Hotel Bedding DIY

Our bed got a mini update last week - nothing earth shattering, but a definite improvement...

It's probably not very noticeable to most people, but we FINALLY got some euro shams for our bed, and I did a little hotel bedding DIY on them.

I've been wanting actual hotel bedding pretty much since we moved in here a few years ago, but its SO expensive.  Even just 3 euro shams from Restoration Hardware run several hundred dollars, and I was not about to pay that for just a few decorative pillow cases.  Thanks, but no thanks.

I'd been digging on Overstock, eBay, and Amazon for other options... I looked at a few at Macys, Bloomingdales (yep, they sell bedding online!), and Lands End, but either the options were still really pricey, poor quality, or the wrong colors.  I wanted either navy, or a dark grey (black seemed more limiting since we have a lot of navy going on in here)...

So I decided to experiment with a little project.

I'd seen projects online where people had used grosgrain ribbon to trim out curtains, so I figured the same could be done with pillow cases.

I started by ordering some fairly inexpensive plain white euro sham pillow cases off of Overstock.  I ordered these ones in case you're interested. They look nice, but aren't the best quality to be honest. I don't really care since we're not sleeping on them, but I wouldn't recommend them for anything other than a decorative euro sham.

Once I got the shams in the mail, I went to the fabric store and bought 10 yards of their 1" cotton grosgrain ribbon.  Our euro pillows are 26", so I needed a minimum of 8 2/3 yards, and in case I messed up a bit, I wanted extra yardage.

A word of warning - do not go with a synthetic grosgrain ribbon.  When you iron it, it crinkles up, so be sure you pay the extra few dollars for the 100% cotton (learned that the hard way folks).

Anyway, the project was really simple - once I had the ribbon and the pillow shams, I got out my stitch witchery (iron on adhesive tape) and went to work ironing the pieces of ribbon on.

If I were to go back in time and do this again, I'd also invest in a REALLY sharp straight edge, and something to measure a perfect 45 degree angle for the angled cuts for each corner, but live and learn. I found that my sewing scissors weren't quite as sharp as I would have liked, so it was more difficult to get a perfectly clean cut on a 45 degree angle. A few of the corners aren't perfect, but its not that noticeable.

Live and learn.

Anyway, I still need to go back with a paintbrush and a dab of glue to all the cut edges to seal them and ensure they don't fray, but the project only took me about 45 minutes to iron everything down, and get it on the bed.  It also cost me maybe $80 total for all three pillows and the ribbon - SO much less than any other option, where the pillows ran close to $50 each.

I'm really happy with how it all turned out (clearly), and our bedroom just feels so much more finished. Like I said - a small change, but it's one more thing to check off the list!

Happy Monday!

Full Dresser Reveal - Ikea Tarva Hack

So last week I'd jumped the gun with excitement and posted a few blurry pictures of the newly painted dresser that is in our room functioning for storage and as a TV stand...

This has been a long time in the making... remember LAST FEBRUARY when I first started talking about this???  Well, it's only taken me eight months to finish this project ;-)  With the hardware attached, I can OFFICIALLY check this project off the list!

Yep, that's my reflection in the TV!!

I can't even begin to explain how good that feels to be able to say it's DONE.  Phew!

I am so pleased with how it turned out - the ultra-marine blue paint color brings such LIFE to our bedroom without being overwhelming, or too in your face.

I am in love with how it all turned out, but it was a LONG road to get here... let's start at the beginning...

Ikea... on a Saturday... NIGHTMARE.  I got in, I got out, and a glass of wine later, I was ready to get the party started get this dresser built.

Step one: organize nuts, bolts, and assorted other random pieces Ikea packages up.

All I'll say is... be VERY CAREFUL to be sure that you are using the right little screw thingy for each step of the process... you do not want to have to go back and take apart the dresser halfway through because you used the short screw and not the long one - TRUST ME on that one.

You may also want to enlist a buddy to help read the instructions... they use pictures, not words, and some of the little drawings I STILL can't figure out.... bottom left picture... what do you think that says?? "Don't break the furniture you're building?"  Is that what it means?  Thanks Ikea... wise words...

I'll spare you the boring details, but our living room was a disaster zone for two nights, as it went from this...

To this... an almost completed dresser! 

WITH FUNCTIONING DRAWERS.  

Holla! 

Look at those drawers... that open and close smoothly.  A work of art I tell you!  I've never experienced a more satisfying moment.  

Well, except for that time when I was home from college, and went to Costco with my mom, and saw that the girl that bullied me all through high-school was working the front door...  that was also an EXTREMELY satisfying moment... Deanna!  Is that you??  Going places in life I see... 

Another story for another day... 

Anyway, it felt REAL good to get the drawers working...

Moving on... the wood is pine, which means that it secretes oil from the knots in the wood for years... YEARS PEOPLE... so to be sure that the knots stayed hidden, and that my lovely paint job stayed intact without any bleeding from the wood, I used a super-duper primer.

Kilz primer got the best reviews online for sealing in wood oils on pine furniture, and so far so good.

I read that having the primer tinted made things MUCH easier to paint over when using a dark paint color.  I am SO THANKFUL I did this - I probably saved myself an extra coat of paint (or seven), and many frustrating hours in the long run.

The tinted primer won't be as dark as your paint color, but it helps SO much.  It went on a light blue (pictured above) - I did 4 thin coats with a roller (to be sure none of that oil from the wood came through over time), let it dry, sanded it, wiped it down really well.

Then it was time to paint.

I just did regular water based paint (for easy clean up) in a semi-gloss - three coats with a roller later, and these bad boys were drying in the living room...

The most interesting thing to me about this paint color is that it photographs so differently in different lights, and that's actually how it is in real life.  In bright direct sunlight, it's a rich peacock blue, but in the afternoon it's definitely a darker moodier version of itself... sometimes it almost looks like a dark green.

Like a mood ring - it's totally fascinating to see!

Remember my inspiration for this color?? It was this Peacock Blue Dresser from Dimples and Tangles that got the creative juices flowing - I still love how her's has the lacquered look.  

It's AMAZING.

Anyway, you all know about my love of the brass hardware - it was quite a hunt to find!  My first order was cancelled because they ran out of lion head pulls!  WTF... I had to hunt it down elsewhere, which added a few extra weeks onto this project.

The dresser was in our room, just waiting for those pulls, and when they came, I was even more excited with how cute these guys were!  Quite sassy if you ask me.

RAWRRRRR.

And so, that's the story my friends...  are you ready for the massive photo dump??  Here we go!

The view from my side of the bed... that's a pretty realistic image of how the paint color reads in person - like the color of the ocean 40 feet down... gorgeous!

And a few close up images of the hardware against the paint...

Our old problem was that the TV stand that had been in here was too low to the ground so we couldn't see the TV from the bed... especially once we bought our giant California King, with the extra high box spring.

Now, as you can clearly see, the TV is at optimal viewing height...

This room is SO TRICKY to photograph - it's not big, and so this was the only angle where I could really get the whole dresser in.  Awesome photography skills - clearly.

And as I'm posting these, I'm realizing that there are a few unintentional selfies where I'm reflected back in the TV.  In my pajamas.  Awesome.

On another topic, how awesome do those navy and white curtains look with the dresser???  Totally baller.

Next up on the list... what do we do with this wall above the TV??

It's a HUGE improvement to have the TV higher on the wall, but it's still very empty feeling.  I know I have a bit of a problem and want to put something on every wall, but I swear to god, this wall NEEDS something.  I was thinking sconces, but the lazy part of me is like... ehhhhh.

If we didn't have so many freaking mirrors in this room already, I'd consider a trio of round convex mirrors, and I haven't completely ruled that out, but I'm trying to think of something other than another mirror...

Here's a photo of our lovely dresser from the bathroom door looking back towards the hallway and our dining room / office area.  I love that the spaces have a really cohesive feel...

Oh, and don't forget to notice our dust ruffle on the bottom of the bed.  It's a subtle change, but a HUGE improvement since you could see all the crap stuff we were storing under there and it just looked so unfinished, and ugly, and messy, and terrible.  UGH.

Now it's hidden and I'm SO much happier.

This next photograph was taken from an angle I don't often capture since the salmon tile in our "art deco" (aka old as hell) bathroom is all up in your face.

What you can't see (thank god) is that the shower was re-done at some point since the 1930's, and in an attempt to match the coral tile, they went with pink.  Pepto bismol pink.  That doesn't match.  Not even close. Oh well...

And just for good measure (and since i was already in there with the camera) I got a few photographs of the headboard and new bedding together.

I'm liking this combination for fall, and I love that the Duralee fabric on the bolster ties in with the other colors in the room, and brings a punch of color to wake things up a bit - as you can see, I'm still on the hunt for euro shams.

Standing a bit further back, you can see yet another empty wall that kills me a little every time I see it. The wall above our bed and headboard just needs SOMETHING.

I think I nice oversize clock would be nice here - again, trying to stay away from more mirrors in here... plus it will help keep me on time as I get ready in the morning...

So that's it!  The new dresser / TV Stand / Ikea hack is complete!  If you need to find me, I'll be in bed watching TV from now until forever.

Just kidding.  Kind of.

Happy Tuesday!!

Bedding Sneak Peek

I've been busy in the bedroom... get your mind out of the gutter!  I've been busy making updates in the bedroom!  We're still on hold waiting for that darn brass hardware to arrive for our new dresser, but in the meantime, our bedding got a little freshening...

I'd snagged the West Elm ikat duvet on sale, but it was taking forever to ship, so while it was en route, I started thinking of accessories, and styling...  Here's what I came up with for our bedroom... 

And as of last night, this is where our bedding landed...

Darn close... am I right?!

I made the lumbar pillow from the Waverly Santa Maria Desert Flower Fabric which I LOVE (Kris is still warming up to it), with this easy no-sew pillow cover tutorial.  It literally took me about 15 minutes on Sunday night to whip it up!

You can't see it in this picture, but the crap storage under the bed is now concealed by a neutral bed-skirt.  Nothing special - we just wanted it to blend in and hide all the random stuff under our bed (board games, surf-board bags, College memorabilia, fake flowers, Christmas ornaments... you name it)

These are just low resolution iPhone photos, and there are more to come - I'm still hunting down Euro shams to cover the plain white pillows, but instead of a black stripe, I think it would be really cool to use a similar ultra-marine blue to the dresser / TV stand...

I know... you guys haven't seen it yet, but this is still a progress photo.  Looking good though, eh??

Now I'm scheming for some sort of artwork, mirror, clock, fill-in-the-blank to hang over the bed, and surround the TV.  Not that I want to put too many more holes in our walls... but just a little something to draw the eye up.  It's been looking mighty empty over our gorgeous headboard, and the wall behind the TV is still crying out for something...

I still love our white and blue bedding, and don't you worry... it WILL be back... but this is a fun change for now...

Ahh, so pretty... but a little too summery right now...

Do you remember what our bedroom used to look like??  Before the blue accents, the bedroom looked like this...

And before that, it looked like this...

And look at the busy dark curtains... what was I thinking??

And remember this??


Yep, lots of changes over the last two years...  It's so awesome to be able to look back over the evolution of this space...

Our new Upholstered Headboard

I gave you all a sneak peek of our new headboard last week, but yesterday afternoon, it finally made it's debut in our bedroom!

It took a lot of hard work, and a FULL weekend of sawing, sanding, measuring, drilling, screwing, gluing, upholstering, stapling, over-analyzing, band-aiding, nailing, un-nailing, re-nailing, and perhaps a little cursing somewhere in the middle, but it's finished, and while it almost ended up face down in the middle of the freeway (another story for another day), it's finally in our bedroom, safe and sound at last!

Literally blood, sweat (no tears), and a little stain remover went into this headboard, and I could not be more thrilled with how it turned out.  I am SO PROUD to say that with A LOT of help from my parents, I successfully made my own headboard!

We joked the entire time that the "A-Team" was working on it, and that the "A" stood for "type-A".  It's genetic I swear - we are all just as anal-retentive as one another... so that's probably why it took us two full days instead of one.  It had to be JUST PERFECT - down to the stained (and lacquered) legs that no one will ever see behind the bed.

The full tutorial on what you need, and what we did is on it's way, but in the meantime, here is a full photo dump of my pretty headboard in all it's glory!

After living in this apartment for over a year and a half, this room is FINALLY a room that we want to spend time in.  Up until recently, it had been a catch-all for rejected furniture that didn't belong in the rest of the house.  Slowly but surely, I've been making small updates to the room... making some chevron curtains, painting my furniture, replacing the dinky lamps that were there before, getting a new bed, new rug, new bedding... and the headboard is the final piece to tying this room together.

Do you even remember how this room started out??  Let me refresh your memory...

Scary!

I think I'll also do a post on "the evolution of our bedroom" since it has gone through quite a few changes.  Anyway, getting back to our headboard...

The headboard really anchors the room, and makes the bed the focal point in the space.  While our bedroom gets less light than any other room in our house, I think we finally got it right with the light bedding and pretty blue accents.  Late morning is my favorite time of day in this room - it gets direct light, and feels bright and airy for a few hours before the sun moves beyond these windows.

The mirrors I hung behind the nightstands help reflect light for the rest of the day, and open up the space.

Let's get a close-up of this fabric!

From a distance, you can't see the texture, but it is one of my favorite things about the headboard.  I am usually a VERY indecisive person, but when choosing this fabric, it took me maybe 5 minutes to make up my mind on it.  The nubby texture is my favorite part... and I feel that it has the perfect mixture of tan and grey together, so wall color and bedding will never be an issue.

I started out comparing solid colored linen fabric swatches, but my concern was that if I ever picked out a bedding in a similar neutral tone that it would look like I tried (unsuccessfully) to match the fabrics, but with this texture, there is no risk of that.  I toyed with the idea of white or creme fabric, but if I ever wanted creme colored bedding and had a white headboard, or white bedding but had a creme colored headboard, it wouldn't look right either.

So long story short, the fabric was an easy choice, and I am so in love with it!

I'll also talk about this more in the DIY tutorial, but we went with a nailhead trim - it's actually a strip of connected nail-heads  where you nail in every 5th nail or so.  This made it WAY easier to keep our lines straight, nail-heads evenly spaced, and after going through the process, I can't even IMAGINE tacking in individual nail-heads.  What a nightmare that would have been!

This shot is facing the hallway that connects our bedroom (and bathroom) to the dining room, kitchen, and living room.  It's a bit washed out due to the exposure (I swear, I am going to learn how to take better photos!) but you can KIND OF see the roman shade I made last year.

And as if the universe knew my headboard would be done, it's peony season!  And is there anything better than a big bunch of ruffled pink peonies??

I think not!

I think that this is hands down, my best DIY to date!

What do you think?  Do you love it as much as I do?

Bedroom Updates

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a relaxing weekend!

I've been a busy bee, working on a few things for our bedroom.  There are some bedroom updates coming  soon enough, but in the meantime, here's a little sneak peak of a) how I spent my weekend, and b) what is on it's way into our bedroom this week...

It's obvious enough to me, but are there any guesses??

Ahh, that fabric just makes my heart flutter...

New Bedding

I had a very successful trip to HomeGoods yesterday.  VERY successful.  

I went in looking for a chair - something overstuffed and comfy - to replace the wicker chair in the living room.  While I didn't come out with a chair, I came out with some new bedding, a few rugs, pillows, glass vases... oh the list goes on and on...

Since I'd been looking for bedding without much luck for the past several months, I'd even entertained the idea of making my own bedding.

With the navy and white bold stripe chevron curtains, I wanted something to coordinate, without necessarily "matching" and I've been obsessed with deep blues and indigos.  I can fully admit to my trellis pattern obsession, and with a trellis rug in the room, I knew any interlocking, repeating trellis print was out.  

I also wanted to stay away from stripes to avoid anything too matchy-matchy with the curtains.

       

I found it was incredibly hard to find bedding with blue and white - a true white.  There was lots of creme and blue, or tan and blue, so when I found a Queen size set of the blue and white Ralph Lauren paisley sheets in the bin at Homegoods yesterday, I was bound and determined to find them in a King size set.

Patiently I went through bin-by-bin, rummaging through every. single. set. of. sheets.  No luck.  If you've been to a Homegoods, you know how disorganized it all is.  I went through each bin and shelf a second time, just to be sure that I hadn't missed it.  No luck again.  I accepted defeat, and moved on to the bath accessories section.

What did I find hiding behind a stack of sea-horse printed hand towels??  Well, it was the king size set of blue and white paisley Ralph Lauren Sheets that I'd spent the last 30 minutes hunting down!

JACKPOT.

They are great quality - 500 thread count, and the set included the fitted sheet, flat sheet, and two shams... for $50.  

$50 DOLLARS?!  I literally couldn't believe it.  The set was cheaper than a single flat sheet I'd gotten a few months ago!

In the massive bin of throw pillows, I found a deep blue ikat roll pillow that coordinates with the sheets.  I wish it was down fill, but I can look for an insert later.  I'm still holding out for Euro Sham covers that I love, but so far, the addition of the sheets and roll pillow dramatically improve the bedding situation.

What do you think??

Also, you might also notice our lovely makeshift headboard...

Pretty huh?  Yeah... pretty awful.

It's only temporary, I assure you.  We pieced it together to determine how high and wide we want the headboard to be.  You also can't see from this far away, but we're also trying to determine how large and at what angle we want the side cut-outs to be.

We're planning on the belgrave headboard shape, like this DIY from Sarah M. Dorsey Designs:

Source

Can't wait for more bedroom updates!

xo