Before and After - Beach-inspired Twin Headboard

So happy to have another Before and After to share with you this morning! Hope it's a beautiful one wherever you are. Can you sense we've really been pushing to get some projects done lately? Whew! I purchased this twin headboard from Craigslist in January for $15 from a woman in The Valley. I met her at an Islands restaurant parking lot, which seemed strange until she darted back into the restaurant and I realized she was employed there. The entire exchange lasted about 40 seconds.

The first thing I noticed was this headboard was very short and the twin bed was considerably higher. Luckily I had dealt with that when I fixed up my $10 As-Is headboard a few years ago. I went to Home Depot and purchased a piece of wood similar to the original legs and had it cut to size there.

Then I primed and painted. I learned a BIG lesson here. I figured hey why not use a brown primer since I'm painting brown over white. Well, I picked a brown primer with a heavy red base and my brown paint had a heavy green base. It took me a few coats to get things looking right. Lesson - pick a primer with the same undertones as your paint. You can see the primer overspray on my drop cloth. Do you love my painting studio - a tarped corner of my balcony?

Here it is all painted in a lovely brown. Now imagine that you sit here for two weeks while there is a prolonged debate between The Man, me and The Little Bug about how we're going to style this baby up. In the end we all got something we wanted. I love that.

We painted the little woodcut flip flops in the midst of our debate. You can see them in the top right corner. The Bug chose these. Her dad and I weren't too excited about them, then after listening to her it totally made sense. She wanted to go with a Hawaii/beach feel. Since Hawaii is a big part of our lives and we live near the beach it made total sense and felt just right for her.

My next task was to tape off the trim in the same measurements as the green stripe on the original. I had noted those measurements before I started painting just in case we decided to put a painted trim on again. This was where The Man got what he wanted. I was on the fence about it but liked it in the end.

I measured two inches in from the outside edge and marked it with a white sewing pencil. Then I marked 2 1/2 inches in, creating a 1/2 inch strip of trim. Then I taped it off with blue painters tape.

It was time to start painting. Above is the first coat. In the end three coats did it. I learned on this project that The Man is extremely good at painting fine detail. We are a match made in heaven I now realize. I can take care of the broad strokes and he is amazing at the tiny ones. He touched up the trim and the flip flops amazingly. I sprayed on three coats of glossy polyurethane to give it a bit of a glow. Then we attached the new legs and The Man used finishing nails to attach the flip flops from the backside. Looks fantastic.

Next stop was a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a new 18" bedskirt. It's chocolate brown and looks great with the headboard. We're still finalizing the bedding situation but I think this pink and orange duvet works well for now.

Here's the big headboard reveal. Our happy After. We're still working on curtains for the window, but we're loving how the room is coming together. It's been such a fun and happy project to work together with The Man and Little Bug on. I think we're all happy with the results.

*this post is also linked to Blog Linky Part at ABeachParty.com.