor that we couldn't take it out,I scoured the internet for some useful ideas (surprisingly - "unused bathtub" isn't a high traffic topic on the world wide web), came up with a vague idea for a seating area, but mostly I'd resigned myself to staring in to the vastness of the empty bathtub for all eternity. Until my friend Erin came along.

Erin is one of those people who will tell you she isn't crafty, but who one day just casually mentioned that she builds furniture for fun. So after hearing me whine for the 69000th time about my bathtub she said "I'm coming over to measure, I'm going to build you a bench". Now - it should be noted here that my hubby (Erin's too) was deployed at the time. I don't want his manhood (ie: ability with power tools) to be called in to question - I'm sure he would have built me a lovely bench 7.5 years from now.

So build she did - with some plywood cut just shy of the length of the tub and a few 2x2s around the base of the bench and across the width she created EXACTLY what I was looking for.

I applied spray adhesive to the top of the bench

then laid a 3" urethane foam sheet on top of the spray adhesive and cut the sheet to size with a craft knife.

I (actually we - thanks to my mom who was visiting for the weekend) laid some upholstery fabric face down on the table, flipped the bench foam-side down on top of the fabric, pulled the fabric taut, folded the edge of the fabric under and used a staple gun to staple the fabric to the wood around all four sides of the bench.

The now covered bench literally slid over the top of the bathtub (meaning easy removal if we wanted to use the tub, and hidden storage if we needed it),

I added a few coordinating pillows, and now our unused empty bathtub has become a cozy little nook where we can lay out our clothes, I can sit to give myself a pedicure, or the cat can comandeer it for yet another place to take a nap.

So while I can't lend you Erin, if you ever find yourself staring woefully at an unused bathtub you can round up a handy friend (or hubby) and create your own little piece of crafty goodness right in your bathroom!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

new year...new blogs and websites to love!

One of my many New Year's resolutions was to keep up with my favorite blogs - which will hopefully motivate (or shame) me in to keeping up with my own! So when I was working my way through my "faves" (see the list on the left) I was super sad but not totally surprised when I realized that many of them had either stopped posting altogether or changed their theme (from, for example, mostly crafting to mostly a personal/family blog). So I have cleaned up my list, added some new loves, and added another set of "info" sites for your viewing pleasure as well! So I am tickled to introduce: (drumroll please....)

Beth Quinn Designs - I've known Beth for years, she was one of the "old" (and I mean that in the greatest way possible) IRW consultants when I started working there many moons ago. She left to start her own jewelry company - and she has become a total star! Her creations are AMAZING and looking at them just makes me happy.

Design*Sponge - If you are awed by those "do-it-yourselfers" who can turn a $2 chair they found at a yard sale in to a work of art, RUN TO THIS WEBSITE for some love and inspiration! This site is so good it even motivated my HUSBAND to help me create a fantastical furniture find for our mud room (I'll post pics when it is done). YAY used furniture and junk!

Emma's Paperie - with monthly color challenges and sketches and a seemingly endless supply of projects (with instructions!!!) - this site is a little slice of heaven for paper crafters!

Last, but CERTAINLY not least...I introduce to you...

Cheesecupid.com - It is a well known fact that I heart wine and that I would marry cheese if it were at all possible. So when I found this website my heart did little flips and angels started singing and my cholesterol shot up about 10 points. WINE AND CHEESE! Simply click on either wine or cheese on the home page, select the "type", and it will help you mix and match the perfect combinations for your palate's pleasure. This is THE PERFECT SITE if you are a novice wine-and-cheeser and want to host a cocktail party or girls night out. With the witty text and the clever voice overs this site tickles my fancy and my tummy!

I'll continue to add sites as they catch my eye...I look forward to sharing my finds with you throughout the year!

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