Getting "The Townhouse" Ready

My youngest will be a sophomore at App State this fall. They don't guarantee housing for anything but freshman, so she and her buddies had to find another place to rent. They found this amazing townhouse, so we've been having lots of fun this summer preparing for it. Lots of shopping, sewing, stapling, gathering. They need a wedding shower to pull it all together! But for now, it's just some extra stuff that all the moms have gathered - a chair here, a blender there..

But Jessie's bedroom has gotten a little more special attention. I LOVE doing this kind of stuff, and she happens to be one of those people overwhelmed by all the choices and leaves a lot of it to me. I love it when a "client" can't decide what to do and asks me to make the decisions!

So shopping we went: the first trip was an epic fail that ended in tears (I know, #firstworldproblems) and halfway through the second outing, her countenance began to wane. After wandering through hundreds of bolts of fabric, she was losing heart. Then I saw it: a lovely bolt of linen that hit the spot. She proclaimed, "Let's get it" and we were off. It was the launching point to gather a few other pieces to add some color.

In the end, we had a padded headboard with a matching bedskirt, and three accent pillows. Pinterest is brimming with ideas for these things and she had seen several things she liked. The challenge was to zoom in on just one idea. I am a fan of starting with neutrals, and leaving some latitude for changing little things (like pillows) if you want to bring in a different color scheme. My decorating mantra is to spend the big money on things you can live with forever (like a neutral couch) and change up your accent pieces periodically.

We made the headboard so that it can hang on the wall - lightweight, with some mounting pieces on the back. I called my husband and his power tools in to make the big cuts, but everything else can be done with a pair of scissors and a staple gun. Very little skill is needed.

The bedskirt did require some skill; design, measuring, sewing. The pillows are simple sewing.




A few tips:

• Use lightweight 1/4" plywood for the headboard base
• I used last year's XL twin foam mattress pad from the dorm bed as the padding for the headboard - recycle!
• Make a pattern for the shape of the headboard out of a cut-up paper bag, wrapping paper or newspaper
• Measure twice; cut once!
• Cut the foam pad and the fabric a bit bigger than the frame of the headboard and then pull tightly around to the back and staple the cheese out of it!
• Re-cycle old pillows that you are through with for your new pillow forms. Down-filled ones are my favorite and are expensive new...but I have tons of pillows around the house I don't use anymore, so they are perfect for recovering.

We've really had a great summer together that started with two weeks at the beach, lots of hun-cal-fro-yo, playing "Draw Something" on our new iPhones, taking swim aerobics with seniors (citizens, that is...), learning new recipes, planning for The Townhouse, and just being girls together. 

 I just love her. :)