Upholstering a Headboard

So this was my first time upholstering anything, and it was so ridiculously easy.  Like, I'm almost embarrassed to write this, because if I don't tell you how I did it then you can be amazed by my ingenuity and crafty skills.  But in all seriousness, this is something that anyone can do.  I started out with the old headboard that matched my bedroom set.  I wanted a change that I could undo if I messed it up, and I love the look of upholstered headboards.

I found a great deep purple suede fabric that would compliment both the taupe quilt and the green walls.  I love purple and green together, and this seemed like a perfect fit.

The green doesn't show that great with my camera... It's actually a little brighter and greener in real life.  But anyway, I love the purple fabric.  I also bought quilt batting.  I already had a staple gun, and that's really all you need!

So here is the original headboard:

The first step is to staple the batting to the headboard.

I started on the top in the center.  The I stapled each of the sides, stretching the batting slightly.  Then I stapled from the top towards the sides, and then stapled the bottom.  It took about 10 minutes.  See?  Easy.  But, it was then that I realized I only had 2 staples left, so I convinced Matt to go out to Home Depot with me to get some more.  Since we needed a couple of other things anyway, he agreed, and we headed out.

When we got to the HD, we realized that everything seemed wet.  Apparently they had flooded in the hurricane, and were still working on the cleanup.  But they were open, and since we weren't getting anything that was stored on the floor, we were ok. 
We got the staples and checked out. We got home, and I went to put the staples in the gun, and they didn't fit.  Ridiculous since we had TAKEN THE OTHER STAPLES WITH US!  We had the staples in the store, and we still bought the wrong thing.  So then Matt says that we probably have to buy them at Ace, so we decide to go out again.

This time we were not so lucky with the roads.  Getting off the highway, we had to drive through about a foot of water, and the on-ramp that we would need to take to go home was even worse, so we knew we couldn't go back that way.  We made our way to the Ace, which was CLOSED.  Ugh, so we started to head back to the house.

I'm so glad that Matt was with me, because I still don't know the area that well, and I would have been so lost trying to find an alternate way back.  As it was, we tried about 5 different roads, and all of them were either flooded or blocked by trees and downed wires.  We finally found a way back, almost an hour after we had left, and we still didn't have staples.  So now what should have been a 1/2 hour project is turning into a huge annoyance.

Lucky for me, I have an awesome husband, and Matt picked up some staples after work on Monday.  And they fit!  And there was much rejoicing.

I stapled the fabric to the headboard with minimal trouble, and it took maybe 10 minutes.  And then the headboard is finished, right?  Wrong.  We still had to attach it to the bed frame.  We carried it upstairs (which was annoying, because it is solid wood and very unwieldy), and then took the mattress and box spring off of the frame. 

The first problem we ran into when trying to attach the headboards had to do with our wood floor.  We had put the wheels of the bed frame on rubber protectors, so that they didn't scratch the floor.  Unfortunately, that meant the frame was raised 1/2" higher than the headboard, so when we tried attaching the headboard it floated above the floor.  That seemed like a bad idea to me, so I got a couple of carpet samples we had, and laid them under the headboard and wheel, so they were the same height. 

Not really aesthetically pleasing, but it will work until we get a real carpet. 

The next problem had to do with the fact that this headboard is 23 years old.  The screws were so old that the threads had been worn down, and they wouldn't stay screwed in.  So like the awesome husband that he is, Matt once again runs to Home Depot for me to get new screws.  And guess what?  They work!  We now have an awesome purple upholstered headboard. 

Have you ever had a project that seemed like more trouble than it was worth?  I still can't believe we had to make 3 emergency hardware store trips for this headboard. 

We Survived Irene!

We are fairly inland, but we still had several hours worth of rain and wind.  The power was out for a couple of hours during the night, but not when we were awake.  We did lose a big branch, but luckily it didn't fall on anything.  Here's a look at our yard as of this morning:

So besides some debris, we fared well.  And since we had electricity all day, we were able to get a lot of things done today.

It occurred to me today that I haven't posted any photos of the guest room since we moved in.  We are currently sleeping in the guest room, because we haven't finished (or started) the master bedroom yet.  Here are some photos of where we are with the guest room:

We used "Minty Fresh" by Valspar in the guest room.

I've had this furniture since I was 2!  I'm thinking of trying to refinish it, because it has some water marks.

No trim or closet doors... story of my life!

Thank gosh for temporary shades.

We obviously still have a lot of work to do here.  Some things to do:
- install closet doors
- install trim
- window treatments
- lamps for the bedside tables
- chair for the desk
- hang painting
- upholster and install headboard

Last weekend, I brought over a painting from my mom's house.  It's a watercolor that my mom bought for me when we redid my room when I was 12. It's bright and colorful, and goes with the bright paint in the guest room.

I love the colors.  I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the painting also has great texture to it.  As you probably can tell from the photo, the painting has kind of fallen in the frame.  Also, the frame itself is painted blue, which matched my room at my mom's house.  For our guest room, we wanted the frame to be more subtle, so the picture can stand out.

I painted the frame, and fixed the picture so it was straight in the frame.  I also cleaned the glass, which probably hadn't been cleaned in 10 years.  Then Matt helped me hang it in the guest room, above the desk. 

I really like how it turned out, and I love it with the green paint.  We really need to start hanging more art, but I have such a hard time making a decision on where to hang it...  Hopefully it will all come together soon!

Aside from hanging the painting, we started some other things.  Matt worked on putting up more trim, and I started some new projects (upholstering the headboard and making crayon art).  I also cleaned and did some laundry.  All in all, it was a really good day, even though we don't have too much to show for it.  We also got stuck in the next town due to flooding, but more on that later.

Let there be color!

We finally have color in the house!  We finally got to the point of painting the house, and paint we did.  I spent the whole weekend painting, with a lot of help of course!   We got through the main spaces that we'll need to move furniture into, which is exactly how far I wanted to get!  Here are the photos, but I don't think my camera does some of the colors justice.

The bathroom is blue!

 The guest room is green!

 The office is brown!

 The living room is gray!  Also, that light fixture is new.  My dad was able to hook it up today, and I think it looks great!

 The stairs and hallway are gray!

And if you know me, you know I had to paint something purple.  Here's the dining room!

I can't wait until we're able to take up the drop cloths and see the floors with the new paint.  The house has completely transformed in the past few weeks.  Now all it needs are mouldings and we'll be ready to go!