{New Blog Series} All About You! Featuring your DIYs and Projects

I'm so excited to announce a new series I will be starting on Tuesdays.  It's called "All About You", and every Tuesday I'll feature a project, home renovation, DIY tutorial, almost anything that you have done and want others to see.  The catch is "you" shouldn't have a blog, or an online platform where you feature your projects already.  It's a chance to have your talented and amazing projects seen by others, and I'm happy to host your projects.

I mentioned the idea on my Facebook Page and got a handful of entries in line, but still looking to fill up spaces so if you have a project, DIY tutorial, home renovation that you want featured send me an email and we can discuss details of scheduling your feature! 

To jump start the series, I'm so excited to introduce Andrea who actually used one of my own tutorials, my distressed wood headboard.  She made a few adjustments to the tutorial to fit her style {which I love} and love how it turned out.
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My name is Andrea and I live in South Surrey, BC with my very patient and accommodating husband, Kris (he did not write that... but I have to give credit where credit is due). This is my version of the DIY Distressed Headboard, inspired by Pamela's tutorial. Our master bedroom has been sadly neglected, because let's face it... people don't really see it. However, now I force guests up to our bedroom (awkward or not) so that I can show off our projects! The room isn't complete, but we're getting there.

I found Pamela's DIY Headboard tutorial (thanks to the wonders of Pinterest!) and loved it. I knew my husband would be down with it because it was relatively simple to make, easy on the wallet and man-friendly (aka not frilly and covered in ruffles). So, we went for it. We made a couple of small changes but otherwise followed the tutorial to a T. I do wish that I had distressed the wood a bit more, but Kris was getting a bit irritated with me throwing tools around so I stopped before I was satisfied... but I think it still has character!

We decided that we didn't want to fix each plank directly to the wall because we know that we will only be in the house for another couple of years and didn't want to be committed to leaving it behind or patching a thousand holes. Instead, we used a couple of pieces of scrap wood and screwed them directly into the studs - now, we only have 4 holes to patch! Then, we attached each plank to the wood scraps with a nail gun instead. That way, we know that if we want to remove it in the future, only the top and bottom planks need to be pulled off to reveal the screws that will allow us to remove it from the wall. 

Like true beginners, we didn't realize that 1x6's aren't actually 1x6's so it turned out a little lower than we anticipated but I think it works! We ended up using 3x18 inch pieces of wood on each side on the bottom, and 5 full length pieces that run 80 inches long.

I have a dark, gorgeous dresser that was given to me as a gift from my parents when I still lived at home - it is solid wood and beautifully crafted. I decided that I wanted to pick up those wood tones in my stain, so I mixed Minwax's Ebony and Walnut. More walnut than ebony, and I literally dumped them together in a container and went at it. We did 2 coats of stain and then finished it with poly. We found that it needed it because the pine was showing a grayish sheen through.

Other than that, we followed Pamela's directions!

We noticed that after staining and letting it air out in the garage (we let it sit about a week to air out the fumes from staining) that when we brought it inside and installed it, the wood curved or shrunk slightly afterwards. I don't mind, I think it just adds to it!

Our paint colour is Benjamin Moore's Cream Froth (picking a shade of white was quite an experience!). The bedding is from Home Sense, an $80 find (and coincidentally, very similar to Pamela's!!). Our bedside tables are also DIY, using these (http://ana-white.com/2011/01/farmhouse-bedside-table) plans from Ana White's website and hardware from Lee Valley Tools in Vancouver, BC. You'll notice our wedding guest book tree hiding (not so conspicuously) in the corner, we are waiting for our Pottery Barn crown molding ledge to arrive so we can install it over the bed and put our wedding tree up! One step at a time...

I just started a new blog to post our projects around the house (and when I say just started, I really mean just started so don't judge my lack of content just yet!), and would love for PB&Jstories followers to drop by as I post new projects and follow the progress of our master bedroom! Check out Andrea + Kris + Our Chaos here: http://andreakrisourchaos.blogspot.com/

Thanks Pamela!!
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I love the look of it!  I mean how can I not? We even have the same bedspread :)

Again, if you're interested in having a project of yours featured I'd LOVE to have you! Just email me and we'll plan the details!