The Outlet

My 14 year-old niece Marion asked me to do a mural on her wall when we were visiting in Idaho. She wanted it to coordinate with the fabulous new bedding her parents bought her from Pottery Barn Teen. Well, you know me - helping with a room remodel (especially a kid's bedroom) is too fun to resist! Especially since I was itching to make something, and all my projects were lying neglected in my studio clear across the country. I really do start going crazy when I'm not able to create things, so I appreciated the diversion on the road to insanity. You think I'm kidding.

One thing led to another, and by the end of the week I had transformed her entire room! Sorry, I don't have any "before" photos...just think Bieber Shrine: Marion had taken down the dozens of Justin Bieber poster that plastered her walls and ceiling. I started by painting her bedroom 3 different colors; the light violet you see here, a darker shade on the window wall, and grey in between to prevent the feeling of being inside a grape Hubba Bubba bubble. :-) I suggested doing a wind-blown, bonsai-like tree as a platform for the flowers copied from her duvet cover. She wanted a smooth, clean-lined look to the branches so this is what I came up with. Not very realistic, but it fits the style of the room.

I made a padded, tufted headboard out of faux suede that I'm really excited about...it's probably my favorite thing in the room. I sketched out various headboard designs and Marion chose this one.

I used a jigsaw to cut the shape out of inexpensive 3/4" plywood, then used 2" thick, very firm upholstery padding (not the foam kind -- this comes in a 27" wide roll you can buy at Joann's) and covered it with quilt batting and, finally, the suede. I used a heavy duty stapler to secure everything to the backside of the headboard.

Then I hammered 4 nails with heads into each "tuft" so that there's much less chance of it pulling through the fabric and/or coming loose from the plywood backing. The padding is so thick and firm that upholstery tacks couldn't get a grip into the plywood at all. Then I hot-glued the fabric covered buttons into place, and saved the extra fabric I had bought to make the buttons to use in some pillows. I LOVE the look of the random fabric buttons on the headboard! Such a fun twist to the glam Hollywood Regency style. I got the random button idea from a gorgeous grey linen chair I saw at World Market.

One of Marion's many nicknames is Magnus, and she loved the idea of putting random letters above her bed that spelled it out.

It was quite a bit of work to find all the various letters and coordinating scrapbook paper, then paint the letters, decoupage the paper onto the faces, let it dry, carefully trim around the shapes with an Xacto knife, and coat with another layer of decoupage, but it was worth it. She loved how it turned out.

I spruced up her 2 existing bulletin boards by painting one and using quilt batting to pad the other before wrapping it with the fabric (I used a strip of purple fabric to connect the 2 scraps of aqua fabric I had left over from the drapes).

Speaking of the drapes, I found 2 white tablecloths with a nice thick texture (so they didn't have to be lined) and added the aqua fabric to one edge of each, and then I sewed on the giant purple ricrac. I used the hidden tabs at the top just like I explain in my tutorial in the lefthand sidebar.

Please excuse the poor appearance of the bottom of the drapes... they were just pinned at this point because I hadn't hemmed them yet.

I used the suede and padding scraps from the headboard to make the little ottoman, which started out life as a leftover wooden crate. There's a spare fabric button on top, but I wasn't able to "tuft" it yet at the time this picture was taken. It looks better now!

The grey linen-look chair was a bargain-priced steal I found at Ross...it was begging to be a part of the room, so how could I refuse?

I love how this pillow turned out - I had scraps leftover from the buttons I covered for the headboard, and this is what came of them. Plus the square pillow and the slug on the bed, of course!

Marion was thrilled with how it all turned out, which made me feel great, and since I was able to make most everything myself, the total cost was significantly less than what it would have been otherwise. For under $300 she got a mural (the paint for the room was about $85), a fancy headboard, the chair, ottoman, drapes, pillows + slug, letter decorations, and spruced up bulletin boards. Not bad, not bad at all! I got to play decorator for a week, and the kids had a fabulous time playing with their cousins, aunties, and grandparents = win/win all the way around. I'll post more soon with other aspects of our trip "out West" (having grown up in Oregon, that is a really funny thing for me to say) but it's late so TTFN!

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I cannot BELIEVE what you have done for $300! The room is wonderful - I THINK the mural is my favorite part, but the headboard and pillows are so great also.

I've made some curtains a couple years ago using your hidden tab method. I love them. They were so easy to put together, but have such a professional look. Thank you!

Posted by: Ann | August 20, 2011 at 03:03 PM