Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Makeover #1: Reclaimed wood wall

It has taken me almost a year, but I've actually completed three major(ish) DIY projects that I am stoked about! And when I say "I completed," I mean I coerced my husband into hours of manual labor ... and I love him for it.

I'll post these projects one at a time, beginning with the biggest: a reclaimed wood wall for the master bedroom. The inspiration began with a look at the Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC...



Everything about it is drama and contrast and texture and feeling. I love everything about it, absolutely every last moody, color-saturated inch.

And yet, this was my master bedroom:


Cue the sad trombone, folks; it was, indeed, sad. No drama. No spice. No excitement. 
But alas, I am a poor writer, a work-from-home mama with no budget and no time for the drama of Gramercy Park. 

Until I saw this little gem, from the blog Mom and Her Drill via Pinterest: 


She did it all out of pallets. Pallets! The same material that lies piled outside my husband's work. And so the coaxing began. 

Somehow or other I actually convinced my husband that this was what our bedroom wall needed. And so he dug through the pile of pallet wood, clear to the bottom to find the oldest and most weathered boards, some of which have been there for 12 years. He hauled it all home, pulled out the nails one by one, and set to work.

I give full and complete credit to Aaron for a job well done. He figured out not only how to mount the boards so that they could be easily removed without having to re-sheetrock the whole thing, but he mounted two lights and wired the electrical for these new bedside lamps.

Here's a peek at the work in progress:


And at the end of a long Saturday afternoon, the work was complete:


Yes, my husband is amazing. And so is this wall! I love both so, so much.

The room is nowhere near the splendor of the Gramercy Park Hotel, but I'm working on it. I'm trying out some new pillows...


And I'm working on a little gallery wall going on nearby, not to mention drooling over this fine specimen from White Faux Taxidermy to mount above the bed:


But really, it's hard to get anything done around here when I have this adorable little guy literally getting in the middle of it all:


The frustrations are worth it, though. He's awesome.


UPDATE!!

Fast forward to late 2013, and I finally finished the bedding, and now I have an "after" to be proud of:


(More details on the bed in THIS other post!)

UPDATE #2!!

I've been pining over tufted headboards for ages, and I finally convinced Aaron to help me make one. Now I know why those things cost so much. It was a beast to make! If you buy one, just know that your money is well spent. 




I stopped taking pictures at this point, because the upholstery is where it got hard. It wouldn't have been so difficult, but I just had to have this curvy, corner-y silhouette. It took both of us working together through a lot of trial and error, but we finally got a finished product that we love. 


I was going to do a full post on it, or at least on what not to do to save others from my mistakes, but ain't nobody got time for that. (Seriously, after spending a whole week working on this thing I DON'T have time for that.)

It's up now and I absolutely love it! It was worth all the struggle, and actually, it was a fun project in the end because it really stretched my skills (or lack thereof) and I loved working on it with Aaron. The guy can do anything! 

Here it is in the bedroom. We just need to tweak the placement a bit (you know, once we're not so sore from hauling this gigantic thing upstairs and hoisting it into place) and we are in business!



The only problem now is, the bed is so cozy I just want to lie in it all day. At least it makes for a comfy spot to hang with the kiddles :)  I call that a win-win.


3 comments:

  1. love your plank wall, i would love to feature it, if that would be ok please let me know,
    lauren

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lauren, I'm flattered! Yes, feature away. Take a look at the post again, though — I just updated it with the new headboard we finished last week!

      Delete
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