Headboard DIY

School is officially back in session and it is crazy to believe we are already into September! October is around the corner which means we should basically be planning for Christmas and New Years. With summer ending so do most of our DIY projects around here. But before summer officially closes I wanted to share our latest and in my opinion greatest DIY project to date.....

A HEADBOARD!

I have been telling Andrew I wanted a headboard since we updated from our queen to king bed but it always got put aside when we made larger purchases. I had come across a couple DIY's on Pinterest and had been actively pinning but never committing to building one until now. One day I had come across a DIY video on Facebook and thought it looked so easy I finally decided to commit.

In early August Andrew went on a vacation out to Virginia Beach to visit family and I stayed back. While he was gone I had two full weekends I had to fill and this became the project of choice. So off to Home Depot I went...

According to the video you will need the following:

-5 pine 1x8 cut to the width of the bed

-2 pine 1x4 cut to desired headboard height

-Plus two more for support

-Sand paper

-Stain

-1.5in/4cm wood screws

Since I was alone and we don't own very many power tools I went and picked out my wood and came with my measurements to have the wood pre-cut at Home Depot. In total the supplies ended up being approximately $60. 

After heading home I sanded the boards down and stained front and back unlike the video. I also decided I didn't need the lights on the headboard. As you can see in the last photo below we have bed side lamps that serve that purpose already. 

I did about two coats of stain and let them sit for over a week to ensure the smell of stain didn't come into the house. Plus, things picked up and I didn't have time to fully put the headboard together until the past weekend. Andrew obviously was no longer on vacation so he got to help put this beauty together! 

The photo above was pre-finishing. When the sheets were in the wash and we were seeing how secure our boards were. There is something about a headboard that makes a bedroom more homey to me! I haven't gone and taken a "final" photo because if we're being honest our bed is never neatly made and that would be the only difference in the two photos #honesty. 

Any suggestions for our next project?!

New Home Project

We returned from Mexico last week around midnight and decided to stay at my parents house and return home the following morning. For those who have been following along- that last time I was home we did DIY projects. This time was no different!

After telling my family all about our trip we decided to go over to the thrift store nearby and see what they had. I found a dresser for $20 that I thought would serve well as a new TV stand. I've been trying to convince Andrew to get rid of his since we moved but have had no luck. However, after I showed him plans for what I wanted to do he reluctantly agreed and we purchased the dresser.

Here is before we put in any work:

 

My dad thought the best way to go about relishing it would be to sand it down and strip it of the veneer finish. We decide to go that route but realized halfway through we probably could have stained it and just painted right over the top. But hey- if we're going to do a project, we're not going to half-ass it. 

After getting it home we decided to paint it a light blue/green color to compliment our other furniture.

After Andrew drilled holes in where the cords needed to go we positioned everything just right. The photo below was taken shortly after we painted it and wanted to make sure the paint was completely dry before setting it on the carpet. I haven't taken a chance to photograph it without the tin foil on the bottom! 

Our next step is to find baskets that fit on both sides and put the handles back on (they're currently sitting on our kitchen table) to complete the look. Unfortunately, we've had no luck! We went to Michaels and found a basket we thought would fit but they only had one and we haven't been able to find another. Stay tuned for the FINAL product when we finally find baskets!

Sunday Project

Can't believe we are already into December and are fully into the Christmas season! This will be the first year I have a place that is "mine." I've always shared an apartment with roommates and had the liberty to do what I wanted but this year I've been responsible with making it my "home" and I've come to realize I enjoy cooking, crafting, and decorating more than I thought before.

In other apartments where I knew I'd be for a short year before I went home for the summer I never put more effort than to hang a poster on the wall and call it good. However, now our plan is to stay in one place for awhile. To be completely honest, that was one of the main things I was looking forward to after graduating grad school- have a place to live for more than 2 years. I was tired of moving. In our new apartment I have been able to really make it ours and have started to think more "domesticated" (I used to always call my best friend Stephanie this because she always was thinking in a Susie Homemaker way when I would just shrug these things off). 

One project I've been waiting to tackle is cleaning and re-doing my Kitchen Aid mixer. When Andrew, my sister, and I rented a house out in Warrensburg I got the opportunity to go through Andrew's grandma's old things and take what we needed. When I was in the process of doing this I came across her old KitchenAid mixer. The mixer was a dingy yellow color that needed a little TLC. When I took it, I didn't care what it looked like- it was functional and that's all that mattered to me. Now that the kitchen is mine and Andrew could careless what it looks like, I've started to make it look "pretty." My mom had told me about some blogs she had read awhile back about taking them apart and cleaning them and hand sent me one that seemed fairly easy to tackle and with the holidays approaching, I bust out the KitchenAid mixer and started baking. 

There were a couple of different recipe's I wanted to try so I  spent the majority of yesterday making

• Butterscotch shortbread
• Puppy chow
• Crockpot Chex Mix
• Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

After my baking purge I finally decided to take the time and deep clean- and I mean DEEP CLEAN- this KitchenAid mixer and repaint it. We decided to go with a Hunter Green color that would cover the spots that didn't seem to come off and WALA!

There are still a couple places I need to touch up but I'll save that for another Sunday! Next on my list of projects- Christmas gifts!