Room for More {DIY Upholstered Bed}

Happy New Year! I know one thing, I kept the resolution I made last year to spend less time on the internet. My neglected little blog is a prime example of that. But today I am kicking off my 2013 year of blogging with a project! This project spanned much of 2012. I would work on it for a weekend here and there and then not come back to it for months. It's hard to find time to use a pneumatic staple gun with a toddler always under foot.

When we first moved into this apartment I bought a pop up trundle frame for Remi's room. This is a much larger apartment than our previous two and I wanted to maximize the amount of people we could comfortably host. For months it sat as a frame with two mattresses. One day last spring while my inlaws were visiting I drew up a plan for a 2x4 frame and my father-in-law helped me put it together. Probably 3 months later I ordered a spool of webbing, broke out the staple gun and got it to this point...

I actually liked the way it looked with just the webbing, but knew it was not safe for a toddler. I forgot to mention, my original inspiration was the Serena and Lily Presidio day bed.

But I wanted to do it for 1/10th the price.

So the next step was cushion and batting. This is where I show once again how bad of a blogger I have been over the past year...no pictures. Basically I bought two twin egg crate mattresses and cut a shape to fit each side of the frame and then stapled it on, flat side out. Then I wrapped the frame in dacron. 

From there I had plans to upholster, but it was too hard to get the seams how I wanted so I ended up crudely stapling a thin cotton fabric over all of the dacron, as if I were upholstering, but not worrying about where my staples were showing and then I made slipcovers for each end. Slipcovers with kids always seem like a better idea anyway. The fabric I used is actually two curtain panels from Ikea. Thick and $25, can't beat that. The skirt is just two panels attached with velcro.

I really love the way it turned out. It's by far the coziest spot in the apartment. One downside of velcro is that sometimes Remi rips it off, mainly when he is mad at me for making him do something terrible like wear shoes or zip his coat. So it's pretty much always in the wrinkled state you see it.

I made the four fox pillows out of a cute Duralee print I came across one day in the showroom and the center pillow is by the very talented Caitlin Wilson. Thank you guys!! The large back pillows are from two cushions I took off of a sofa we bought a couple of years ago. The shams are also made from Ikea curtain panels. I really liked the flanged cushions I saw on THIS West Elm sofa, so I copied. The duvet is from Land of Nod.

It warms my heart when I see my little guy enjoying something I made.

The overall cost to make the bed broke down to something like this:

pop up trundle bed frame: $100 (craig's list)

wood for frame $10 (home depot)

25 yard spool of upholstery webbing $25 (ebay)

2 egg crate mattresses $25 (bed bath and beyond) I used a coupon!

7 yards dacron $35 (new england upholstery)

1 pair of ikea curtains $25 (I think I used THIS)

Total cost around $220...and without trying too hard I hit that 10% goal right on the mark!

Hopefully I will be back soon to show you the rest of the space. 

Eight short weeks until this becomes a room for two!