How to make a louver door headboard...

If you follow my boards on Pinterest, you've see that I've been adding headboard ideas......I've also been a little "pin happy!"   

We recently switched to a bigger mattress and had to ditch our bed frame. So, I currently have a bare wall as a headboard....and you all know how much I love bare walls!

My friend, Faith, emailed me last week with this idea for a headboard.  I've seen it other places, but I think that she did an excellent tutorial!

---------------------------------------------------------------

When we moved to our present house a year and a half ago we decided to “retire” the headboard/footboard that we’d had since we were first married.   It just didn’t fit our décor anymore. 

Here's our bed before:

The idea came to me one day as I looked with disgust at some ugly bi-fold doors that the previous owner of our home had installed in what I thought was a very awkward location.  It occurred to me that louvers on the doors kinda looked like louvered shutters and louvered shutters would go nicely in our room…as a headboard!  

I had plans printed from ThisOldHouse.com, but we tweaked them a bit. 

First, we measured how tall we wanted our finished headboard.  Then, we got out the tools and got busy.  The top of the doors needed to be evened up a bit.  One set had more space before the louvers than the other did. 

Then, we cut both sets of doors to the length that we previously decided upon.   

Next, we used some scrap wood that we had to brace across the bottom of the doors and then another scrap to brace down the middle of the two sets. 

At first my hubby said no-way when I mentioned that I wanted crown molding across the top of the doors.   Both of us have had bad experiences with cutting trim and getting those, crazy angles.  I did some quick searching and came up with an alternative that make things SO much simpler!  There’s a product out there called Flip Face. It’s crown molding that’s double sided.  When you make your 45 degree angle cut all you have to do is flip it upside down and it forms a corner.  Only one cut!  SO easy!  Another trick is to place it in your miter box (or on your miter saw) exactly like it’s supposed to go on the wall or wherever.

We made the cuts, and nailed the pieces together and then onto the doors using finishing nails.  Then, we realized we had a little problem.  Our plan was to put a 1x6 board on top of the crown molding, but we were afraid the molding would spit and plus, the 1x6 was a little warped.  (Why we didn’t see that at Lowe’s I don’t know).  Luckily, the width of the white doors was the perfect size to make up the difference, so I lopped off a couple of pieces from the extras and nailed them on top of the doors.

Then, we nailed the 1x6 onto those pieces and flipped it over and nailed from the front of the molding into the 1x6. 

All that was left was to prime and spray paint it.  We installed it onto the bedrails with some screws and fender washers! 

The room is still in a work in progress, but we won’t be losing any more pillows!  We had a great time building this together and I think it was money well spent!  We’re both REALLY proud of ourselves!

Total for the project: $39.48

Set of louvered bi-fold doors: $12.50 (we had one already)

Flip Face Crown molding: $11.84

4D Finishing Nails: $2.78

Fender washers (all they had was a BIG box): $6.58

1x6: $5.78

------------------------------

Thanks so much, Faith!

Here are some of my other headboard ideas that I've been pinning....

Shanty 2 Chic

Simply Sadie Jane

(She also has a tutorial for that amazing bedding!)

Remodelaholic

(Made from cabinet doors!)

If you like these ideas, then c'mon over to Pinterest and checkout my other boards! 

 If you'd like an invite to join Pinterest, just email me 

and I'll send you one!

Read more ...

Ballerina Handprint Art

I have been struggling with doing a gallery wall for my daughter's room. I just get overwhelmed by the blankness of the wall and the vast space to fill.  Well, Michelle at The Nature of Grace shared a beautiful idea for a little ballerina wall hanging and asked to share her tutorial.

I think that you will agree that it's an adorable idea!  What makes it even more precious is that you use your daughter's handprints! Here's her tutorial.....

----------------------------------------------

I suppose the "endless" clouds of tulle draped about my daughter's waist just looked so akin to bunches of handprints that my brain made the necessary connection between the two and the idea for this fun craft began to take shape.  

With all the hundreds of thousands of other mommies of petite prima ballerinas out there, I cannot imagine someone else has not thought of this same thing - but here is our version!  

Materials:  

canvas (find at arts and crafts store or see link below), paint, pink paper, regular white paper, glue, ribbon or rhinestones or other embellishments.

How To:

1.  Paint a hanger onto your canvas. (You may want to draw this with a pencil first.)


2.  Fold a white piece of paper in half (hot dog style) and draw half of leotard shape (length-wise).  Cut this out, open it up and you should have a symmetrical leotard shape.


3.  Trace that shape onto your pink paper and cut it out.  Glue to the hanger you painted and let it dry.


4.  Paint your daughter's hands and place them on the canvas around the leotard to create a full tutu effect.  


On ours, we used four handprints in a light pink first, then after those had dried, we made two more handprints on top of the light pink handprints in a darker pink shade.  Allow these to dry. 
(If you are using a pre-stretched canvas, you may want to place a book under the area of canvas where your child will be placing her handprints to avoid her denting or pushing through the canvas.)


5.  Glue a section of pink ribbon and a bow around the waist of your "tutu".  Make and glue a smaller bow to the top of your leotard or the hanger.  You might also want to add other embellishments of your own to the leotard and tutu (rhinestones, real tulle, etc.).


6.  Admire and display your cutie's handprints! 

------------------------------------------------

Thanks SO much, Michelle, for sharing this idea!  I'm thinking of incorporating this into my daughter's artwork gallery wall!!

Michelle has some other really creative ideas over at The Nature of Grace....like this hatching words jar......

....and these really fun ladybug crafts

and folder games for math!

I'm off to make some pink tutu's!

Read more ...

I love to reply back, but...

I love to get your comments and so many times I go to respond back to you via email, but I get this...

When I get this message, it means that you have not activated your email address to be linked to your comments.  


So.....if you use blogger, click on "Dashboard" like this...

That will take you to this screen where you will click on "Edit Profile."

From there, go under your privacy settings and make sure your "Show my email address" box is checked.

Now go down the page a little bit to where it says Identity and make sure that you have filled in an email address....

And now, when you leave a comment, your email address will come directly with your comment and people can easily write back to you!

Read more ...

Thrifty Thursday #16

Did everyone enjoy their Fourth of July? I am going to miss seeing all of your wonderful patriotic crafts!  I am feeling a little lost as to what to start crafting next.......so here is some inspiration from this week's Thrifty Thursday!

Lesa from Home Frosting made this beautiful patio decor with  glass leftover from an old project....

I love what she has done with her whole deck project!  Yes...she built all of those pieces herself!

Coffee and their Kisses upcycled this memo board into something beautiful and functional!

It's not too late to start composting and Domesticated Nomad linked up her homemade compost bin....

I love that she used recycled fence posts and wood that was headed for the trash!

Finally, Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom made these plaster leaves...

Suzy's tutorial to make these is wonderful!

If you were featured this week, be sure to grab a button!

Now it's time for week #16 of  Thrifty Thursday.......

Here are some very simple suggestions for the link-up:

1. Please become a follower of Thrifty Decorating.

2. Be sure to link to your POST and not your blog.

3. Please copy and paste my link button somewhere in your post

or blog so that others can link back.

4. Share some comment love....We all love to get them!!

Don't forget that you can go over to link up with Thrifty Thursday at

 Saved by Love Creations! 

Read more ...

Gallery Wall....

I am afraid of the blank, open space of a bare wall......I am always just completely overwhelmed with how to decorate a wall.  It's just so.....empty!


A few months ago, I was working on my daughter's room remodel....


It went from this....

...to this.

My only problem is that I have a huge blank wall space....you can see part of it in the picture above.


Right now, I am just overwhelmed with how to fill that space. 


I recently acquired a ton of ugly old frames for about $1.50 at a yard sale and I've spray painted them white...

...but now I'm stuck.  I was thinking of putting her artwork in them, and I did....but I want something more...


Do you have any ideas or suggestions??  If you have one, leave me a comment!  You can even leave the link on my FB page!

Thanks!

Read more ...

Photo Editing with Picassa and Piknic

Well, I am really adjusting to the learning curve of our new camera.  At Christmas we purchased the D3100 from Nikon.  I LOVE it, but am really working hard to shoot on Manual and not automatic settings.


One thing that I am finding is that many "beautiful" pictures are produced in post-production editing.  Unfortunately, my brain just does not have the capacity right now to learn Photoshop or the other more complicated programs....one that involves "layers".....


I'd love to try and learn them, but time and life (and expense!) are not going to allow that venture right now!  Instead I use a simple and FREE program called Picassa from Google.


If you look back through my old blog posts, you can see when I changed cameras and when I started learning new techniques with photo editing.


So here's my Photoediting 101 advice from a beginner who knows next-to-nothing.....


First....download the FREE program!!


Here's my out-of-camera shot...

It's just way too dark, so the first thing I do is lighten it up....

I lightened it by changing the settings here....

Then I went under the Basic Fixes and straightened it and looked at the cropping suggestions....for some reason, my pictures are always crooked and need to be straightened.....hmm????

Here's my shot after those edits....and I just used the program's crop suggestions.

I next click on the "Edit in Picnik" button and here's where it starts to get fun!!

The first thing I do is go under "Effects" and  boost the color....

I would love someone to explain how to use the brush option here....I just have not figured out how to use it....I only move the strength slider...

Here's how it looks after boosting the color:

After the color boost, I add a frame...

At this point, there are just so many options!  I think that I'll just round the edges for this one....a simple, quick change.

You are able to add text in Picnik, but the font that I have been consistently using on my photos to "watermark" them is found back in the Picassa program.  I go back under the Basic Fixes and click on Text.

You have so many font options under the drop-down menu and can even change the font color...just experiment and have fun!

Here's my photo with my typical watermark...

  

Let's do a little comparison....and I made this fun collage in Picnik!

I love it!!  It makes me look like a photographer when I'm not!!  And it's FREE!!

I still have so much to learn.....I'd love any suggestions or tricks that you have learned!

Happy Editing!

Read more ...

Do you follow on Facebook??

Did you know that there is a Thrifty Decorating page on Facebook?


Over on my FB page, I highlight fun ideas and crafts that I find when I am browsing other blogs....like this free printable from the Wayward Girls....

I also highlight fun ideas that get linked to Thrifty Thursday....like this Yarn Wreath from The Cellar Door Stories.

It's also an opportunity for me to interact with all you readers!

So click on the 

and let's chat!

Read more ...