✥ "Expensive" Bedding on the Cheap ✥

Hello friends! I don't have a project for you today, but instead I thought I'd share my new bedding. Exciting? I'm not sure, but hopefully it's not too boring! ;)
We were in dire need of a change. Here are some of my inspiration pics.

The first is from  from West Elm. You can buy this Herringbone quilt or the Lexington quilt for $159. I do love the herringbone- but obviously not the price! That's not even considering the duvet- this is just a quilt we are talking about here.To recreate the look of these awesome beds I turned to Ikea. I bought the Alina coverlet in gray.

The second inspiration pic is from... dah, dan, dah...Restoration Hardware! Surprised...yeah, I thought not. I love the mix of pattern, texture and color! But obviously not the price, regularly the bedding sells for $279- don't worry though. It's on sale for the bargain low price of $219. {Yeah right!} 

I looked high and low for a duvet to match the beauty of the Restoration Hardware bedding. In the end, I struck out. Disappointed, but determined to find something- I took a look at the bedding I started with. Remember this pic?

This duvet comes form Target in their Fieldcrest line- but from many moons ago. I still love the simple pattern, but want to move the bedroom into the new color scheme for the rest of my home. I finally decided to use the duvet cover- empty as a sort of sheet for the bed.

Just as a partially temporary solution until the right sheets come along to introduce the same sort of subtle pattern and beauty.

I love how the gray coverlet brings out the gray tones in the taupe, rather than the brown ones. Yay!

Lastly, the new duvet cover hails from Ikea as well. It is simple white  fabric with a very subtle, tonal pattern {Alvine Medaljong}. So subtle that I had a very hard time getting it to show up in pics.

Here's Ikeas pic of the bedding- I think they had some trouble getting the pattern to show up, too!! That makes me feel better about my lacking photography skills! Ha!

 I pretty much got a whole new look for the same cost as the quilt from West Elm! And for far less than the duvet from RH! So what do you guys think?

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DIY Crate & Barrel Mercury Glass Lamp

This lamp on the left was my dream lamp- the lamp on the right is my copy.
The inspiration comes from Crate & Barrel and I heart it big time. Too bad it's 239 buckaroos for ONE!
I searched high and lower for something even close to this gorgeous without success.
Then I was listening to Nate Berkus and heard hm say something about DIY mercury glass finish (this is pre-blog days). Umm, I had no idea this was possible- but there are several tutorials online like here and here .

So obviously I decided to make my own. I figured it would cost be $100 for two lamps. I planned to buy glass kitchen canisters (using two tall ones like these), lamp kits, a fancy pants drill bit and of course the mercury glass faux finish.

 

 But fate struck and I found these glass lamps at the thrift store.

I do not love the shape the same way I loved the square inspiration piece- but I thought it was worth a try, especially cause it's hecka cheap and will save me 50 big ones.

I really wish I would have looked a little bit closer at the metal portions of the lamp. Soooo rusty! Who would buy these? Picture my two thumbs pointing right at me, "this guy!"

Ugg.

The base of the lamp didn't just unscrew- the lamp had to be completely taken apart. If you run into this, it's pretty easy to figure out-but you want to start with these screws up at the top- the ones holding the wires to the lamp.

Just unscrew those and you should be able to start stripping all the pieces off. This is what I had when both lamps were completely deconstructed.

I sanded the heck out of all the rusty pieces and bought a special rusty metal primer. Honestly it was not my favorite- but at Walmart there weren't  a whole lot of options.

For the mercury glass look- you wanna buy Looking Glass spray paint. I found it at Robert's for $19 and at Michael's for $12. Not bad with the 40% coupon.

I used a tutorial myself- but here's the basics-

(1) Cover the outside of your piece of glass and tape it off

(2) Evenly spray water on the inside

(3) Do several light coats of spray paint
4)Depending on the amount of desired "chipping" either let it dry naturally- or wipe it while it's wet and a lot of finish will come off

(I let mine dry naturally as my inspiration doesn't look very "chippy".)

Now for the goods- THE TIPS. 

✴I used the spray paint outside and could not have been in more ventilated space and I thought I was gonna pass out. It is WAY WORSE that regular spray paint. Wear a mask!

✴I did at least five coats. I didn't wait over night to do them (who's patient enough for that?) but you should wait a few minutes between coats, or you WILL get drip marks. Mercury glass should not have those!

✴My FAVORITE Part: real mercury glass has gold, tan and even black show through when it wears.
I waited a day and then used gold craft paint on a sponge brush to paint over the mirror spray paint. The paint on the brush acted as a paint thinner and I was able to distress the finish exactly how I wanted.
I used it very lightly in some places, not at all in others, and then heavily in a few spots.Then finished up with a few dispersed spots of black.

 I have to say, I LOVE this touch! It made a huge difference!

I  have a pair of these lamps now...but need to work out the matching lamp shade thing! Remember this dirty, thirfted Restoration Hardware shade? I think that cleaning experiment worked pretty well.

Hope you guys liked this one-cause I sure did! Oh yeah, grand total came in at 30 for two lamps, paint and one shade- I figure I'll be done in another 15 or twenty dollars.

Upholstered Headboard with Nail Head Trim

Ahhh, sweet success!

My headboard is FINALLY COMPLETE!

Click if you wanna hear the planning details and the search for all my budget friendly materials cause this post is about the actual construction.

Upholstering a piece of wood is easy peasy!

1) Sand the edges of the board

2) Apply spray adhesive to the  MDF

2) Place foam (or whatever cushioning product you've chosen) on top of adhesive sprayed board

3) Place layer of batting over the foam

4) Place fabric on the floor with decorative side facing touching the ground ( & smooth wrinkles)

5) Put board and foam on top of fabric with foam touching fabric and back of the board facing you

6) Pull fabric tightly on all sides and use staple gun to secure fabric to back of the board- I like to start stapling opposite sides first. Do the corners last and fold them like a present.

7) Now the tricky part- the trim

This is where I got hung up, because I ran out of the nail heads I was using to secure the strips of nail head trim to the board. I could only find three matching boxes at Joanne's and then they were out of stock forever for over a month.

Finally they got them back in and I got Z to get the board back off the wall and could finally get to work. I do NOT usually have project hanging over my head (pun intended) for long periods of time. I'm type A all the way and like to get in and get'em done.

Here's what I started with today.

All I needed to do was secure two more sides to the outer row of trim and then the inner row. I found the easiest way to ensure the trim was straight was to set up my laser level to keep a straight line. I couldn't find any tips online to really straight trim and that lined fabric in NOT forgiving!
After getting the laser it really was a piece of cake!

{Say hello to Chew-Doggy!}

A few words to the wise-

-(1)- If you're an inpatient person or a little sloppy do NOT buy a striped fabric. You will hate you life- seriously!

-(2)-Secure the foam WELL especially if you're not using trim on the headboard. I could tell my adhesive was coming lose, but fortunately it wasn't a big deal since I was nailing it all down.

-(3)-Wear gloves that trim is SHARP- especially after you trim an edge.

 I used a French Cleat I found at Lowe's to attach the headboard to the wall. This is the perfect device to get the job done because they can support a lot of weight and are so easy to install.
I purchased 1 large cleat with a 100 pound capacity. It comes in two pieces.

It's a piece of cake to install. Just screw the first half to the wall. I used a drill and a level to get it straight.

Then screw the second piece to the back of the headboard (or anything heavy you want to hang) again making sure it's level.

 See how big the headboard is? Almost as large as the bed!

Anyhow, you should have something like this, 1/2 attached to each piece.

Grab someone to help you lift the headboard up above the cleat.   See where the cleat juts out from the wall?
The cleat on the back of the headboard will slide right into this part on the wall.


 Even though you could possibly save a couple of bucks hanging it a different way, I love this method. With it you can cheat the headboard a little to the left or right simply by sliding it!
We've moved the bed a little to the right and a little to the left and haven't had to rehang the headboard- which rocks!

And finally, the finished after!

A small piece of advice-Choose your measurements thoughtfully.When I chose the size of my MDF I decided to make a very large headboard. The H 60 x W 78  inches! The reason being, I wanted the headboard to show a little on each side of my king size mattress.

BUT ALSO- if I ever decide to use this in a guest bedroom with my QUEEN SIZE bed I can FLIP IT and USE IT SIDEWAYS. Pretty sweet, right? It will be the right width and look very dramatic as 6 1/2 foot tall headboard. Have you seen them- they look fantastic! I also left room and have supplies to finish the trim when I'm ready to change things up.

Cost Break Down:
MDF- $15

Carpet Padding- $17 (would be even less for a thinner pad)

Batting-$8
French Cleat- $15
Fabric- Curtain Panel $8

(Target clearance )  

Nail Heads- $1.50/box (8 boxes Joann's) 

Nail Head Trim- (Ebay store)

I already had- staple gun, staples, measuring tape, spray adhesive
TOTAL: $75

Thanks for dropping in on me!

Please swing by and check out some wonderful blogs from these kind ladies who featured my headboard!

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party Page.

I'm also linked up here.

Attention Utah Peeps!

A big hello to all you Utahans out there, especially those of you near Orem. 

Why you ask?

Weelllll, I was browsing for my very special grey sectional at the Downeast Outlet in Orem-

you know the one off of Sate St?

Instead of finding my couch- I came across a lovely POTTERY BARN SLIP COVERED SECTIONAL for ONLY 1700 BUCKS! Marked down from 3300!

It is so comfy, covered in a tan velvety fabric. 

Someone needs to get over there and score that deal!

I'm guessing that slipcover was a grade B fabric (maybe the brushed canvas in walnut?)

cuz it was sweet!

Spring Centerpiece

Looking down on my handy work.

I've been looking for a spring centerpiece and I've been looking for a baby shower table centerpiece. I think I've found just the thing. It's an easy peasy project that cost me NOTHING! 

Don't you just love that?

All I did was go outside and cut some of the beautiful branches beginning to bud. I actually had to determine whether or not this was a good idea and finally decided that one of the reasons trees are here are to provide beauty for us to enjoy. Soooo, I cut some branches and arranged them in one of my favorite vases. 

Then I made some crepe paper buds. I looked online for ideas but all I could find was tissue paper flowers- like carnation sized. I just want little buds.

I drew flower shape onto the tissue paper in various sizes and then cut them out.

I pinched them in the middle, then twisted the center where I was pinching the tissue paper.

I used a little dab of glue to hold them in place.

Then I wanted some large flowers that looked like cherry blossoms or something of that scale.

I played around with tissue paper cutting and folding and layering until I got the look just right.

I used a pink marker to outline the edges of one of the layer for just a little pop of pink.

For the larger "flowers" I used some white twisty ties and wrapped each one around the end of a branch.

I actually removed the blue when the shower was over and replaced them with smaller versions of the white ones.

Sorry about the yellow tint- took photos at night.

I'll post more tomorrow on the "how-to" for the faux flowers.


Linked up at Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello, Simply Designing,  Nifty Thrifty Things,  Craft Envy, I Heart Nap Time, Tip Junkie and Reasons to Skip the Housework.