Work with what you have…. for this Bedroom Makeover, that was pretty much my mantra. Rather than buy a new daybed, which is what my teenage daughter wanted, I worked with her existing captain’s bed, hoping to turn it into a one-of-a-kind, ultra stylish, not recycled, but Up-cycled Bed.
Here’s a reminder of what it looked like Before. It was a cute, but generic, dark stained captain’s bed.
You’ll notice, it’s actually made up of a few pieces that are just screwed together. This made it easy to take apart and work with. So I immediately started sanding.
I then pulled out my paint sprayer and a can of antique white paint with primer in it, and I got busy painting.
My plan was to raise the bed onto some cool decorative legs I found for just $3 a piece at the same warehouse where I bought my upholstery supplies for the headboard. I had already priced round wooden legs at Lowe’s and Home Depot. They weren’t nearly as nice there, and they were $10 a piece. So at this point, I’m thrilled with what I found, and I can’t wait to get them on the bed and paint them.
Unfortunately, there was just one problem with my fabulous idea…and it was a doosy! Because the bed was made up of different pieces, I couldn’t just screw the legs into the four bottom corners, because there would be nothing to support and hold it all up. The only solution was to do what I always do when I find myself in a bind. I enlisted my husband’s help. (If you haven’t heard me say this before… I LOVE my husband! He gets roped into so many of my projects, but he never complains. Instead, he finds a way to execute my lofty ideas, and does so with a level of excellence.) In this case, he made a solid wood base to support all the pieces.
With everything securely in place and grounded to one solid base, my husband not only installed the new wooden legs, he added some decorative trim all around the bottom.
I was one happy camper. The only thing left to do was to distress it a little because my daughter was going for a more vintage look. So I put just a few drops of a charcoal colored paint onto a moistened sponge, and I lightly rubbed it onto the edges of the entire piece.
Now painted, elevated on legs, turned on it’s side, topped with a handmade upholstered headboard, and dressed in the bedding of my daughter choice, this Up-cycled Bed far exceeded our expectations. Best of all, there is not another like it anywhere. With the daybed checked off my To-Do, this Bedroom Makeover is well on it’s way. My favorite improvement is yet to come. See what I did with the dresser in my next blog.
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