getting ahead

So this is our bed.  We purchased this sweet old mattress in Jacksonville for our tiny loft and decided to keep it in our new house.  Why waste a great mattress right? and we both have our college beds in the other rooms too so no need for a guest bed.

We've been talking about making a head board for a long time and finally made our way down the to do list.  Originally we wanted to get fancy with a design but when looking at the bed with the shutters and tables, we opted for clean straight lines.  

We set out to find some fabric thinking we would get burlap, but man burlap is not very comfy!  We bought some soft linen in a neutral taupe.  We gathered other supplies including 3/4" plywood that home depot cut for us, 62" X 38", some hardware to attach the head board to the frame, and a mattress pad from Target.  We already had the other supplies so we lucked out there; spray adhesive, nail heads, staple gun with staples, scissors, drill, and hammer.

Joe ended up trimming a little off the edge and also cut the pieces we would use to attached the head board to the bed frame.  Nice ear protection Joe!

When we unwrapped the mattress pad from Target, it was all dented and deformed, so we took it back and got another one.  Wouldn't you know, the same thing.  Then we read the package and it clearly says to let it sit for 2 days to remove all deformities.  Sure enough, in one day it was back to it's full size.

We layed the board on top and cut the pad to size.

Using spray adhesive, we attached the mattress pad to the board.  Honestly, this didn't work very well.  Probably because we didn't want to wait for it to dry.  But we made do and re adjusted when we needed.

Joe attached the hardware to the bottom of the board before we got started covering with fabric.  This hardware will attach the main head board to two legs that will attach to the bed frame.

We stapled on 2 layers of quilt batting for extra padding and more of a secure hold. Next we stapled on the fabric carefully folding the corners and adding extra staples where needed.

Remember these guys?!  When Joe and I first moved in, the kitchen had a border of painted diamonds with nail heads in each corner.

 When we painted the kitchen we salvaged almost all the nail heads and saved them in case we needed them in the future.  Perfect!

We didn't get very scientific with placing the nail heads around the border.  Joe started on one side and I started on the other and we kind of just went for it. They were a bad word to put in!!  Patience is not my best quality and you need it when hammering these tiny things through an inch of padding.

Taking out the time we took buying supplies and waiting for the mattress pad to expand, we did this project in one night!  The head board really adds a lot to our room and it sure is comfortable for our sleepy heads!

  

before

before

after

after