DIY & Home Improvement
Related: About this forumBedroom projects complete
It's been on our to-do list for a while to complete some projects in the bedroom-
1. A headboard
2. New night stands
3. Window treatments
4. Duvet and pillow covers
5. New lamps
We've been hitting a lot of estate sales on the weekends lately, gathering up raw materials. Here's the results.
1. Headboard
We've been keeping our eyes out for a six-panel door with equal-sized panels that we could turn on its side and turn into a headboard. We also hit the local salvage places and even habitat for humanitiy's re-stores in the area. No dice. We found a few doors like that, but they were all too short for a king sized bed.
Finally, I found a single panel door from the 30's of the right size. It's not what we had originally planned, but I thought we could make it work. First, I stripped all the hardware off and filled in the holes..
Like most doors of the era, this one had a larger rail at the bottom than at the top. To remedy that, I centered the panel- I sliced 1/8" off the top of the door to give me a flat surface, cut off a 2 1/2" piece of the bottom, and used a biscuit joiner to move it to the top of the door. So now the "top" and the "bottom" are the same width. If I weren't dealing with a king sized bed, I could have just cut a slice off the bottom to make it the same as the top.
Once it's painted, you don't even see this..
For the 'legs', I just made a wood sandwich- 1 x 6 poplar on the face of the door, with a 2 x 4 in the center, below the door. Carriage bolts hold the legs on, in addition to glue.
A couple of coats of paint later, plus some re-painted escutcheon plates and doorknobs, and..
Rather than leave the panel empty, we thought about putting a fabric-covered panel in it, but we have three dogs, and we knew it'd be a hair catcher in nothing flat. So we stenciled it.
2. Night stands
My wife found a couple of solid wood tables that were in bad shape finish-wise to use as night stands. She painted them white, and then we stenciled the tops. We don't mind them not being the same, the stencil and color keeps them consistent.
3. Window treatments
This one is 90% my wife's project.. she took two roller shades and some fabric, added some spray adhesive, and we had two nice shades. I made a small valence to cover the top of the window, and she covered it in the same fabric.
She didn't like the gaps at the center and sides of the shades, so she sewed up some fabric panels, weighted at the bottom, and we attached them to the valence.
4. Duvet and pillow covers
Again, this one is all my wife.. she's a whiz with a sewing machine, so she made multiple duvets and matching pillow covers.
5. Lamps
We found two wall-mounted brass lamps at a re-store, and after scuffing them up with a scotch-brite, they took paint well. We chose the same gray / silver color as the headboard and night stands, plus a clear coat. I added white cords to match, and my wife re-covered the shades with matching fabric and bias tape that she made.
So here's the final result..
CaliforniaPeggy
(152,479 posts)You did a lot of work, and it shows.
Enjoy your new bedroom!
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)Hassin Bin Sober
(26,798 posts)X_Digger
(18,585 posts)Melissa G
(10,170 posts)Thanks for all the great ideas!
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)Some of them were original (I don't think I've seen the use of escutcheon plates and knobs quite like we did, or the fabric panels on the shades) but others were pure DIY / HGTV show stuff (the stencils, etc.)
jeff47
(26,549 posts)X_Digger
(18,585 posts)likesmountains 52
(4,179 posts)Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)I think I might spy Bondo being used to smooth the surface of the rail? It's a great product for woodworking, and we used it a lot when I worked as a painter.
I'm curious as to where you got the idea to use a door for a headboard. My youngest daughter is moving into her own place this summer, and a couple weeks ago she asked me if I could make a headboard for her out of an old solid wood door.
Is this an idea that is making the rounds in the woodworking/designer world, or simply a coincidence?
Anyway, nice vision and job.
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)I've used it as wood filler in other painted projects, it's awesome and doesn't shrink like other fillers can.
What you're seeing there is a nasty pink paint from the other side of the door. When I flipped the slice from the bottom to the top, I had to flip it from the back to the front to keep the same lines. I didn't bother to strip the door entirely, since I knew it was going to be repainted (and it was likely lead paint- I can't afford to lose many more brain cells.) I just sanded it enough to make the surface smooth, used some elmer's filler that is just glue + sawdust, and we painted the heck out of it.
We got the idea for the door from an oooooold episode of Bob Villa's show. (Heck, I guess all of them are old now.) They used an old six panel door as the back panel in a built-in bar / buffet in a craftsman rebuild.
Thanks for the compliments!
AndyA
(16,993 posts)I think it's fascinating the things people do to recycle and re-purpose materials. I'm not always creative enough to come up with great ideas, so I admire those who do--and have the tools and skills to make those ideas reality!