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My baby is getting so big and will be outgrowing her toddler bed soon.   We have three girls and only two “big girl” beds.  We had shopped around and hadn’t found any that we loved that had a price tag to match.  When I received my DIY Dare Club sponsor supplies for the month of February…I knew exactly what I would use them to make…a new bed for my oldest daughter!

We primarily used Ana White’s Farmhouse Bed Tutorial, but added our own little twist to go with my daughter’s room decor.  Since Ana White obviously writes amazing tutorials, I am not going to rewrite it but will share with you how we used the different Sponsor products I received as part of being a DIY Dare Blogger.

Since the original tutorial was for a queen bed and we wanted to make a twin bed, we adjusted our measurements accordingly.  We took a piece of wood and then painted it white and let it dry.

After it was completely dry I used this Casablanca Cutting Edge Stencil to make the pattern that is in the center of the headboard.  The stencil is nice and large and is made up of a nice thick plastic.  It is really sturdy and I found it very easy to work with.

Then I used some Mythic Paint, color Smooth Waves in high gloss and painted over the stencil onto the previously painted white board.

The paint color really seemed to be true to what I saw on the Mythic website and I was really happy with the color.  I was a a bit nervous though because I just picked the color off of their website.  Normally, I spend a lot of time comparing tons of paint chips before I can finally choose a paint color.

There was also a little mix up in the original order.   I was accidently sent high gloss paint instead of the eggshell.  Mythic was really great and quickly sent me out another gallon of the same paint in the correct sheen.  It actually worked out perfectly and I was able to use the high gloss paint on the bed and then I painted her bedroom walls with the other gallon of eggshell.

There were a few spots that needed a little bit of touch up where the blue paint got underneath the stencil onto the white paint.  So I simply took a small paint brush and touched up the few spots with this DecoArt Stencil paint.  It worked like a charm.

Then I cut the board down so that it fit into the outer boards of the headboard frame.  Then we added the other moulding on top of the painted board.  We had a little help from Rapunzel {from Tangled}  who kept trying to sneak in some modeling work in front of the camera.

I was also given some Gorilla Glue for this project.  I have actually never used gorilla wood glue before this.  I have always used another brand.  But I honestly have to say that I really liked this.  It really seemed to dry a LOT faster and did not leave yellow marks after it had dried.  I think I found my new wood glue.

I ended up using over half the bottle on this entire project but almost every piece of moulding was glued on.

After the glue had dried I primed the headboard.  I had pre-painted the trim that sits right next to the stenciled decorative center of the headboard.  That way I only had to make a few little touch-ups and did not have to paint anywhere near the center area.  SO MUCH EASIER!!

I used this beauty to paint my headboard with along with a small foam roller.  Have you ever used a Purdy paint brush?  LOVE!!  They are so smooth and make painting and cutting so much easier.

I especially love that it has an angled edge.  It was perfect for getting into the cracks between the different pieces of moulding.

In the meantime, we built the bed frame and attached the nice boards to the outside and painted it as well.

Then we sprayed the entire bed with the left over Deft Clear Wood Finishing Spray from Rockler to give it a nice protective coating of varnish.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

And you want to hear something amazing?  We were in TJ Maxx just browsing around one night after the hubs and I had gone out to dinner and I saw these two pillows {the blue one and the white one with the blue ruffle}.  I thought they looked very similar to the paint color.  And sure enough they were a perfect match!  Wahoo!  And the price at $12 and $10 was hard to beat! What do you think?

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Have you checked out the Community lately?  There are some new posts over there and I would love for you to join and follow along.  I am hoping to build it into a great resource for moms and women to share and learn from each other.

We recently added some more faux wainscoting to the walls in our basement.  I am really happy with how it turned out!  It really brightens it up down there and finishes off the look of the room.

The room is fairly big and there was quite a bit of wall space to cover so we decided to go with the easiest route.  The chair rail and base board were already in place. 

We spent a lot of time in the beginning figuring out the exact dimensions of the walls so that we could place the boards so that the squares measured out equally around the entire room but also took into account the small corners, etc. 

We wanted to work with the size of our existing chair rail and had a 1/4 inch overlap to match up.  We wanted the edge of the chair rail to fit flush with the boards we were adding.  This way we had very little caulking, puttying, and sanding to do. 

We bought a couple of sheets of 1/4 inch MDF board that measured 4 feet by 8 feet from our local Lumber Store.   They cut them for us for a small fee, into 2 and 3 inch strips.  This saved us a lot of money and we didn’t have to make the cuts ourselves.  They also made really straight and precise cuts.  Love that!!

The 2 inch strips we placed directly below the chair rail and directly above the base board all around the entire room.

After all the horizontal strips were placed,  we measured the length from the top piece under the chair rail to the base board.  On our walls the space measured almost 26 inches.  So we cut the strips of the 3 inch MDF into lengths to match each specific vertical position.  Then we placed the 3 inch strips vertically on the wall or from the top of the chair rail to the base board around the entire room.

In the corners where two walls met, we placed two strips of 3 inch boards on each end of the wall like the picture below.

To attach them, we glued them on with painter’s caulk to hold them in place so we could make slight adjustments if needed.  Then when we were certain they were in the right position we put a few nails in the top and bottom of the strip to securely hold them permanently in place.  Be sure to wipe up any excess caulk with a damp cloth.

Now, since the walls are not exactly the same measurements around the entire room, we had to make slight adjustments in the size of the squares.  So the squares on the opposite side of the room are slightly smaller than the others.  But when it is all painted, you will not be able to notice the difference as long as they aren’t drastically different in size.

We went around the entire lower section with painter’s caulk to fill/blend the chair rail and baseboard to the horizontal strips.  This step will make a big difference in the overall look of your finished wall!!  Additionally, we puttied the seams where the vertical strips meet up with the horizontal strips.  After it dries, lightly sand it and vacuum away any dust that is left behind.  You will also want to fill any holes or dents in the lower half of your wall that come from everyday life…or your wild kids :)

Put your son to work and prime the all of the new wood and any areas you filled with caulk and/or putty and let it dry completely.  He actually begged to help us out.  He’s a good kid like that and pretty good with a paint brush!

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This one wanted nothing to do with the painting and was too busy playing with her other brother and sisters in their huge fort built out of the couches and several blankets…she’s a smart girl!

Now paint your walls!  Ours took two coats.  The paint is a white Behr paint in a semi-gloss finish.

I am loving it!  It looks so nice downstairs now and I actually want to spend time down there.  This is where we watch our Redbox and Netflix movies together.  But we are not completely finished.  We want to frame in these windows on either side of the fireplace and put a nice window sills for both.  We also plan to add some decorative moulding around the bricks on the fireplace and frame it in as well. 

I would also love to add a mantle but am not sure about how to go about that.  So I plan to do a bit more research on that.  Do any of you have experience with that? 

As soon as we get the rest finished I would love to share it with you.  Do you have any projects like this that you have been working on at your house?

The total cost for this project was around $65 dollars. Our room measures approximately 28 feet by 26 feet. We bought two sheets of the MDF which was $20 a sheet. They charged us $10 to cut both sheets into strips. And then we had to buy white electrical plugs and change them out fro the off-white ones that were originally installed. We also bought a couple tubes of Painter’s Caulk. We used paint and primer that we all ready had. If we had bought individual boards and not cut our own…the price would have been significantly higher!