Makely

Let's Make Life Awesome

  • Home
  • Decorating/DIY
    • Create Your Decor
    • Decorate Your Home
    • Paint Your Walls
    • Transform Your Furniture
  • Healthy Living
    • Essential Oils
    • Family Wellness
    • Household Care
  • Project Gallery
  • Contact
You are visiting: Home » Decorating/DIY » Create Your Decor » Page 107

How to Create a Bed Crown

by Lindsay Ballard on June 28, 2010 1,942 Comments

My very favorite part of Emma’s nursery is the beautiful bed crown above her crib.  The curtains are soft and flowy underneath a vintage mantel piece.

As luxurious as it looks, the bed crown as incredibly easy to put together.  I’ll show you how to put one together yourself using a found item and wood scraps you probably have cluttering your garage.  I’m sure there are many more ways to put a bed crown together, but we “over-engineered” this one since it will be hanging over the crib.

Materials needed:

  • Found wooden item to use as the front of the bed crown – mine is a vintage mantel, but you can use any wooden piece or create your own using a 2×4 and molding from the home improvement store
  • Scrap 2×4 wood – you’ll want 2 pieces as long as the bed crown front and four pieces as long as the distance you want it to project from the wall
  • Dowel as long as the bed crown front
  • Drill
  • L-Brackets
  • Screws
  • Paint

Directions

I won’t be using measurements here since every project will be different depending on what you use for your front and how far you want your crown to project from the wall.

1.  Using the L-Brackets, screw two of the short pieces of wood to one of the longer pieces of wood, making a ‘U’ shape.  Attach several more L-Brackets along the top of the longer piece.  Drill a hole on each of the small pieces just large enough for your dowel to slip through.

Close-up of one corner:

2.  To better secure the sides holding the dowel, put a few screws through the back of the long piece into the short pieces.

3.  If necessary, paint the bed crown front piece and the extra pieces of short wood in the color of your choice.  My mantel was already an antique white, so I just spray painted the short pieces in a similar color.

4.  Remove the dowel for now.  Using the L-shaped brackets that you installed on the top of the long piece of wood, screw the ‘U’-shaped piece onto the back of your bed crown front.

5.  Screw the two short pieces you still have left over the two short pieces of the ‘U’-shaped piece.  This will serve as a plate that keeps the dowel from sliding around.  When you want to remove or add curtains to your dowel, you just unscrew these pieces and the dowel slides right out.

6.  Screw your last piece of long wood (that should be slightly smaller than the length of the bed crown) onto your wall where you would like to hang your bed crown.  PLEASE, make sure you are screwing through the studs.  Let me repeat – screw this through the studs.  Do not just use drywall anchors, okay?

7.  Now, slide your bed crown over the piece of wood on your wall like a slipcover.  Get up on the top of your ladder (not the top-top, but you know what I’m saying), and screw the top of the ‘U’-shaped piece to the piece of wood on the wall.  Put in *at least* 4 screws so that it’s nice and anchored.

8.  All you have to do now is add your curtains!  I made simple rod-pocket panels out of the fabric I selected for the nursery, but you could just as easily use store-bought panels or sheers.  Unscrew the plates, slide the dowel into the holes, put your curtains on the rod and screw the plates back onto the bedcrown.

That’s it!  This project makes such a tremendous impact for the time spent putting it together – my kind of project!

********************

Time’s running out!  There are only 3 more days to order from my online Stella & Dot trunk show.  With a $50 purchase, you are entered to win a Soiree bracelet of your choice (a $29 value).  Right now, you have a really great chance of being that winner since we don’t have a ton of orders over $50 yet.  Go ahead and start thinking about birthdays and holidays, shop the sale page, and win something gorgeous for yourself!  They even have a darling selection of Mommy & Me jewelry.

To order and be entered to win, please visit Abby’s Stella & Dot website and place your order, entering my name (Lindsay Ballard) as your hostess.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Fun with Chalkboard Fabric

by Lindsay Ballard on June 7, 2010 2,381 Comments

I’ve never met a person who didn’t love chalkboard paint.  With this ingenious invention, you can turn anything – from glass to walls – into a chalkboard in mere minutes.  Now that it comes in an array of colors, you can easily match any color scheme or decor.  What will they think of next?

Well, I’ll tell you – chalkboard fabric!  I’m sure chalkboard fabric has been around for a while now, but I’ve just discovered it as of a few weeks ago.  I saw it in the JoAnn circular and rushed to the store to pick some up.  It must be new to them, too, because the ladies at the cutting table had no idea what I was talking about.  I eventually found it in with the utility fabrics.

For $5/yard (before my 40% off coupon), I had my hands on something new that I couldn’t wait to make into a new creation.  I made a few placemats for Zack so that he could use his sidewalk chalk indoors without us going into the 100-degree Texas heat this summer.  Then, I decided to use it to make some tags to label the baskets on the changing table in the nursery.

Like a chalkboard, the chalkboard fabric is easy to use.  You have to “prime” the fabric, by rubbing the chalk on the surface.  Then, you erase that rubbing with a soft cloth and you are ready to write or draw!  You continue to erase with the soft cloth.  If you want to clean the surface, you can wipe it with a wet cloth or even put it in the washing machine on the delicate cycle.  Once it’s dry, “prime” it again and you are good to go!

My tags were incredibly easy to put together, so I thought I’d share my technique in case you wanted to replicate it:

1. I ironed some fusible fleece interfacing onto the back of a large scrap of accent fabric I am using in my room.  I had some of the thick craft interfacing left in my stash (yes, after all that, I still have a stash!), which gives the fabric enough thickness to lay flat without curling on the edges.

2.  I decided to make the finished size of my tags 4 inches by 3 inches, so I drew out with a pencil and straight edge as many squares of that size that I needed for my baskets.  I cut them out with my pinking shears (zig zag scissors) so that I didn’t have to worry about fraying edges.

3.  I cut the chalkboard rectangles to be 1/2 inch smaller than the first rectangles, so that made them 3 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.  I used my rotary cutter and straight edge to make sure that my cuts were straight.

4.  I put a touch of glue from a glue stick on the back of a chalkboard rectangle and applied it to an accent fabric rectangle.  The glue helps hold it in place so that it doesn’t shift when I applique.  I then used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch the chalkboard fabric onto the accent fabric.

5.  Because my handwriting on small surfaces with chalk is so horrendous, I used a white ChalkInk marker to write out the labels.  ChalkInk is a new-to-me product, but I know lots of you already have it and love it.  It looks like chalk when it’s dry, and you can wipe it off with a wet cloth when you need to, just like chalk.  I’m so glad to have these markers in my craft room now.

6.  I simply pinned the tags to the lining of my baskets and used a bit of 50-cent a spool ribbon (I used white and cream) to tie little bows to hide the safety pins.

I’m so pleased with how the tags turned out, and they were SO easy to create!  I love that they are fabric, too, and I didn’t have to go through the hassle of actually needing to use messy chalkboard paint.  Chalkboard fabric is definitely a no-fuss, no-mess solution.

(This is as much of a nursery sneak peak that you are getting for now.  I promise that it’s almost done.  I just need another weekend to tie together a few loose ends, so hopefully I can have a big reveal for you next week!  Although it doesn’t seem like it from my blog posts, I have been so busy working on it for months now.)

What would you create with chalkboard fabric?  And are you running to the fabric store to pick up some today?

********************

We have TWO winners from last week’s Fantsy Facade giveaway!  The first person to win a $100 gift certificate to Fantsy Facade is commenter #29, Michelle B in Florida!

The second winner is commenter #26, Kay H in AZ!

Congrats to both of our winners!  I’ll be in contact with you soon to get you connected with Susan.

« Previous Page
Next Page »
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Makely

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.


Archives

Categories

PRIVACY POLICY
Copyright © 2009-2019 Makely School for Girls | All Rights Reserved | Posts may contain advertising content or affiliate links