Category: Apartment Living

DIY Plywood Headboard

First, I want to thank you all for your kind words about Doug’s stolen bike on Monday. I was also pleased and surprised with the number of comments on the bedroom! It is a great week to be a blogger. :)

File this project under “got it done!” or “procrastination who?”

When Doug’s brother was here in San Diego last week, we hit up the Urban Outfitters downtown to see if they had any winter coats on clearance (they didn’t). While we were there, Matt, who does woodworking, took a particular interest in the fixtures which were made of mainly plywood, 2’x4′ lumber, and pipes! (Related: I found an interesting article on UO’s aesthetic.)

When pondering bed solutions, I realized that using the same materials, I could create a modern, fresh, E-A-S-Y, and cheap headboard.

I got some leftover plywood (the type I used is technically called OSB, or oriented strand board) from my dad’s garage–these pieces were actually left over from when my parents’ house was built in 1999. Vintage!  This kind of wood is normally used as a subfloor or other non-finished construction material.

The goal was to make a headboard 60 inches wide (queen size) and somewhere around 4 feet tall. As luck would have it, the boards my dad gave me were in 20″x48″ panels which means we had no cuts to make whatsoever! We did have to drop about $12 at Lowe’s for the other lumber. I will not say no to a $12 headboard.

Supplies needed:

  • Plywood (OSB) panels
  • One 1″x4″x8″ board, cut into two 4′ pieces
  • One 1″x4″x10″ board, cut into a 60″ piece and a 52″ piece
  • Screws
  • Cordless drill(screwdriver)

The plan was to line the boards up and brace them with lumber from behind–one piece down each side and two braces horizontally. Here’s a shot snapped in Lowe’s after we had our boards cut for us:

headboard frame

Originally I wanted to attach the screws in from behind but after some trial-and-error, and taking into account the way the OSB board would splinter, we decided that having exposed screw heads on the front was not the end of the world. At least I measured evenly and marked the board with sharpie so they would all line up. Here’s a progress shot–he is working on the bottom of the board:

headboard in progress

Note: we had already been to the hardware store twice that day and did not want to go out again to buy the appropriate length of screws. The drywall screws we used were too long and stuck out the back of the headboard!! I took this opportunity to break out the dremel tool we have had for several years and use the heavy duty cutter attachment to cut off the ends of the screws that were sticking out. Disclaimer: I do not recommend doing this unless you have a workshop. I did this on the apartment patio and it kind of scared the pants off me.

using a dremel

dremel-ed off screw ends

So as not to damage the walls, since the screw tips were still not flush, we covered the tips with two layers of painter’s tape. Another good option (that I still might use) is felt circles–the adhesive kind you can put on chair legs so they don’t scratch the floor.

Enough blabbing, let’s see some “after” shots!

DIY Plywood Headboard

DIY Plywood Headboard

 

DIY Plywood Headboard

I love the deconstructed concept and the pattern and texture the particles of wood have. The warm, cheery tone also plays well with the pillows and comforter. I know that it’s definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I decided if I couldn’t afford a real, grown up headboard right now, to head in the totally opposite direction and do something funky and exciting. I mean, I’m not getting any younger, right?

Now the big question is… what to hang over the headboard? Ideas? 

PS: More OSB love here… In all truth, I found that article through Unhappy Hipster.

Our Bedroom, About to Change

So, after I moved in I shared where we plunked all the furniture down, then photos of the patio and as far as whole space tours, that was about it. Everything seems so in-transition and I didn’t think anything was “done.” Well, nothing is still done and we have been here almost four months, and I think things are about to change. We have Christmas and the expenses associated with it behind us, and I think I’m ready to do a DIY project for our headboard, but I would like to share photos of the bedroom as-is now so that I’ll have something to compare the “after” to.

Unfortunately, as I write this it’s easy to enumerate the sources of frustration here in the room and not so easy to list the positives. The good news is–there is a lot of room for improvement, which makes for a more dramatic “after!”

Bedroom

I’m still in love with the duvet cover, but have been having issues with the blanket inside it. When we bought the duvet cover, I bought a duvet insert on overstock.com which has nothing on the corners to tie the duvet strings to. Which means the insert gets all bunched up down at the bottom. Annoying. So, I tried putting our old gray pebble quilt from target inside it which has the same result. C’est la vie until I buy a proper duvet insert with holes in the corners (or whatever makes a proper duvet insert work with a duvet cover).

That was quite a tangent! How’s about another one?

I was distressed by the lack of headboard. It didn’t seem to matter in the old place because of the rich gray walls, but here in an apartment complex in an all-white box of a room, it just seemed sad. So we DIY-ed a little bit of artwork to act as a stand-in focal point. The lighting in the room is also a source of frustration since we have no overhead light and the arsenal you see here (two bedside lamps and the christmas lights) even when all on together, is very dim. Dim rooms are such a pet peeve of mine!

Bedroom

The glossy black dresser was mine in high school and my mom was very happy to see it out of her house. I have a project in mind for those space-aged handles…

bedroom

Another thing that needs to be contended with, I think I have mentioned before, is the dog kennel. We crate-train Mosey, which is great for both owners and dogs, but the kennel is U-G-L-Y! There really is no other space for it. Oh well! There is room in here, and it doesn’t obstruct traffic or anything–it’s just an eyesore.

Mosey & Newspaper

The BEST thing about the bedroom is the light in the morning. A sunbeam makes its way through the window slowly from the bed to the closet and Mosey is happy to sleep in it, shifting locations occasionally, from around 8 AM to 2 PM. This is wonderful as I can get stuff done on the computer or around the house without him pestering me to play! Side note–is that fake newspaper not the cutest dog toy you have ever seen? And is Mosey not the cutest blurry dog you have ever seen? Awww…

So, here is the bedroom! Nowhere close to “finished” but it has served us well for the past few months.

The Bike Situation

A lot of bloggers have started a trend towards writing a few bummers out as posts and billing it as “transparency.” Others eschew all venting and unhappy content because they don’t want to bring others down. Generally, I try to keep things pretty upbeat around these parts!  Well, while things have mostly been going well as of late, this post is one of those bummers.

You might have noticed, when I shared a bit about the sad fate of my natural fiber rug, that my green bike (the star of this blog’s facebook cover photo) has taken up residence on the patio.

Life in the big city didn’t take long to catch up to us, as a month or two ago Doug’s really nice vintage road bike got stolen from the communal bike rack here in our apartment. We had it locked up with a cable but someone with bolt cutters easily clipped it and that was that (they left my bike behind–we were sharing the cable).

Naturally, we were both upset. Of course we were sad over the loss of the bike! Riding bikes casually has been a hobby of ours for most of our relationship, but moreso we were angry because we simply felt violated! Our property was violated, probably for some jerk to take to a pawn shop for a couple hundred dollars. Our neighbor, who fixes up old bikes as a hobby shared that he has heard of at least five bikes (mostly beach cruisers) getting stolen from our complex–which by the way is totally gated–in the past year or so. This sickens me. For some people, sure, it’s fun to ride occasionally (our apartment is adjacent to a dedicated bike path) and biking is a fun hobby, but for other people–what if that bike was their only way of getting to work? Our area is flat with lots of small business–it is totally feasible to be bike-dependent in this neighborhood. It’s thinking about that kind of situation that really makes my blood boil.

Unfortunately, since the value of the bike didn’t meet our renter’s insurance deductible, we are simply out of luck on this one, but we did learn a lesson.

U Bike Lock

My advice to bike owners is to invest in a U-shaped lock more like this one. And not to be a fool who trusts the communal bike rack. Lock your ride up closer to your apartment, or inside your apartment if you have the space. I have even seen some people go as far as removing a wheel or two when the bike is not in use to make it less appealing for a thief.

This was our first and hopefully the last time of having anything stolen from us, and it has taken me a while to actually sit down and write about it, mostly because I am embarrassed at our own naivete. Sorry for a bummer of a post, but hopefully someone will heed my advice in regards to keeping your bikes in the city!