I finished painting our headboard over the weekend and wanted to share a little sneak peek. I'm making a few tweaks to the rest of our bedroom - sparked by some great suggestions from Shannon - so I'll share the whole thing with you when I'm done :)

In terms of the how-to, I sprayed the entire headboard with Rustoleum's Ultra Cover primer, followed by their Ultra Cover satin heirloom white. There aren't many warm and windless days this time of year, so it took two entire cans (1 can of primer + 1 can of paint) to cover the headboard (and if I'm being honest, there are a few spots that still need touching up).

For the finials, I used Martha Stewart's bronze liquid gilding. It was my first time using it and this stuff is awesome. I did two coats - only one was really needed - and it was easy to apply. The only downside is the smell, so make sure you open a window. And yes, I'm now tempted to gild everything we own.

Now that it's done, I'm so glad I listened to you guys and broke out the paint. I. love. it.

OK design-savvy friends, I need your help.

Our bed sits in front of an off-centre window (obviously not by choice), so we need a headboard that looks good front and back and attaches to our bed's frame. I had my heart set on an upholstered headboard with nailhead trim, but that wasn't exactly Adam's idea of a few hundred dollars well-spent (weird, I know), and I ruled out DIY-ing one as too tricky/time-consuming/costly given the conditions mentioned above. I stalked Kijiji for months, hoping that my dream headboard would magically appear, but when that didn't happen and this guy popped up instead, I decided to go for it. Also, the seller was willing to part with it for $50.

Sorry for not making the bed/cleaning up the bedside tables/actually attaching the headboard to the bed frame (it's leaning up against the wall for now). I have a cold and a baby who couldn't care less about napping.

Obviously I have to do something about the picture frames on the right. And I'm kind of over the lamp. So, Option 1 is to keep the headboard as is, switch up the frames (I'm thinking two frames in a simple stacked arrangement) and maybe nix the lamp altogether. It would be a lot less work than Option 2 (see below), but I'm worried that the black is too heavy for the room.

Option 2 is to paint the headboard. White with brassy-gold finials. Here's my inspiration:

source: country living

source: house to home

If I go the painting route, I'll probably introduce a gold picture frame or two, too.

I can't decide. What would you do?

I'm back with some more guest room updates. Earlier this week I DIY'ed a headboard for the new bed. It's actually the same headboard we used in the old guest room (which is now the nursery). I covered how I made the original headboard in this post. For V2.0, I just covered the whole thing with a fabric shower curtain that I accidentally shrank in the dryer and secured it with staples.

I still have to figure out the bedding. Ironing the pillowcases would help. Should I switch out the white pillowcases for some colour? Buy fluffier pillows? Add some throw pillows? I know the quilt (a wedding gift) gives me lots of colour to choose from, but I'm struggling with what direction to go in. Suggestions please!

To give the headboard some interest, I DIY'ed a couple of fabric buttons. I followed this tutorial, but I used buttons with holes instead of a shank (loop on the back). Just make sure you thread the button (to attach it to the headboard) before you cover it with fabric (I figured this out the hard way).

It's hard to capture in photos, but in real life the buttons and the shower curtain's subtle chevron pattern really add some oomph.

The mirror above the bed is from Canadian Tire (it's from Debbie Travis' line). We purchased it a couple of years ago to hang above the guest bed futon in our old apartment.

While I was at it, I also hung some art. This poster is from a really cool exhibit of photos from Picasso's daily life that I saw with a friend several years ago in Luzern, Switzerland.

It's kind of funny that I'm already hanging art, since this side of the room actually looks like this:

Not really at the art hanging stage. Anyway, here's what we've done and what we still need to do in this room:

-Rip out carpet and install new hardwood floors
-Stain and install new solid wood door
-Install horizontal planks over textured walls
-Paint walls
-Paint closet
-Build "cloffice"
-Patch and paint the trim and window
-Install and paint new baseboard and quarter round
-Finish patching and staining new door
-Install new light fixture
-Replace outlets
-Sew curtains for window and closet door
-Buy new bed
-Hang art, mirror

Over at Nesting Place today, the talk is all about yard sale finds. Since we've had non-stop rain for about two months now, I haven't been to a yard sale in awhile - but I still managed to find an amazing deal last week:

After all, "free" is the most amazing deal of all. So yes, I did scrounge around in this wood pile for a few decent boards that I could transform into...a headboard for our guestroom!

As you can see in the photos, I repeated the fabric from my DIY seat cushion, which has a woven texture to it (it looks like a big swath of grey in photos, but the texture makes it more interesting in person). The chair - which you can see in more detail at the end of this post - is one of my favourite yard sale finds of all time (hence my Nesting Place link up). I found it a couple of years ago, spray-painted it black, and then it sat in the basement of our old apartment. So I'm thrilled to finally have space for it, and I love how this yard sale find works with my free find - the headboard.

Speaking of the headboard, it looks a little high right now - I'm planning to add some extra "cushion" to our futon mattress (our guest bed, until we spring for a proper one), which will bring the height of the bed up several inches.

So how did this project come together? Adam cut my free lumber to size for me, and I turned that into a frame using some simple metal brackets and screws.

When the frame felt good and sturdy, I placed it on a large piece of quilt batting and secured it with staples, making sure the batting was taut and wrinkle-free (you can find a more detailed tutorial here). I cut away the excess batting, then repeated the entire process with my fabric.

I put a couple screws and anchors in the wall to hang it and voila: headboard done!

At least I think it's done (I'm thinking about using these nickel finish upholstery tacks I have lying around to frame out the headboard)...