A Not New Redo

Scott and I have focused so much on the other parts of the house that we haven't had a moment to really turn our attention to our own bedroom. What makes it worse is the fact that we spend all this time in the other, more comfortable rooms, then go to sleep in the most unfinished of them all.

I knew that I wanted to paint and put up some pictures, but to begin this Journey to the Center of the Bedroom, I knew that I really wanted to emphasis the bed. I had seen a lot of bedrooms in lighter colors that have darker headboards, and they really caught my fancy.

The headboard that we had was actually one that my dad and I built a while ago, but that I still love, so I wanted to try to work with it. Unfortunately, it was disappearing behind our much darker bedding.

I decided to take it off and refinish it in a darker color. First, I unattached it from the bed and took it out to the garage.

Here you can see better the alternating wood pattern that we accomplished. Because I had to sand it to get off the old polyurethane, I also had to sand the pattern. If you ever encounter anything like this, remember that you must sand with the grain, even if that means the job will take longer. It's worth it. I also used my mouse sander and 120 grit sandpaper and it made the job a little easier. Sanding took close to two hours in all.

When I had it completely sanded (front, panels, sides, sunken portion of the frame, top), I took the shop vac and gave it a good once over. Then, I wiped the whole thing down with a barely damp rag and let it sit for an hour.

During the hour, I ran to Home Depot and picked up some stain. I wanted to get a smaller container of the one I liked, but unfortunately, they didn't offer it, so I ended up with the $7.99 can. I didn't want a color that came across as a black, so I ended up with a darker wood with not a lot of red in it: Jacobean (which in my mind, I seem to pronounce 'yakobean', lol).

I would use my foam brush to brush on some of the stain, then I would use a soft cloth to wipe off the excess. I started with the leg to make sure I liked the color. That way, If it was too dark or too light, it would be behind the bed where no one could see it.

I then continued around the frame in the same fashion. Brush then wipe. I wanted it slightly darker, but rather than leaving it thick (which makes it really sticky and doesn't dry properly), I waited until after the first coat was finished to do a second coat later on.

Same rule applies for sanding as staining: go with the grain. That's part of the reason I left the interior portion for last. I just carefully went through, making sure not to leave any bubbles with the stain, and brushed and wiped each individual rectangle separately.

The difference in color was pretty amazing. You can see how much darker the stain was than the original wood color, and it just made it feel much richer.

When the first coat was finished, I let the entire thing dry for 4 hours. I then applied another coat to darken it slightly and allowed that to dry over night. Two more coats of polyurethane later, and it was looking pretty snazzy.

Because our weather has been really cold and windy lately, I wanted to make sure that the headboard was super dry before it touched any of our bed linens. I brought it in and let it stay overnight in the dining room so that it could sit in a dryer, warmer environment for a while. This made all the difference because the finished piece felt much less sticky and more completed before attaching it back to the bed frame.

This little make over took our bed from this

To this

Which is quite an impact for such an easy DIY. We love it!

(Yes, we did move the room around a little too. We also took on another project in there, but more on that in a later post!)