When All Else Fails...

Screw it all and do it yourself!

Collin and I are coming to the end of our fabulous long weekend. And what a weekend we have had!! Let's back track to the beginning...

We both got off early on Thursday; Collin at 10:26am and I left work shortly after noon. We had lunch, picked up coffee and then went to see Melody; a friend from high school turned AMAZINGLY AWESOME hair stylist (check the link, it will take you to her StyleSeat page). I got a fresh color scheme and a cleaned up hair cut, and Collin tamed his unruly hair so it's more able to be styled. We made a pit stop at Wally World on the way back home and decided to go to Ikea after we got a quick dinner at home.

Since the weekend before this one we have been looking for a headboard for our bed, or a bed with a headboard that isn't a million dollars and has a low probability of us barking our shins on the side rails. We saw some really cool ones, but all of them were either super low quality and inexpensive or amazing and super expensive. Last weekend we went to JR furniture and MOR, saw some stuff we liked but nothing worth buying. Friday, before we went to the movies (we saw One For The Money, and I must say I wasnt' too disappointed in the book to screen translation) we went to Dania and saw some really amazing furniture. We even found a couple of beds we really liked; one I honestly thought we might end up buying.

After the movie we got coffee and were going to go to some more furniture stores but I was tired of looking at stuff that wasn't what we wanted. We tried one more place that was a total bust and disgustingly overpriced. We drove around a little and then picked up some lunch at Safeway and went home. While we were eating the wave hit me. Inspiration. Screw it; no one had exactly what I wanted so why not make it ourselves. We truly just wanted a simple headboard we could attach to the frame; preferably fabric covered and slightly padded. We took some measurements, jotted down any supplies we might need and headed to Home Depot and Joann's Crafts and Fabrics. After we got the supplies it was time to book it to Costco for our much needed eye exams. We both are getting new glasses (that should be in within the week)! We came home, had dinner and began the headboard project. (Pictures showing the whole transformation are on FB but I will post a handful at the end of this post) The headboard was mostly completed Friday night.

Saturday we got up before the sun and made our way to Sellwood for a lovely five and a half mile run. Felt great at the end... Great and extremely sweaty... Came home, took a quick shower, nommed on breakfast and then made our way back to Ikea. Oooo, I guess I should back track a little. Friday morning before anything, we went to Fred Meyer and found some awesome wall art and a gorgeous bedding set. The art itself was sixty dollars per painting and it was a two piece ensemble we liked. The bedding set was on sale for one hundred and forty. The thought was with the money we were saving building the headboard we could afford the bedding and new art. Saturday morning brought the clarity that we don't need a whole bedding set and we could pick up wall art for MUCH cheaper at Ikea. So Ikea-bound were we. We got a new duvet cover and pillowcases, and wall art, and curtains, AND a throw blanket, AND curtain hanging system, AND a couple of storage boxes for less than the cost of the bedding set and half of one of the paintings at Freddy's.

After Ikea we got a quick tex-mex lunch at Chevy's. I had the lunch sized BBQ Chicken salad which was the PERFECT amount of food and it was so good. Had a little more kick to it than I expected but the strawberry raspberry lemonade put the fire out. We then decided to walk off some of our lunch at Clackamas Town Center and for the first time ever I did not find anything at Torrid that screamed to be bought... And I even have a couple of ten dollar off coupons! Sad face... I was more anxious to go home and work on the bedroom, so we did. We got the curtains hung, the new bedding washed, and the paintings mostly ready to be hung. We called it a day at this point and cooked dinner and watched a movie.

Sunday morning came with a sense of completion. We had breakfast and went back upstairs to finish the project. We attached the headboard, relocated the bed, attached the new lamps to the nightstands, moved the dresser, hung the paintings, vacuumed, and (once the sheets were washed and dried) made the bed. It turned out AMAZING. Better than I could have envisioned. I haven't been watching HGTV since I was thirteen for nothing!

It has been a fantastic weekend and we accomplished so much! As I mentioned above, there was one bed we found at Dania that was the closest to what we wanted (just wood though, no padding). The price? $500. Grand total for the entire room redo (and I mean ALL of it; bedding, curtains, art, headboard materials, etc.)?? $280. So for just over half the cost of the bed we mostly liked we redid the entire bedroom. Yea.

Here's some pictures:

What a great weekend! I plan to end it with dinner and a new episode of The Walking Dead! Heck yes!