Master Bedroom Farmhouse Bed

Last we met I was finishing up the wainscoting. I had no camera to document the progress until now. The wainscoting is done and you will see it in later photos.

While I was working on that I decided to repaint as well. And with all that work I had to move my bed around and such. Well, it is a piece of garbage. It is just a metal frame, no headboard, nothing. And it was propped up on blocks because it was too low to store anything under the bed. And then I realized one of the wheels was busted. I got so ticked that I was having to deal with that piece of junk that I decided I was going to get us a new bed. Well.....make us one.

Enter the Farmhouse Bed from Ana White/Knock-off Wood. I had my sights set on it for a while but finally bit the bullet. The camera was gone for much of that as well, but here are some photos from when hubs returned home.

This is the footboard getting a paint job.
Here is the footboard and a glimpse of the headboard too. I used "rattle can" primer (gray) and then satin black for the top coat (also in spray cans). I also did a couple coats of polycrylic at the last minute. Good thing too 'cause my kids are already climbing all over that thing!
This is with the primer. Headboard.
This is one of the sideboards as it came from the store.
Lots of sanding later.
Setting it up in the room. (See the wainscoting and new gray wall paint?)




Supermodel baby.



That thing is so sturdy. It is unbelievable. It turns out my kids can now get up on my bed with ease by using the footboard as a ladder. Great. As soon as I make my bed they have to climb up on it and jump all over it. Oh well.
The lumber cost about $115. I used the following tools: miter saw, nail gun, palm sander, drill (duh), and at the end I bought a Kreg Jig Jr. ($35) to put the side rails on. I had a lot of paint and poly on hand but I had to buy some extra so I probably spent $25 or so on spray paint.

Master Bedroom Wainscoting

I am prego, y'all. This is one way that my nesting manifests itself.

I had been itching to make a change in our master bedroom. These "before" photos are kind of old but basically show what the room looked like before I started. Different things were hung on the wall and I changed the bedding a bit but you get the idea.



Here is the wall in question. It is the one behind the bed.
In the bathroom redo I used luaun for the wall but this time I couldn't find any at Orange. Even the guy helping me couldn't find it. So I used something new this time. It is 1/8 inch hardboard. One side is smooth, the other rough. I measured where the outlet cutouts needed to be. I personally think this was the hardest part to get right. I measured where the rectangle would be, drew the rectangle, drilled a hole in each corner of said rectangle and then used my jigsaw to cut it out.

I used liquid nails for paneling to hang it. Plus brad nails at stud locations.

Make sure and dry fit before you start slathering glue everywhere.

I used two full sheets (4x8) and then I needed a little strip at the end.


Next I added the top and bottom trim pieces. They are MDF 1x3's. And they are sitting on the hardboard so they are flush with the top and bottom of the sheet.


I used blue tape to figure out how to space my battens. I started with the one that would cover where the 2 large sheets come together and from there went every 14 inches. I made adjustments if it came too close to an outlet. So they are anywhere from 14-15 inches apart.

You really have to measure for each batten separately, to account for slight variances in height. Trust me on this one.

I added an MDF "sashbead" to the top, nailing from the top town into the trim piece.
Here is where we will stop for the day. My hubs took the camera on a week-long backpacking trip. (For some reason he thinks amazing mountain views you only see once or twice in a lifetime is more important than documenting my room redo.) Anyway, from here I caulked all the joints and/or spackled and sanded where needed. Then I primed (2 coats) and painted (2 coats). More to come. Stay tuned!

Emma's Room

My little sister (age 17) decided she wanted to redecorate her room. She enlisted my help.
This is the before. By the way, I painted those walls many years ago when she was sharing a room with her sister and they had super cute bedding that coordinated perfectly. But it wasn't working anymore. She had long outgrown the butterfly theme.


She was inspired by a gym bag she has that is zebra striped with lime green trim. So that was our jumping off point. We painted the walls gray and came up with some organizational ideas for some of her things.

On the left is a huge magnet board I made for her. She has a lot of stuff to hang up. Most 17 year old girls do. You know, posters, notes, awards, photos, on and on. On the right is her little desk and some jewelry hangers I came up with.


We weren't able to get around to making a headboard like we wanted so I created the sunburst mirror to serve as a focal point above her bed. The scale is a little large but it's fine. She plans to add in some peacock feathers she has. That will look great.
We got new bedding and one or two other new accessories.

She wanted a way to display her lacrosse socks so we devised the green frame on the right of the lower photo.
It is just an old frame painted green with eyelet screws arranged on the sides. We strung some twine and voila! I thought we would hang them with clothespins but it turned out she could hang them right between the string. Handy!
Here is a close-up view of one of the jewelry hangers after we got to hanging it all up. There are hooks screwed into the frame as well as s-hooks hanging from the wire mesh to hang necklaces anyway she wants.
Many of the earrings can hang right on the metal mesh. Everything else is hung on hooks we added.
UPDATE: The metal sheets weren't sticking that great with the adhesive alone. So I ended up putting screws in the corners and other places I thought it needed them.

The luaun is only 1/4 inch thick and I had trouble finding screws that wouldn't go all the way through it. So I actually used a washer and then a decorative washer and then the shortest screw I could find at orange. I am sorry I don't have the length for you. Anyway, I think it looks way better with the screws anyway. It looks more finished.

Giant Magnet Board

I am helping my sister (age 17) redecorate her room. She had a lot of stuff hanging up all over her room so I thought a big magnet board would be nice to have. Then she could corral all her pictures, notes, certificates, ribbons, etc in one place.

I went to Orange and looked around for something metal to use. First I tried magnetic paint which was a dismal failure. It was just never strong enough no matter how many coats I did.

Then I looked at corrugated roofing material. Great cost wise, but the ridges made it kind of impractical.

I looked at the sheet metal they had there but one little 12 inch square was like 4 bucks.

Then an employee helped me look at other options. I finally ended up in the plumbing aisle. They sell "panning" which I guess they use to make pans for under water heaters and such? No idea. Anyway, it was nice and thin and magnetic and a decent sized piece was just a little over 6 bucks. I bought 4 and decided I would adhere them to a piece of luaun I had in my garage (free for me, but about 11 bucks if you go and get yourself some).

I cut it to size (giving a 2 inch border around the sheets of metal).


Primed the edge with spray paint.
Painted the edge with spray paint.
Used this spray adhesive. It works okay but I probably should have roughed up the smooth surfaces a little. The metal seems to lift up a little on some of the edges. By the way, I really needed my daughters help to get the sheets in place after they had been sprayed with glue. It was tricky. If you are off just a little, you can pull the metal up but it will be bent and pretty much unusable after that.
Here is the finished product. I would say it is about 3 ft x 5 ft or so.
The panning has a little fold at the bottom. I thought it worked out perfect because she can stick photos (or whatever) right in the channel without a magnet.
I need to look at it again because I might screw down the metal in some spots just to be sure it is all secure. I probably should have glued it down with liquid nails instead.