Handmade Bedroom Set

Update!!

When the show Fixer Upper first came out, we never really watched it. I'm not sure why, but we started binge watching it recently, and we've been inspired to do some updates to our house! Since we had this new beautiful bedroom set and quilt, we decided to start there. We updated the color to make everything pop! The white vases (filled with branches from the trees in our backyard), are from Chip and Jo's Magnolia collection from Target. We just had to incorporate something from Fixer Upper! The candle holder on top of the headboard was designed and created by Heather at Cork and Barrel Designs. It is made out of a wine barrel from Napa Valley. We also added the beautiful handmade sign from a local shop above our bed, which I just love! I love incorporating handmade things. I think that really makes a house a home.

This is the view looking from our bed toward the bathroom. We have some beautiful custom arches that we highlighted in white. We also made some cool updates to our bathroom that I will highlight in another post. I'm on the lookout for some big, white chunky candlesticks to go on either side of our wedding picture.

Below is my original post, and you can see our room before the paint. We decided to take a risk and go dark with a paint called pencil point, from Home Depot.  I think the dramatic paint job really makes the room feel calm and soothing. We are loving it!

Now that the holidays are over, I had to share some amazing handmade gifts that I got from my husband and my mom! To be honest, these were gifts from last year, but they are incredible! We finally decided to upgrade our mattress from a queen to a king, so it was time for a new bedspread and bedroom set!

This amazing quilt was made by my mother, Marilyn Gillis, from Fork in the Road Concepts. This is something that we will keep AND use forever! I can't tell you how special it is to me. Not only is this handmade gift a cherished keepsake, but it's practical too! This beautiful king sized quilt is both warm (without making us too hot) and it fits in the washing machine. Yes!

The quilt pattern is called Rippling Star from Calico Carriage Quilt Designs, and Debby Maddy is the designer. We got the quilt pattern and the fabric from a local quilt shop called High Prairie Quilts.  I came in armed with some paint samples of our bedroom colors, and they spent hours helping me pick just the right fabric combinations. If you have ever tried picking out fabric for a quilt, you know how overwhelming it can be! It was really hard for me to imagine how these fabric patterns that were completely different could "match" or come together looking like a beautiful quilt. But they did! Those ladies really know their stuff!

Once we had the new bed and the quilt, my husband and I searched for exactly what we wanted in a bedroom set for months! We needed light, something that would charge all of our technology without a lot of cord clutter, and a lot of storage space. Each bedroom set that we looked at had an aspect that we really liked, but none of them had everything we wanted. If we just settled for something, chances are we would end up buying something else in a few years trying to get exactly what we did want. Since we couldn't afford to do that, my husband finally agreed to build exactly what we were looking for. He didn't work from a plan (he created it as he went), but I'll share the special features with you in case you decide to try your own bedroom set. 

In the pictures above, you can see the lights that are built into the headboard. My side of the bed has a set of lights that can be turned on separately, and so does his. We each have a switch on the side of the headboard that controls our lights. I LOVE this! To incorporate these built-in lights, we used 4 LED countertop lights from IKEA (2 on each side of the bed). If you don't have an IKEA near you, Amazon has something that I think is similar.

This is an affiliate link, which means that I do receive a small commission if you use this link to buy, but at no cost to you.

This side view of the headboard shows you the light switch that controls the built-in lights and the cubbies in the side of the headboard. There are 2 hidden cubbies on each side of the headboard that are big enough to hold my laptop, books, phone, or an iPad. Behind the headboard there is a power strip with USB ports attached, and the power cords are strung from the power strip through holes in the back of the headboard. I pulled the cords out in the picture so you can see them, but cords are hidden inside the cubby as our technology is charged. 

These night stands are really impressive! Not only do they look like they were bought in a high-end store, but they have some amazing features. First, I love the space under the top of the night stand. I always had clutter all over the top of my nightstand, so I asked for that space underneath that could be a permanent place to keep things like my laptop.  I can store my phone and laptop in the headboard too, so I have lots of options. There is also a power strip with USB ports attached to the back of the night stand, so the cords stay pretty hidden. I just string them through that space under the top of the night stand, and I use cable clip organizers to keep the cords from falling on the ground when I unplug them. The drawer is really big, and it has soft close drawer slides so you can't accidentally slam it shut! We added some baskets under the drawer because sometimes I want to pull the whole basket out. I stay more organized when my storage is a little more flexible. We got the baskets from Amazon, but we took out the rope handle and added a handle that matched the drawer to give it a more cohesive look.

Now for the very coolest feature of these night stands . . . the hidden cubby holes! This is so amazing! They have drawer slides on the top with a very shallow cubby hole underneath. As you can see, I like to keep the remotes in my cubby hole. I always loose them! My husband (a former police officer) likes to keep a gun in his. I love these secret compartments! There is a lot of room for storage. 

I have also been working on adding a few special handmade touches to my amazing bedroom refresh! 

 

I made these coasters to go on our nightstands. The nightstands and headboard are covered with a thick coat of polyethylene, but we want to use coasters too to take good care of it! To make these coasters, I used tiles from Home Depot, and I printed the sayings on tissue paper. Just spray a light coat of Repositionable Adhesive Glue on some card stock and put the tissue paper on top. Run it through the printer, and you can peel the tissue paper off. Then Mod Podge the tissue paper onto the tile, add cork on the back of the coaster with adhesive spray (NOT repositionable this time), and you have a very beautiful and durable coaster!

I also made this pen holder using a modified version of the pattern Jute and Cotton Stacking Baskets by JaKiGu.

I hope you had a wonderful holidays season too. I would love to hear what your favorite handmade gifts were in the comments below!

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From Entertainment Center to Drive-Through Restaurant

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We finally finished another furniture makeover project that we actually started a few years ago! Since  we started it a few years ago, I don't have a very good "before" picture, but this was an old entertainment center that I had before I was married. I was inspired by this post: Before & After: Turn an Old Cabinet into a Kid's Play Kitchen from ehow.com. A few years ago when my son was 3, he would have loved a play kitchen, but it never happened. Now that he is 5, we decided to make it a drive through restaurant!

He loves McDonalds. When I  was pregnant, my husband and I said, "Our kid won't be obsessed with McDonalds . . . " famous last words. I don't what it is about that place. It's not like we go on a regular basis, but he gets SO excited about McDonalds! Is it the toy? Probably. So this old entertainment center became a drive through restaurant. He has one of those plasma cars that you can wiggle the handles and it moves without using your feet. They're pretty cool, so in our unfinished basement, he rides it around. That seemed perfect for a drive-through restaurant! In the picture you can see him driving up to the drive-through window in his plasma car!

This is how we refurbished this old entertainment center into a drive-through restaurant. We painted it using a spray gun (which is my new favorite way to paint! Check out this post: DIY Furniture Makeover), and we replaced the glass doors with doors made from dry-erase board and added these handles to make the refrigerator:

At Lowe's or Home Depot you can buy sheets of the dry erase board over in the section where you buy plywood. It's inexpensive, sturdy, thin, and it is easy to cut. We also replaced the cheap cardboard back with dry erase board so we could write the menu with dry-erase markers. Of course my son wanted to make it look like McDonalds, so we made a big curvy yellow M for menu. (He came up with the prices!)

We used disposable aluminum burner liners as the stove, and we flipped the hinges on one of the doors on the bottom so it opens like an oven. A few years ago (when we started the play kitchen!), Target had the little hotdog and french fry holders in the dollar bin. They also had stuff like ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles and a menu pad, so that is all in his restaurant. He cut out and colored fries to go in the fry box, and he had play food that we added to the refrigerator. He had a friend over the other day, and they added toys to the meal too to make it a happy meal! 

Now we can check another project off the list! This one was more involved, but our little guy has fun making us food and driving up to the drive-through window in his car or big wheels! Have you done a furniture makeover like this before? I would love to see pictures!

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DIY Furniture Makeover

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I'm pretty excited about something new I've decided to try in my art room! I've seen such cool furniture makeovers on Pinterest, and I've seen some amazing furniture makeovers from my friend Jenna from At Home with Kids. Now I'm finally giving it a try for myself! 

I started with an old night stand that my husband had as a kid. As you can see, he didn't take great care of it. We thought it was real wood, which is why it stayed with us through the years, but it isn't. Oops! I decided it was the perfect piece of furniture to use as my first project. If I messed it up, no big deal! 

First, we took out the drawers and knocked out the little divider for the drawer. I knew I wanted it to be open so I could put a basket or crate in the bottom. I scraped off all of the stickers and wiped it down with Savogran 10632 Liquid TSP Substitute Cleaner. It is specifically for cleaning wood before painting it. 

To be honest, I don't like painting with a paintbrush or roller. In fact, I kind of hate it. There's nothing particularly creative about it, and the results are disappointing. At least for me. Probably because I'm not very good at it. BUT . . . we got a paint sprayer, and that has changed everything! It hooks up to my husband's air compressor, and the results are awesome! I don't mind painting when it looks so good in the end! There are no streaks, and it's very professional looking. I don't know very much about the different kinds of paint sprayers out there, but the one below is the one we have. It works well, but the spray isn't very big. For bigger projects it takes a long time to paint with such a small paint stream, but it still does the job. 

After I painted the night stand, the inside was just exposed wood. My husband used a sheet of whiteboard, which is strong but thin, and cut the sides, back, and bottom to fit inside the night stand. I covered it with Chevron Aqua Pop contact paper, and we secured it with a brad gun. 

It's definitely not perfect. If you look at it up close, you will be able to see where the stickers peeled off the laminate and the mistakes I made in my first project, but I'm still pretty excited about how it turned out! As long as you don't look at it too closely, it looks pretty good, and it's a great place to store my son's crayons, markers, and coloring books!

Have you done any furniture makeovers? I'd love to hear about your projects as I learn more! And be sure to check back for more refurbished projects I'm working on this summer!

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