Friday, October 31, 2014

Creating a bed nook.....( and overcoming obstacles )





DIY bed nook


John says - This is absolutely ridiculous -
John says - This is STUPID
John says - The room's too small - this is ridiculous
Suzan says - You already said that
John says - I can't believe you're hanging a curtain there - the room's small enough - this is absolutely ridiculous

3 times............................

GET.  OUT.  OF. THE.  ROOM.  PLEASE...................................
Obstacle no. 1 taken care of.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Now for the second one and this is huge - we couldn't get the box spring upstairs.
For the first guest room we were able to cut the box spring and fold it in half since it was a spring ( coiled ) one.
Assuming this would be the same, John began sawing away
( Yep - right through the gauze - don't ask - we had plenty to fight about last night - this didn't seem worth it at all )


You cut the 3 main pieces of frame like this


and then simply fold it over

John says - There's nothing " simple " about this
John says - I don't know anyone else on this earth that does this crap
Suzan says - Trust me - people do this - in fact a lot of people do this that live in little old houses
John says - WHY COULDN'T WE JUST PUT A SINGLE BED IN THERE FOR GOD'S SAKES?
Suzan says - Because a double fits in and I want to create a nook

Except -

Suzan says - Oh oh - there's no springs - we can't fold it in half because of all the wood slats
John says - Oh well - there goes that idea - we'll get a single bed - and he gets up to walk away
Suzan says - No way, Jose, we'll just cut the entire thing in half and then re-attach it upstairs - in place
John says - WHAT DO YOU MEAN  " WE'LL " JUST CUT IT IN HALF?
John says - I only see one of us with a saw in his hands
John says - I'm really at the end of my rope with all of your sick ideas
Suzan says - THEY'RE NOT SICK IDEAS !!!!!!!!!!
John yells - WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING NOW?
Suzan says - taking all the fabric off to one side so you can remove those slats...............it'll be easier for you that way, trust me
John says - EASIER FOR ME????????????????????


They were just stapled in - so they were in fact quite easy to come off - here it is with all the horizontal slats removed


John says - THIS IS THE LAST TIME - DO YOU HEAR ME - I'M NOT DOING CRAP LIKE THIS ANYMORE
Suzan says - Aw c'mon - you just have to saw the 3 main piece of wood now and it's done

Here's how it looked when it was done

John says - I BASICALLY HAVE TO REBUILD THE BLOODY THING UPSTAIRS NOW
Suzan says - Could you please stop shouting?  You're giving me a headache
John says - YOU ARE A HEADACHE


It was incredibly light to carry upstairs LOL

We placed it on the bed frame and John reinforced where the 3 cuts were made


and then he nailed the slats back in ( I patched up where the fabric had been cut )
I only kept the fabric on the sides since the mattress is going to hide everything else..................everything else was cut up and thrown out

Obstacle no. 2 taken care of


A bed skirt would have been difficult - ( plus I didn't have one LOL ) so I cut up a drop cloth - folded it in half - and stapled it along the edge of the slats



Obstacle no. 3 - done !
And there you have it -
By hook or by crook - I've we've created a nook !!!

DIY bed nook

This tiny little space took me over a week - not the room - just the nook - so that's all you're going to see
( and by the way the entire room is basically double the size of this -

The " curtain " is a duvet cover I had on hand ( you can see that post HERE )
Did you notice that little window?
I put the matching pillow case on it - I can fold it to whatever size I need ( shorter in the day ) again I didn't cut the sham at all - just simply folded it - the top part of the window only shows roof lines and tree tops so I didn't think it was necessary to cover that part ( unless there's a chimney sweep in the area, it's perfectly safe)
 I also painted a frame around the window to give it a little more substance


It's not easy getting photos of this small area, let me tell you but I'm going to do my best to show you
" around " lol

I added a mirror to my wood plank " glam " frame - and installed 2 reading lamps on the wall -




A picture of the Eiffel Tower - and benches that I actually used to read on once upon a time !!!
( and fell asleep on one sunny beautiful afternoon )


The mirror is painted white and distressed ( a long long time ago )

And I guess that's kind of it .................almost ready


DIY bed nook

but not quite


John says - Why do you always work a$$ backwards?
Suzan says - I don't !!!
John says - You've decorated half the room - and you still have to paint the floor on the other side
Suzan says - It gives me hope when I can look up and see the other half done

He doesn't even realize I've only painted half the ceiling also LMHO

Oh and here's the seller's photo from MLS and how it looked when we visited the house



Later on in bed...................

Suzan says - Maybe our next place should be a loft
Suzan says - You're becoming quite the carpenter you know
John says - The next time I move it'll be in a pine box
John says - In fact - that may be the next project I work on.....................

Have a wonderful day everyone - and weekend for that matter.
I'm praying I'm finished this room by the end of it -
Please don't let it take another week

Much love,
Me 

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Using a duvet as drape/curtains

Good morning everyone !

This last little guest room feels like it's taking longer then the entire kitchen to do !

But at least the beginnings of a bed nook is well on it's way.

Remember I showed you the duvet cover I was going to use in this room ?


What I didn't tell you was that it would be used as a " curtain " to create the " nook "
Since I didn't want to destroy the duvet in any way, I simply took the open end, folding it once and placed hook rings to hang from the rod.
It's important to use the open end of the duvet for the top for 2 reasons -
1)  It allows you to have a little substance on the top
2)  It allows for perfect " puddling " at the bottom


We hung a rod across the room using simple hardware you'd use to hang a pole in a closet
( I spray painted it of course lol )
I think it cost 2.00 or so - you can get metal ones but this one works fine since it's only holding a curtain





and the best part is that the duvet was in no way altered or damaged to create this !!!

Ok - we have to saw a box spring to get it up the stairs...................so I would imagine there's going to be conversations and a half going on here this weekend.
Yes - you actually heard me right.
Why stairs were ever built this narrow I have no idea - didn't they have box springs 100 years ago?
( it's not so much that they're narrow - it's that turn half way that stops us from getting it up there )

Have a Happy Hallowween and a wonderful weekend everyone -
Much love,
Me


Looking for inspiration?
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