Farmhouse Dreams

I may love living "in town" as we used to call it, but I'm a country girl at heart. I love the city and suburban life, but I also crave those wide-open spaces and rustic farmhouses. So instead of packing up and moving into the boonies, I took the more practical approach of bringing the farmhouse feeling to our little home.

It only takes half a minute on Pinterest to know that farmhouse tables are in. And I mean really in. My husband and I both have big families, so we wanted a table that seats at least 8 for those crazy holiday gatherings. The farmhouse table was the perfect solution. But being on a beans and rice budget means that we were not about to drop two grand on a table (seriously, look up how much these tables cost at Pottery Barn!). That meant another DIY project was in the works.

Thankfully, there are lovely people on the internet who have already done this project so we didn't have to invent the wheel. In fact, Ana White has a detailed, wonderful farmhouse table plan that we used. Aside from changing dimensions to fit our dining room better, we used her plan as our project blueprint. And we completed the whole thing for probably less than $200 (way better than $2k!).

Although our dining room is still due for a makeover (more to come on that soon!), it can now comfortable seat either of our families.

Table Legs: check! 

Frame: check!

Table top: check!

Stain, round one. We used Antique Walnut first. It turned out beautifully, but a bit lighter than we were hoping for. 

So we added another layer of Dark Walnut stain (one of my personal favorites!)

This gave it the darker, richer wood color we were looking for. 

After two coats of satin polyurethane, the table was ready for use and has been a great addition to the dining room! 

The Second Fur Child

Last February (2014) I somehow convinced my husband that we needed to add another fur child to our family of three. I still don't know how I managed to accomplish that, but I thought it best not to ask questions! Today I realized that I hadn't posted about her yet, so here is a tribute to our dear Chloe Daenerys Black.

From day two, she absolutely loved Daisy (day one she was terrified of the white polar bear) and still follows her around and snuggles with her on the daily. They're two peas in a pod and are great companions for each other and endlessly entertaining for us!

 

 

 

 

Then....

 And now!

DIY Upholstered Headboard

In the process of redoing our first guest room, I found some darling headboards on Pinterest that I was convinced were necessary for the room to be complete. As always, they turned out to be much more expensive than I hoped so it was off to our trusty Home Depot store. Really, they should give us a discount for practically keeping them in business.

After a 2x4 and some plywood, I headed to Hobby Lobby with a 50% off coupon and got furniture tacks, foam, and some great neutral fabric with a slight shimmer woven in.

1. Measure your bed frame and decide on dimensions for your headboard. I always have the nice people at Home Depot cut it for me!

2. Secure the pieces of 2x4s to the plywood. Be sure and cut these according to the height that they need to be to touch the ground.

3. Cut the foam to fit the plywood and secure with glue. I used fabric glue, but any will work since it will be help down by the furniture tacks and fabric!

4. Cut your fabric to cover the plywood and foam. Be sure to leave several inches on each side, as the fabric will shorten as you put the tacks in.

5. You can apply the furniture tacks either before you secure the fabric to the board or afterwards. Either way, they are a bit hard to secure so you may want to use a hammer!

6. Secure the fabric by wrapping it around the back and using upholstery staples to attach it to the back of the plywood.

7. Stand the finished headboard up behind the bed and use a pen/pencil to mark where the screws would need to go to attach it to the bed frame. Then use a drill and bit to drill holes in the 2x4 pieces. Be sure to use the largest bolt possible to secure the headboard to the bed frame and put a nut on the back!

And wah-la!