Transform Your Furniture Archives - Page 8 of 15

The Top Secret Lumber Yard Project is finally complete, and my husband, Tom, is owed a huge round of applause. He worked his rear off in the 105+ degree Texas heat so that my dream bed would become a reality.

In all of my adult life, I’ve never had a real bed. When I was single and on my own, I had a mattress, box spring, and bed frame. When we got married, the tradition continued. Even when I made my old toile headboard, it was simply attached to the metal bed frame. Back in July, I did my best princess pout, and he agreed to build me a real bed. I have a REALLY good princess pout, y’all.

We found building plans online at Ana White’s website, but Tom did quite a bit of redesigning to make it how we wanted it. He’s actually going to do a post here soon explaining his tweaks for anyone who is interested. Tom did all of the designing, measuring, cutting and attaching. I did all of the sanding, painting, glazing and polying. This bed is truly handmade.

The grey stain + black glaze was the perfect combination for this room, and it really plays into my modern vintage style. This is the first piece of furniture I have ever stained, and it was both harder and easier than I imagined. I’ll soon be sharing with you what I learned in the process.

In the meantime, I’ve put the brown nightstands on notice: they are next items on the chopping block. Or painting tarp.

Have you ever built a piece of furniture? Do you ever plan to?

P.S. Every gorgeous bed deserves a great mattress. Join Sleep Number for a Sleep Better chat on Facebook and Twitter tonight from 7-8 CST. One lucky participant is going to win a Sleep Number bed! Sign up here so they’ll know to be expecting you.

When considering a furniture rehab project, my mind very rarely goes to wood stain. I’m a custom color sort of girl, and traditional stains have always seemed too reddish or light for my taste. I like my stained furniture to be quite dark brown, and you can only have so much dark furniture in a room.

I had never really considered the fact that stain can be mixed in a range of colors other than brown, but upon further investigation, I found that it can be. I think the key to a good custom stain color is to keep it a natural color – kind of like your hair color. Save your bright colors for painted furniture (although, I have seen brightly stained pieces AND people with bright blue hair that totally rock, so I wouldn’t say it’s a “rule” by any means).

Using the following pieces as inspiration, I’ve decided to go with a custom mixed grey stain for our top secret lumber yard project.

We are thiiiiiiis close to being finished building and will begin staining soon. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. And if I hate it, there’s always paint. 🙂

What are your thoughts on wood stain colors?

Image credits: Apartment Therapy, Your Furniture, Room & Board

Mastering the Master Bedroom {the Handmade Bed}

Furniture Stain can be Grey-t