We had to get rid of our box springs because of a big tick scare (ew), and we had our mattress on the floor.
Not Ok!
So I asked the beautiful Ana White if she could throw some plans together for a wingback bed, which I've been longing for lately.
Do you not die over those?
So, with a $200 budget and some of the simplest plans I could imagine (Seriously, how does she do that?), I got to work. Spent a couple hours cutting and predrilling everything, and the next day I put it all together. Seriously. Go look at the plans. It's super simple..
The not so simple part is the upholstering. Now are all of my facebook posts making sense?
I knew that I wanted to add buttons, so before I did any upholstering, I measured out and predrilled the holes where the buttons would go.
That was the easy part.
See, Ana was nice enough to send some great suggestions on upholstering the piece, too... but I apparently gave myself a tad too much credit in the upholstering department (figured I could recover slipper chairs, so I can conquer the world). The plan said to create a full slipcover and staple it to the back, but I couldn't manage that. There were more than a couple places that I could mess it up, and trust me.. I did..
First, I covered the whole thing in batting (bought this from Wal Mart, - except it was the single pack, not the 4 pack - and it was JUST enough for the entire bed, including two layers on the front of the headboard). Then after 3 failed attempts at sewing a full slip cover, I decided to just do slip covers on the wings. They have 1" foam on the insides, going down to where I measured the mattress to start.
Then I added the fabric to the front, and sewed the buttons onto it.
See how it's just hanging on the sides? It's not attached to anything yet.
I folded the fabric under right where I needed it to go and ironed it. This was a tip that I gave you in my "Tack Strip Tutorial" video because it lets you know exactly where to put the tack strip.
"rolled" the fabric around and turned the tack strip to where it was facing the inside of the wood, pulling taut.
And hammered it in!
(sorry about the photos - I made the Big Kid photograph this, and she decided that my mom-bun should be in focus)
Aside from that, I followed the plans to the "T". The fabric that I chose was extremely finicky and showed every seam VERY clearly, so I couldn't just piece fabric together to sew along the bed frame. I cut 3, 15" wide strips that were the length of the 3 sides of the bed frame, and sewed them together where the corners would be.
Folded it around the board and stapled the heck out of it.
Even though the fabric was finicky, oh my gosh, I love it. I know it's hard to see it well in the photos, so here are some shots that show you how s.t.u.n.n.i.n.g. it is!
Initially I was thinking that it would be great to use drop cloths (um, HELLO! CHEAP!), but Mr. Goats pointed out that we shouldn't do white. Or anything very light at all, so I went to Home Fabric and got 9 1/2 yards of this fabric for $5/yard. The best thing is that the pattern on this is gorgeous, but subtle enough that my fickle self won't be "over it" in a couple of months.
Oh, and if you want a cheap way to do buttons, I bought 3 of these button 6-packs from Walmart for under $2/each. I just wrapped the fabric over them. Added a few stitches to keep it in placed, dabbed some fabric glue on the back, and VOILA! Fabric-covered buttons on the cheap!
I may have had a love/hate relationship with my seam ripper after this project, but I have to say.... I just LOVE it.
You'll have to go see the full plans here!
