I wanted to post an old project of mine. Sorry for the limited pictures! I wanted to make a more asthetically pleasing bed for my dog, and I also wanted to direct him to something other than the sofa. He liked being high enough to look around the room and see out the window so this was my solution!

We love having guests come stay, and in our new place there wasn’t enough room for a dedicated guest room, so we decided to make my husband’s office a multi-use space by adding a Murphy bed. We found a used Murphy bed frame on Craigslist and got that installed but the when the bed is down (in “bed” position) there is a huge gap between the head of the bed and the wall since the bed pivots. I knew I wanted to have some type of headboard but it couldn’t be anything permanently attached, it would have to move with the bed as it opened and closed. It took a while mulling over the problem before I finally came up with the solution. 

I could create a two part headboard. The headboard Base would be sandwiched between the head of the bed and the metal frame that kept the mattress from sliding off the frame. This would have hinges used to attach the main portion of the headboard, which would fold over the bed when it was in it’s upright position and then flip back to lean against the wall to form the headboard when it is in use. *see design drawings below*

Here are the pictures of the Murphy Bed folded up and laid down before the headboard

I was going to use cable ties to attach the support board to the metal frame, so first off I placed that at the foot of the bed and marked where the wholes would need to go for the cable ties and drilled those holes.

Line both boards up with and attach hinges evenly spaced, then remove the pins in the hinges so they boards are again separate

I want button tufting so measured on my fabric where I wanted those to go and then marked where I wanted the buttons on the board, then drilled holes for those.

Take the quilt batting and using it in a double layer, stretch it across the main headboard and staple it down on the back. Cut v-shaped spaces for the hinges as you are going and make sure the batting will not interfere with the hinges

Cut the bottom layer of batting even with the hinges and tuck the top V under the bottom layer so it lays just against the hinge

I used long needles sticking through the button holes I pre-drilled to make sure that the fabric lined up correctly with my buttons. With these in place I carefully stretched the fabric and stapled it to the back of the board.

I used the same trick for the hinges from earlier and cut V’s and tucked those under the batting

There is a heavy duty button floss you can use for attaching your buttons, but I didn’t have it do just used three strands of heavy duty thread. Cut this very long, string your button so it is dangling in the middle of the thread and then carefully poke your needle through the fabric in the spot you want your button to sit. 

Pull the thread through the drilled hole to the other side of the headboard and separate the two halves of the thread. Take some of the quilt batting and form it into a fluffy “meatball” and place that between the ends of thread. Now make a slip knot out of the two ends of thread and pull it on the batting until the button looks like you want. Once it is in place do several tight knots to permanently tie your slip knot in place.

Using a T-Square for simplicity sake I used it’s width as a guide and traced the line with a pencil, and then I attached my nail head trim making sure to stay on the line.

The last step on the headboard was to stretch some scrap fabric over the entire back and staple that in place. It gives it a clean, finished look when it is down and will help to keep the batting balls holding the buttons in place from coming loose.

I wanted consistency to on the base I strung my zip ties through, then followed the same process I used above; Covered it in batting, then fabric.

I positioned the base exactly where I wanted it, and then used the zip ties to secure it to the frame. Once that was attached I lined the headboard hinges up and put the pins back in. Gravity would keep the headboard in place just fine but for a little extra insurance I added Velcro strips to the top edge of the headboard and the wall.

I have had a couple of questions on how this was attached so took a few more pircutres and took a quick video to try to better show the hing and how I attached the headboard to the frame

Video:

Base:
​For the "base" portion of the headboard I had drilled holes in the wood for cable ties where they would loop over the metal frame and ran the ties through the holes before i covered it with fabric.

This is the best picture of the metal frame at the head of the bed from before I installed the headboard:

With mattress pulled out

Images of the space between the wall and back of the headboard
- Since no one sees this I didn't bother to make it pretty, it's just functional :)

I finished up my class and have now taken the couch home, unfortunately even though I am so close to being done I haven't managed to scrape up the time to finish it COMPLETELY. Here is where I am at currently, all that is left is to finish attaching the welt cord around the front base and then deciding what type of nailhead trim I want to use!

To Be Continued...

I am just doing a quick update to include my most recent progress photo from this weekend.

Top Be Continued...

I started out very optimistic about the ability to get the dye to take and I am sorry to say it was epic fail. I have been avoiding posting about it due the the massive level of fail. I solemnly swear to NEVER try to dye anything grey again. I did finally come up with a solution to get a look similar to what I wanted, but not really exactly it. I will do another post with that process, in the mean time I wanted to post my progress on the couch! It is really coming along and should be finished soon :)

Here are some photos from my night dying... 

And on to the more exciting stuff... Progress photos!

To Be Continued...

One of my favorite hobbies is playing piano; it is something I have been doing since I was 6 years old. I have the standard "padded" piano bench that came with my piano when I bought it was few years ago. Basically it is a boring black vinyl seat, and the "padded" part is really just a joke to tease you into sitting down too fast and busting your bum on the solid wood under the tiny layer of what I am convinced is quilt batting. The piano is in my office space which I mostly have decorated in pretty blues/teals with some pink accents.

So I decided that it needed a refresh! This isn't a full "quality re-upholstery" job, I left all the original pleather and padding and was careful not to damage them in case at some point I want to go back to the "standard look." 

I have a family heirloom wingback chair that I have been thinking about reupholstering for a while, and finally signed up for a class to go through the process. After a lot of concerns were raised by the rest of my family at me trying to tackle that particular chair, I search Craigslist and managed to find this little beauty to try my hand at first.

I enrolled in a 6 week class here in Austin at Austin Upholstery Studio. I am trying to dig up the progress pictures but those were all on my old phone and I can't find it for anything! I will keep searching but in the meantime, here are before and after pictures. 

I went with a texture rich, slubbed grey velvet for the front facing, and then this really cool fabric that is reminiscent of the colors and texture of burlap (but a more fine linen look weave) with a silver design stamped directly on it. Finally I finished the chair off with large format, rustic silver nail head trim.

Now this couch is ready for everything else!

I am lucky that in Austin we have a wonderful re-upholstery shop that give 6 week classes on re-upholstery! - Check them out at Austin Upholstery Studio. I did a class with them before to remake a wingback chair with amazing results.

So... For this piece I enrolled again in the class and am two sessions in, check out the progress so far: 

Now we are coming to the conundrum... fabric. 

I want to go with new, different and VERY cutting edge modern to go against my old standby "traditional antique" look. What I want to do is an oatmeal linen (I know, I know, that isn't really cutting edge!). But I want to do a Dip Dye ombre effect on it. I want to have a dark charcoal grey that fades back into the natural linen color. Unfortunately, grey seems to be the "unicorn" of dying. I procured my linen fabric (I got it at JoAnn for 50% off!), but in trying to get the color I want from the limited dye selection at JoAnn just isn't working.


I have played with Dip Dye for other colors as testing for *another upcoming project* and have had great success starting with a dye solution of almost entirely water for the initial fade from the fabric base color, then pulling the fabric up and adding additional dye each time. Unfortunately the black dye's I've tried seem to be so heavily based in other colors that watering the mix doesn't work very well.

 As you can see, from left to right: 

• Rit liquid (which I normally love and am a big fan of) black came out a beautiful deep eggplant purple... but not grey
• Dylon Black powder came out more dark teal
• Rit Pearl Grey is somewhat blueish (but best I have tried so far)
• And a combination of equal parts Rit Powder black and Royal Blue (as shown by Steinlaufandstoller.com. Their recommended mix probably works great for charcoal grey at the right water consistency, but not for the ultra watered down version I needed) came out blue
  

So being stubborn, I found a site that specializes in dye's called DharmaTrading and ordered what should *fingers crossed* work perfectly! I will keep you updated as soon as that gets in!


To Be Continued...

My husband and I just moved into a new house. In the last house we had lots of traditional antiques, but I wanted to change things up at the new place. After getting into some debates about the new decor (surprisingly my husband was VERY opposed to mid-century modern) we decided to go with a more eclectic mix of furniture. This is great though because it opens the door for me to do a LOT of projects :)

One of the first... we needed more seating in the living room and I have been wanting to make over a fainting couch for a while, and lucky me, craigslist happened to be nice enough to have EXACTLY what I was dreaming of! 

Or at least something I could turn INTO exactly what I was dreaming of. Enter  this little beauty pictured. Or as I like to refer to her, "Sparkles and Spirals" for the beyond horrible sparkly floral fabric. 

To Be Continued...