DIY
I’ve been wanting to do a project in Asher’s bedroom for a long time now, ever since he started sleeping there. And yesterday we started and finished it in a single day!
His bed is a twin matress on the floor, with no bed frame or headboard or anything. We want it low like this so that if he rolls out of bed he won’t hurt himself.
I noticed that Asher often sleeps right up against the wall, sometimes with his head wedged into the corner where the two walls come together. The wall is cold in the night.
So, I wanted to make an upholstered headboard/bumper that would line both walls, keep him warm, be soft and cushy, and look nice all at the same time.
We went to Home Depot where they obligingly cut our plywood for us. Yay! We bought a few L-shaped metal brackets and some screws. Then we headed over to Beverly’s because they have the widest selection of batik fabrics that I know of in town. I liked picking the fabric! There were several beautiful colors in the blue-green family.
We came home, glued the thermal fabric (which is supposed to keep heat or cold on one side of the fabric and not transfer it to the other side) onto the plywood. Then we stapled on the batting. We originally intended to staple the batik fabric over the batting, but then realized if we ever need to wash it, we’d be out of luck. So, we measured and calculated and jerry-rigged a pillowcase-like sleeve to slip over the top of the headboard and bumper board. It took a little longer to sew the sleeves than it would have taken to simply staple the fabric down, but now we have a lot more flexibility. And since my kids like to barf on stuff (well, they prefer to barf on me, but sometimes stuff gets hit, too), we figure it will be nice to be able to wash it in the washing machine. And it wasn’t so hard to sew them that I can’t make a new set in another color someday!
You might wonder why on earth I’d pick such a dark green to go next to the red wall. I dunno. I just kind of like it, and I really like the way the room is full of so many bright colors, but somehow still has plenty of white. The fabric was inspired by the quilt my mother made Asher: It contains ever color of batik cottons and is beautiful. You can see DIY photos on my flickr if you want, including some BEFORE and AFTER shots.
Another thing I love about this project was that it took ONE DAY, and not many, like so many projects tend to require when you have kids helping and needing stuff like food and water and diaper changes—even though you’re BUSY!
And I SEWED!
March 8, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Very nice! And barfproof? You can’t bet any better than that.
March 9, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Supermom!
p.s. you have pretty hands.