Plate Wall Progress

I've been obsessing over plate walls for quite some time. We have an awkward wall in our kitchen that has an oddly placed phone jack, light switch and thermostat (for an electric baseboard that doesn't exist anymore--just add that one to the list of "why the hell would you do that" questions I have for the previous owners).

While I love the symmetrical looking plate walls, I am really obsessed with the eclectic and random ones like this:

The only problem is that I am neither eclectic nor random. After months of searching for plates, I was finally happy with my selections. Please dont ask how many trips to Home Goods I made. The number is embarrassing.

To hang the plates I bought these adhesive plate hangers at the container store. Unfortunately, I ran out of them and had to improvise with epoxy and "D" ring hangers. In hindsight, I should have just used the epoxy and D rings for all of the plates; they are just as secure (maybe more so) and much cheaper....

I started off by making a template of the wall so I could account for the phone jack, switch plate and thermostat. I wanted to cover the phone jack, and camouflage the thermostat (I couldn't cover it because it protrudes too much from the wall)

On the table I thought the layout was perfect...on the wall, not so much. See what happens when you try to over plan eclectic and random?

At this point I contemplated cutting out all the plate shapes, but I was becoming impatient so I decided to wing it...

I think it turned out pretty well. I still want to add more for balance, but I'm going to live with it for a while until I find the perfect plates.

Not your grandmother's headboard...

...well actually, it is.


My grandmother recently moved into a senior living community nearby. The transition hasn't been easy (let's just say, she wasn't too keen on moving).



She has always complained about her bed because the headboard is too hard, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at making an upholstered headboard.



There are SO many tutorials out there that it's almost overwhelming--how do you know which one to use? After lots of reading, I used this tutorial as a starting point, tweaking things as necessary along the way.



Because i dont have a truck or SUV, the first stumbling block arose when trying to figure out how I was going to get a 60" piece of plywood home from HD. I just had them cut it into two 30" pieces (you can see the seam below if you look closely)








I used MDF to ensure the nail head trim would be secure.







I didnt bother with buying a sheet of foam, and instead used a twin mattress pad/egg crate that I had left over from my college days. The spray adhesive wasn't cutting it, so I used my staple gun to attach the foam to the plywood.








BTW - don't worry about the padding being smooth because of the egg crate. I was concerned, but you definitely can't tell once the batting and fabric are in place.



I laid the batting on the floor, smoothed it out, placed the headboard on top of it, and then stapled away.





Rinse and Repeat for the fabric. As you can see below, stretching the fabric around the cut outs was difficult, but you really can't tell that it's not smooth once the piece is finished.










And the finished product:

It's not the fabric I would have chosen for myself, but she loves it.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this project was; it can definitely be done in a day if you have the right tools.

Impulsive with a side of ADD

The countdown is on, Brett is coming home in a couple short months, so what does that mean? I have to get all the projects that are brewing in my head (a lot!) done.

First up is our laundry "room". A few months ago a small bottle of bleach ate through its container--did you know that could happen? Yeah, me neither. Thankfully it didn't create a huge mess, but it did rust out the old, crappy, metal shelves. Who knows, maybe it was a blessing in disguise...

See that drip?

That's where the shelf dripped nasty rust onto the wall.

And, I'm just keeping it real...that's all the crap that was behind the washer and dryer.

Anyway, while I was buying the new shelves at Lowes, I stumbled across the "oops" paint section. Annnnnd, instantly my simple project got a lot more complicated.

Yeah, I don't know what got into me...that's a little bold compared to what I usually gravitate toward, but whatever, I'll roll with it. I mean, it was only $5.00, right?

Yup, it's definitely BLUE. But I kind of love it.

By the way, can I just tell you have difficult it was to get those shelves in by myself? Some things really are a 2-person job.

Next up? Painting the kitchen...again.