White, Leather, Tufted, Headboard

I FINALLY completed my headboard. I'm so proud.  It really completes the room.  I have to let you all in on a secret, it has taken me over ten months to get this headboard done.  Yes, ten months.  I wrote yesterday's post about the template over ten month ago (in July) and am just now finishing this project.  Although it took a long time, it was well worth it.

I used the same material as the chair I recovered here,and decided to add tufting and all that.

I just love it.

Here is a proper before and after, so you have the whole picture.

Before

After

I moved around some stuff, as you can see.  I put the dresser from my bedroom into this room, and moved the chair (now reupholstered) to the dormer window.

I took a million pictures so let me show off a little.

Now let me tell you how I did it.  Yesterday, I revealed how I made the template here, so you can read about that but now is the fun part.  How I actually made the headboard.

I have to start by saying that once I had the template, I took it to my father-in-law's house and asked him to cut out the shape.  He is a whiz at that kind of thing, so I let him do the hard work.  Part of why it took so long to get this done was that I live three hours away from my in-laws, and it look a while for the headboard to make it back (It did not fit in our car, so the in-laws had to bring it over at Thanksgiving with their van.).  Then it took me forever to get the buttons done (more on that later).

Here is the headboard before I had the chance to upholster it.

(Sorry about the quality of this photo)

We cut the frame out of a hard compressed cardboard, it was easier than wood and turned out just as good (ha! I'm a poet).

For padding, I used a large sheet of egg crate like foam (that is the technical term, lol).  It was a lot cheaper than real foam, and after the next step just as good.  I attached it with spray glue.

I covered the padding in batting (ha, rhyming again, sheesh) and the egg crate stuff was covered.  You would never know I went the cheap way.

I folded the batting over the back and stappled it with my handy dandy staple gun (I had to get a smaller one because the big man one was too hard to use.).

Then I cut off the excess.  See, all nice and neat now.

Now for the hard part: adding the "leather" (it was fake leather) and tufts.

First, I took a espresso break.

Ok, back to work:

I lay out the leather over the headboard, and marked with sticky notes where the tufts would go.  This was genius if I do say so myself.  I could move the sticky notes around and when they were in the right place I just nailed right through them.  That's right, I took a short cut and just nailed through the fabric, then I later glued on the buttons (I'm such a faker).

It took me a while to figure out where the nails would go. The hubby did not help me with this math, so I was on my own.  I think I put them 13 inches apart on all four sides.  I had thirteen buttons "holes" in the end.

Now you see that the extra fabric is not stapled down yet, but the nails are in.

I then wrapped the fabric around the back and stapled as with the batting.  I decided to leave the bottom row without buttons because this would be bellow the bed line and it will not be seen.

This is where I stalled for about five months.  I had so much trouble with the buttons.  You see first, the covered buttons at JoAnn's were expensive so I had to wait for a sale, and then I had SO much trouble making the buttons.  The problem was that the leather fabric was to thick for the buttons to fit in the covered button design.  After hours and hours (really, it was about 10 hours of struggling with these buttons) I decided to just hot glue the suckers in place.

There they are, my buttons all done.

I glued (with a hot glue gun) the buttons on, and my headboard was FINALLY done.

I'm so proud.

Here you can see the chair too.

Next, I want to paint that dresser (that might be a summer project) and get some bed side tables and lamps. I have so many plans and so little money (I'm actually contemplating buying a lottery ticket).

One more before and after:

Before

After

What do you think?  I love comments and this project took me so long to make.  I would love to hear what you think.


Where I Party:


Remodelaholic

 

Headboard: Step One

I'm determined to make my own headboard.  I have been thinking about it since we bought the guest bed.  You see, because of the configuration of the room in our Cape house we had to buy a very low bed, and the only way to get to both sides of it I had to put it at an angle.  So to solve this, I wanted to make a headboard. 

Finding the style I wanted was hard.  I had to find something that was low on the sides but high at the top.  That way the headboard would have weight if pulled away from the sloped wall, but could be tucked into the corner if we need more floor space. 

I found this picture:

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I love the shape and I hope my father-in-law will be able to cut it out. 

The plan is to make a stencil of the shape, give it to the father-in-law and he will cut out the shape from ply-wood.  So I set out to make the stencil.

I have to warn you this took some math.  I surprise myself sometimes with my ability to do math, it seems to be kind of instinctual (I guess, and I get it right, or close, most of the time).  I know this is not the way normal people do math, but it works for me.  Now, just in case I didn't get this right I had my husband, who is a math teacher, to sit with me while I was doing it.  In the end the only time I needed help was with some simple division.  Not bad.

This is the room (and bed) that will get the new headboard.  I really have not spent any effort on this room, it is my newest project as far as the design.  I have a lot of plans.

I gathered my suplies:

To get the headboard to fit in the tight spot I measured it against the wall with the bed. 

I just taped the paper straight to the wall. 

For the math and actual drawing I had to put it on the floor.

In order to get the half circles right I used an improvised compass ... a pencil, a thumb tack, and a string.

I measured the circles and the space between the two sides, and then made my lines. 

(It took me forever, and a yoga class, to decide where to put the horizontal line between the two curves.  It was tough!) If you look close you can see the other  line I was thinking of.

To get the two sides exactly the same I folded the first side over and cut out the design. 

I think it came out really well.  Now we just have to see how it looks cut out of wood.

And just because she tried so hard, I have to give you a shot of my kitty with the new head board to be.

I hope to have this headboard done by the end of the summer.  (I didn't, it took much longer) I will be sure to show you the results.

Throw-Together Quiche

Hubby and I decided to eat dinner separately last night.  I took the opportunity to make Quiche (which Hubby does not like).  Now I didn't have all the ingredients to make the recipe I found so I just made it with what I had.

It was really good, and I made it low fat.  Overall I was very proud of my quiche.

The crust:

3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons skim milk (or more if needed)

Pulse the oatmeal in a food processor until it is small particles.  Add the flour and salt, pulse again.  Add butter and pulse until the dough comes out like peas.  Add milk and pulse to combine in a large ball.  (You may have to add some more flour or milk to get the dough the right consistency).  Roll out dough, place in pie pan (9 inch).  Bake at 400 degrees for 9 minutes.  Let cool.

The Filling:

3 whole eggs
3 egg whites
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup half and half
1 onion
Veggies (Use what ever you have in the house.  I used asparagus, sweet peppers and spinach.)
Cheese (I used feta and Mexican cheese mix)

Cook the onion on low heat for 20 minutes until they are nice and brown.  Add veggies and cook until they are soft.

In a large bowl mix eggs and milks until combined.

Put cheese in bottom of cooled pie crust.  Add veggies and onion  mixture.  Poor egg mixture over everything.

Bake quiche for 50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean in center.

Enjoy warm or cool.

Yum, I love a good quiche.  It is so easy to eat leftovers and so yummy. I might go have a piece right now.  

I think I could eat quiche all day long.  What do you eat when your family is away (and you can eat what ever you want)?