Operation Guest Room Recovery

Remember this padded headboard and these side tables and this guest room reveal? Well, we decided to upgrade the entire guest room using the same materials and spending little to no money. It's great to see how far we have come in 2 years. We have worked on some amazing projects and still have a lot more lined up that just amaze me. I’m so excited and thankful for how how far JT and I have come. We also have amazing friends/mentors who have been instrumental to improving our home decor, woodworking and designing skills. 

First off, here is where we started from. 

Guest Room Before

Not too bad but the side tables were starting to bother me (seeing as we are now such great builders :) ). I really hated our attempt at staining the wood; the construction was a little too shabby. Our first move was to disassemble all 4 side tables and reconstruct them into 2 side tables. We wanted to maintain a modern look with open storage so JT and I came up with a design. The original tables were 2 different sizes so the resulting tables are 2 different sizes. 

new design

We painted them grey and added a silver drawer pull to give the illusion of a drawer. I am pretty sure some guests will pull on the dummy drawer and be shocked .

side table with grey paint

The next project was a quick one, I updated the map shades. I wanted to the lamps to the side table. I followed this tutorial here without the ribbon.

materials used

refinished lamps

And finally the Pièce de résistance….the head board!!!! We got some lovely purple upholstery fabric that was on Mega sale with silver nail head trim to update the headboard.

We wanted some curves to the room so after taking of the backing fabric and taking off come of the foam and batting we measured some points, used a bowl to cut off the curve and then used the first piece to cut out the second piece

cut off 2 corner arcs using a plastic bowl

Next, we roughly cut off about 1/2 and inch off foam around the top and sides for the nail head trim.

The hardest part by far was adding on the nail head trim. That took about 2 hours while everything else took minutes. We started with the top, continued to the right side and finally the left side. 

 

adding the nail-head trim

We used a cover button kit to make 7 buttons. After some measurements we placed 3 buttons on the top row and 4 buttons on the bottom. The bottom half of the headboard is covered by pillows so we didn't see a need to have more than 2 rows. We passed the buttons through the holes using a long embroidery needle and embroidery thread. 

back view of holes for buttons

Buttons on 

Finally, with some team effort and nip-tucking we secured the bottom using the staple gun. I reinforced the entire perimeter at the back then attached the back cover to kepe things neat (felt from the old headboard)

back cover to keep things neat and tidy

These were a really fun projects, it took about a day to get all three projects done.

ready for guests 

I believed Operation Recovery was a success if I do say so myself.

DIY Work Bench (by JT)

Building a functional work bench had been on my mind since we built our dining table using the former table top sitting on plastic stands as our work bench. While the table top was okay to build the dining table, lining and clamping wood to the edge of the table top was almost impossible because of the rounded edges. The old table set up also vibrated because of the plastic supports; this can be annoying when cutting long pieces.

Our work bench set up

With all the issues I knew I had to build a work bench to suit future projects. Depending on styles and features it is easy to go overboard and over budget on a work bench. Luckily I did not have this problem because I was on a tight budget of $40 so I had to be creative with scrap wood from previous projects.

I gathered all the 2" x 4"s and plywood we had laying around

Fortunately I had just enough pieces for the legs

As always I started with a sketch of my ideas on paper and started editing based on budget and available scrap wood. I wanted a slim table that would accommodate cutting with a circular saw, have a lower layer for storage, require no set up (other than moving it to my work area in the garage) and have wheels so Jumi can easily move it around when she needs it.

Tools I used for the Project:

• Circular saw
• Jig Saw (optional but saves time)
• Compound miter saw (optional but saves time)
• Finish nail gun (optional but saves time)
• Power Drill 
• Safety glasses, ear muffs & safety gloves

Materials I bought

• Casters with brakes - $12
• Drawer handle pull - $4
• Peg Board - $6
• Wood glue - $6 
• 2" x 4" x 16ft (I bought this to supplement the scrap wood) - $8

Matching scrap wood for bench legs

Bench legs standing

I split a 2" x 4" into two for the top connecting piece (I didn't have enough wood to go around)

Trying to figure out whether I had enough plywood for the bottom layer

Plywood for the bottom layer cut up

I saved a solid piece for my top (cutting surface)

In order to have a sturdy cutting / work surface, I decided to laminate scrap pieces to the solid piece

Fitting scrap pieces to create my laminate

Wood glue on the solid piece

Spread glue to cover entire surface for perfect lamination

Assemble plywood pieces and fasten with screws

Laminate done, I think it came out well

Casters with brakes for easy work set up and movement

Drawer handle pull

Installed peg board mostly for the looks, I do not plan to hang tools under bench

Work bench fits my 12" compound miter saw and router table (bottom)

Power outlet add convenience for multiple tool plug in

Clamp on lamp also fits perfectly on bench

There it is, nothing fancy but it's functional and gets the work done.