Pepper Design Blog

Office Makeover: A New Tufted Linen Headboard

I’ve finally finished the upholstered headboard for the new office/guestroom! I knocked out the project over a couple of hours spread across two nights just this week, and I love how it turned out.

The fabric headboard that I first made a couple of years ago was originally intended for the  master bedroom and was covered in a silvery grey fabric that I loved. When we finished the guestroom space in 2011, it sufficed as a stand in while I decided the color palette and feel for that room.

Ultimately new curtains won out and the headboard needed to be recovered to make it all work.

I considered building a new headboard from scratch but since I knew I wouldn’t want to put my current fabric headboard back into the garage (oh precious storage space!), I decided to give it a go in reinventing it by covering the backside in a different fabric.

This way I could always pull my current linen off of the headboard, flip it over and you’d find the original fabric waiting its turn to shine. Minus a few staple holes (which were inevitable to keep the linen side of the board taut) I thought the plan would work out pretty swimmingly.

Don’t pay attention to the bedding in these photos – that’s on the to-do list.

If you’re creating  a headboard from scratch, start here with the original post that turned this guy (with the help of foam padding, quilt batting and a staple gun) into a fabric headboard.

Those wooden slats worked out quite nicely as the base for my tufting and staple gun.

But back to covering the back side of my fabric headboard… The first step was to flip the headboard over and to carefully measure out my new tufting points. I used a solid color on the back of the headboard to avoid wasting $ on that beautiful Luxor fabric on the front side, hence the lighter fabric you’re seeing below (that’s the back of the headboard, not the new linen).

After I had made black marker dots for the new tufts, I pulled the new linen over the back side of the headboard and as I covered up the dots, I stapled on top of the linen to create the tuft.

And repeated until the entire headboard was covered. As mentioned above, the staples are going right into the evenly spaced slats of the original headboard frame, but if you were covering a piece of plywood to create a fabric headboard you’d want to double triple check your measurements as you’re stapling to ensure the tufts are in a straight line.

If you take a closer look at those tufts you’ll notice that I’m stapling twice in a cross pattern to really hold the fabric in place.

Another tip worth pointing out is to pull the fabric as taut as possible between staples to really get a creased, tufted look. The natural lines in the linen helped me to stay on track so that tufts were in a row, and following the same point on a patterned piece of fabric would serve the same purpose.

Sorry again about the night time photos! I rarely ever have time to get projects completed when it’s light out these days .

I used a simple 5/8″ button kit to make round fabric buttons out of scrap linen. 20 buttons later and I officially had no use of either thumb.

This next step was the easiest part! Inspired by the upholstered headboard created by Cre8tive Designs, I went ahead and just glued those buttons right over the staples. The next morning these guys were as secure as can be, and you really can’t tell that they’re not sewn on unless you pry your nail under one of them.

The last step was to secure the edges of the fabric to the entire headboard. To get rid of any slack I first pulled the fabric as taut as possible for smooth, rounded edges – and then stapled a few times along the opposite side (or where my pretty fabric is currently facing out). Again I found the wooden slats of the original frame to drive my staples into.

The fabric around the legs was simply trimmed, folded under and stapled. A bit of slack will allow me to pull fabric down over the existing staple so that it disappears.

I wedged my new linen headboard between the platform bed and the wall and I was finished!

The back of the headboard is my fabric that I’m trying not to destroy, so I didn’t staple the edges as tautly and numerously as I could have to really achieve that smooth, rounded look. But that’s always an option if you’re not trying to be staple shy .

By the way, I did a little round up of platform beds here before purchasing our West Elm frame below:

Platform beds are so versatile in that they’re pretty, relatively inexpensive and you can switch out the headboard any time you’d like!

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: our floor plan, color inspiration, a new trellis print rug, stuck in a rut, designing and sewing the curtains, diy fabric bulletin board panels, handmade capiz pendant light, organizing the bookshelves, wall collage part 1, part 2, fabric bulletin board inspiration, (new) inspiration board, new lamps, wallpapering open shelves, finding the perfect credenza, new trim, dining table-to-desk, a new desk & bookshelves, installing remnant carpeting, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress, inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300,inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.

Project Nursery: A Newly Updated Mobile

Sharing a quick update in our nursery today. I finally had some time to restring the butterflies from Liv’s felt mobile and to invest in a proper wooden hanger! My previous version worked for a while… and then decided it didn’t want to support the weight of the little floating felt butterflies any longer.

If you’re ever interested in creating your own unique mobile, I highly recommend purchasing a basic wooden frame/hanger from Seven Acre Toys as your base. I searched for quite a while to find something that would fit the look and design that I had in mind and was so happy I eventually came across their site on Etsy. They didn’t sell just the hangers at the time but after reaching out to them with my project they set up a custom listing and built the hanger to my 14″ specs with rounded edges, a wax finish and with drilling holes for hanging, all for just $10 + shipping.

I love the way it looks! And how the butterflies sway and spin casually as breezes enter the room.

I used a small wooden ball bead from a craft store to hide the knot of the four adjoining embroidery thread supports that connect from each arm together. One of these supports continues on up to the ceiling where the entire mobile is supported by a threaded eye screw. Here’s that visual again so you can see what I mean:

This underside image shows that each arm has three drill holes – one at the farthest end for a butterfly, two halfway between the center of the X and the end for the embroidery thread support that reaches up to that wooden bead and for a second butterfly. There’s also two holes in the very center for the butterfly that hangs down the middle, though one would have been fine. Here’s my exact listing if that’s helpful!

And from Olivia’s angle:

The butterflies are two pieces of felt from the Etsy company Three Sheep Studio (they don’t sell quite the color range I was looking for at Joann’s or Michael’s, and this felted wool is just beautiful) connected together by complimentary embroidery thread that wraps around the entire outer edge in a simple stitch. Read more about creating each of those guys here.

The made over glider has been moved to next to the crib for now while we build out Liv’s little reading nook.

Very excited to cross ‘updating Liv’s mobile’ off of my list! And wanted to be sure to share my resources with you all since they were so great to work with.

More Project Nursery posts found here: a new reading nook part 1, finished after photos, no sew fabric pennant, baby clothing art, handmade felt butterfly mobile, DIY crib skirt, basket liners part 1, part 2, the, glider makeover, recovering an ottoman, sewing lined curtains part 1, part 2, part 3, curtain fabric selection, nursery fabric board, rocking horse find, new pendant light, new sconce lighting, vintage wall art addition, changing table makeover, nursery wall striping tutorial , painted animal project, the initial inspiration board breakdown, the before pictures

Liv’s First Birthday Cake + Frosting & Fondant Tips

I just recently realized that I haven’t had a chance yet to share about the cake from Liv’s first birthday. It wasn’t so much the cake really, that was a yellow box mix (I figured Liv wouldn’t know the difference), as it was the super easy frosting and polka dot fondant decorations that made it a favorite of mine.

And I think Liv liked it too.

I’m a big fan of baking my own cakes and I think that sometimes fondant (or icing, food coloring and all of that stuff) can be mistakenly daunting. My very first experience working with fondant was for the biggest cake I’ve ever made – a wedding cake for 250 for Kev and I’s own big day nearly five years ago.

(I have some great pictures of baking that cake… I need to track those down…) I had always wanted to make my own cake and I researched and researched before finding myself elbows deep in flour and cocoa two days before the wedding. For the record, the cake was a chocolate espresso with a rich chocolate ganache filling, and it was delicious. I’m so glad I stuck with that little promise to myself, even if I stayed up through the wee hours of the night trying to produce it and an entire diy wedding on time.

But since then I’ve learned more tricks of the trade including taking a fondant flower class that introduced me to the art of water coloring actual fondant petals. Too time consuming. But really, really pretty.

Liv’s cake didn’t take much in the ways of preparation. I shelved the homemade idea because I knew that she wouldn’t know the difference – at all – and instead baked up two cake rounds out of a yellow box mix, eggs and oil. My white frosting was right out of the can, too. Sometimes you just have to keep it simple, simple. When it comes to round cake pans I love 6″ best because it’s smaller than the traditional and gives the cake a more straight-from-the-bakery look. I prefer working with the perfectly vertical sides of a spring form like this one. It’s makes everything worlds easier. I also suggest investing in two good pans so that you can bake multiple layers at once – and the better the pan the longer it will last (I have a super cheap one that rusted after one use – spending a little extra is definitely worth it ). 6″ is my go-to and I use it all of the time.

My first step was to cut my three layers of baked cake. A tip here is to use your serrated knife as a measuring stick to create little teeth marks all the way around the cake before you start cutting.

Sorry for the dark night time pics, if I had thought this out I would have finished this guy during the day so the pictures weren’t so dark.

Using one hand as a stabilizer, I gently saw through the cake following my measuring guides. And don’t worry about those sunken holes that you sometimes see in the middle of cakes right out of the oven, it often has to do with the temperature of the eggs when mixing up your batter and can easily be patched with scrap cake and frosting.

The below picture looks crooked but that cake split into two near perfect pieces.

Had this been a cake for an adult birthday party I would have doubled my layers and would have made them half as thin for the prettiness of it, but the thicker the layer the sturdier your cake. And kid’s cakes can be made less pretty… because they’ll be torn apart rather than sliced .

I repeated the above step one more time to end up with three layers and lots of cake scraps. All middle layers received a good smattering of frosting using a frosting spatula.

Using my cake pan as a guide, I cut out a round circle of parchment paper just slightly bigger than the cake layers that will now serve as my new base. This means that I can transfer my frosted, messy cake to my clean white cake pedestal (that you see in the party pics) when the frosting of the cake is finished.

Another trick is to frost your cake on your serving tray but to wedge rectangles of parchment paper under the edges so that at the very end you can pull those out for a clean, nice presentation. I didn’t want to travel with the cake on the pedestal to the park, so creating a parchment paper base that I could slide onto my cake stand was the best option for me.

You can see in the below pic that I slid my third single layer onto the parchment paper base and then slid the first two layers on top of that first layer. If I had a had a fourth, I would have made sure that that was upside down as the very top layer. (For stacks, you want to make sure that two flat edges are butted up against each other and two tops are against each other – rather than a flat and a top, if that makes sense).

If I was creating a tiered cake (like I did for the wedding cake) this is where I’d add several sturdy dowels to the center of the cake that are the exact same height as my tiered base.

After my layers are stacked with a layer of filling in between (you can also add berries, nuts or jams to be creative), I begin applying my crumb coat. The crumb coat is essential. It’s my very first layer of thin white frosting and it traps all loose crumbs from showing up in my final coat of frosting.

This vertical shot shows that one of my layers was trimmed to size to match the other two, this isn’t a problem if you add a crumb coat because this first layer of frosting will secure all raw cake edges, too. Sorry for the awkward angle, the cake is actually quite straight at this point.

The crumb coat doesn’t have to be particularly thick or pretty, but it should be flat and even because it will serve as the base for the next layer.

Into the fridge my crumb coat goes for at least an hour.

While the frosting is hardening up, it’s time to create my fondant dots. I began with white fondant (I have a huge 10lb bucket that I keep around for all events – this stuff doesn’t go bad – but you can find smaller quantities online or at a craft store like Michael’s) and slowly kneaded in red drops of food coloring until I had a nice pink.

Kneading fondant is a cross between taffy and play dough. It starts as the former and slowwly turns into the latter.

Next I used a rolling pin to roll out the fondant ball. If your fondant is sticky use a light amount of corn starch not flour to help thicken things up.

There’s no rule to how thick the fondant should be, but I generally go for something like the thickness of a quarter or two.

Using a cookie cutter I cut out all of my dots for the cake.

Then it was time to add them to the finished product.

First I pulled my cake out of the fridge and applied a final layer of frosting. This one is 10x easier to smooth on because of the crumb coat – that extra step is worth it, trust me!

Keep smoothing until you have a surface that you’re liking. My standard routine is to gob on a lot of frosting – and then smooth the top followed by all the way around the sides (one fell swoop) and then repeat repeat until the edges are sooooth.

For my wedding cake we actually rolled out huge pieces of fondant for each layer so that all edges of the cake were seamless. But that’s not so necessary for a birthday cake. If you’re working with buttercream -I’m using store bought icing here – use Viva paper towels (the only paper towels without a design imprinted) to smooth out chilled buttercream, works like a charm!

Next I added my polka dots!

And refrigerated one more time.

The cake traveled to the park in a brown cardboard box and was then added to the dessert table.

It was a chilly day so I didn’t have to worry about melting, but that’s my last tip. If you opt for a whipped cream or buttercream frosting and it’s going to be a warm day? Don’t put that cake out until about 30 minutes before you’re ready to serve (transfer from a fridge to the table) or it will begin to run.

In general, homemade frosting that includes butter, shortening, egg whites or whipped cream will not survive well out all day when it’s warm, but fondants, marzipan, glazes or fresh decorations such as flowers or fruit will do great.

A million, bazillion photos later .

But one round of Liv tentatively trying out this sugary treat:

I’m not sure she knew what to think! And I was sure to take off those fondant dots when she really started diving in, because as mentioned – those things can last literally for. ever.

And when there’s too much cake for one, invite your friends!

Just for fun, here are couple of other cakes that I’ve helped friends with. On the left, a birthday cake with fondant flowers (made with food coloring just like the polka dots and dried in a cupcake tin to keep their shape) and a wedding cake covered in small painted yellow  daises. The wedding cake was coated in buttercream and not fondant, it’s an example of a little melting in action. PS I’m so not a professional at this, just really enjoy a good challenge every once in a while. No judging the imperfections .

And there you have it – way too many words about stacking, frosting and using fondant on a cake. Whew. But hopefully it makes decorating with fondant look as easy as pie. I should post an easy tutorial on flowers… those are so simple and perfect for kids.

You can make a cake as homemade as you’d like – from handmade cake batter to freshly mixed frosting to custom decorations, or substitute a couple of the above with store bought components as well. Since I didn’t make Liv’s cake from scratch, the only time consuming part was the frosting and polka dots, and even that was just a couple of hours of work (fun work) to create. And I promise, everyone will think it’s awesome that you did it yourself.