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

DIY Gold Mercury Glass & Gold Lined Ceramic Vase

In addition to the monster wall project I worked on for the Pinterest Challenge, I also wanted to attempt to tackle a few smaller pinned ideas that I’ve had my eye on. The first was a gold stenciled chevron napkin project and the second, today’s gold mercury glass makeover for a few plain glass vases I have lying around.

My inspiration came from the adorable dipped gold drinking ware that I had pinned over in my Dining Room Inspiration board (that room is getting its makeover soon):

But I modified the project a bit because I was really wanting to create more of a mercury glass effect with that neat, mottled coloring and multiple layers of paint and distressing.

I love my finished vase and I’ll probably use it for holding silverware at a dinner, straws at a party or pencils on my desk in the future. Plus flowers! Looks great in the new bathroom with my new orchid (thanks house guests for the thoughtful gift!).

I opted for a more subtle mercury finish (you could instead take big chunks out of the paint for a more distressed look that you often see in stores – and while I started with that I ended up filling in some of those holes and liking this best) because of the gold rather than the traditional mirror or silver finish.

In a nutshell, here was the process:

I used the super helpful tutorials here and here to get me started.

Now in slow motion… I began by lining a clear glass vase in painter’s tape and paper to keep the paint on the inside of the glass.

Once I had a nice, even coat of gold (I chose Rust-Oleum’s Metallic Gold) I used the above tutorial’s suggestions of blotting vinegar onto the inside of the vase to begin to distress the gold.

I learned the hard way that you don’t want to pour the vinegar in over the edges or you’ll end up with big drip marks in your gold, but you want to squeegie out the vinegar onto the surface until it beads, let sit for a minute or two, and then rub, rub rub!

As I rubbed I slowly began noticing chunks of the gold begin to fall away, creating that distressed mercury glass effect.

Cool, right?

Word of caution: I thought I’d expedite the process (I love to find the best shortcuts) and used a piece of a wire sponge to burnish the inside of the glass for a more distressed look, but that left really scratchy results (hardy har har). Back to the paper towel I went.

When I had finished my distressing I let the vase dry for quite some time (the vinegar will repel any future coats of gold until dry), and then gave another soft spray of gold, another level of distressing and so on until I was happy with the results.

If you put a candle to it you’ll really see the visible layers and holes in the gold for a more ‘mercury’ look, but I’m really digging the subtleness of the distressing with my orchid pot as the backdrop.

The first accessory of many for the new bathroom! More on that very soon .

While I was at it, I used my new favorite spray paint to line the inside of a white ceramic vase, love that bold gold peeking out!

PS you can find my other Pinterest Challenge projects right here, or by choosing one of these guys: diy gold chevron cloth napkins, painter’s tape accent wall or capiz shell pendant (from last year).