Be Careful What You Wish For

See this girl?

This girl is so happy because it's Friday afternoon, she just went on a lunch date to the Olive Garden with her dashing husband, and she's now off to gather supplies for her birthday DIY project. It was, after all, her wish.

But what she doesn't know, is that what lies ahead is a day and a half of sore fingers, disappointments, frustrations, stressful "conversations" with said dashing husband in Lowes, a couple stray tears, back aches, and finally, a headboard that isn't quite as lovely as Jenny Komenda's, but still a welcomed addition to our cozy bedroom.

Oh no, that girl up there has no idea what's ahead. But it sure isn't the dreamy, easy, breezy, romantic DIY project she's picturing in her head.

Ok, ok, so in hindsight, it wasn't as dramatic as I'm making it out to be. But it seriously was a lot harder than I thought it would be! And I don't know who these couples are who tackle DIY projects with love and adoration for one another oozing from their pores. But that was not us. It was definitely a growing experience for us as a couple. We argued and had to ask each other for forgiveness more than once. He thought I had some bad ideas, and I thought he had some bad ideas, and we weren't always on the same page. And I think that's life. It's tricky sometimes, and it's tricky to be married. It's not all kisses and rainbows, but it's also sin, and mean, and ugly. I don't like that that's true, I really wanted to report on here how it was such a wonderful experience to do this with Paul, and we just were the perfect team. But  instead we had to stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones into something unfamiliar to us both. And I think we were both humbled by it and the fact that we weren't always kind to one another. So in a different way than I was hoping, it was really good for us to do this together, and we did grow closer, and it wasn't easy, and I'm okay with that.

So here we go!  Check out our first major married DIY!

Jenny does a great step by step post on her blog, so be sure to click over to that. But here is a rough outline of what we did. Make lots of buttons. Then, when you realize your fabric is too thick, go back to the store, find thinner fabric in the exact same color, and start over. Woop woop!

Have pegboard cut to size at your local home improvement store. Ours was 61" wide by 38" high. We have a queen bed, and the 38" was because that's what we could fit in our car. Then we mapped out where we wanted our tufts to be and circled those holes on the board on both sides.

Jenny recommends 3" foam, and we ended up getting a piece of 2" and a piece of 1" and adhering  them together to make 3" (we found this to be the cheapest option because we had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby and they didn't have anything thicker than 3", but you can get 3" yardage cut at Joann's). We used the pegboard to map out our dots on the foam, and then cut out holes in those spots for the buttons to tuft.

We then set up the whole operation on four chairs, so that Paul could work from underneath (like he was working on the underneath of a car) and I could work from the top. We set up the foam on top of the pegboard, then a layer of batting, and finally the 2 yards of velvet.  From the top, I threaded the button through the first hole (starting in the middle and moving outward), and Paul stapled each thread 5 or 6 times zig zagging it around. Here I am with our FIRST tuft completed. Yay!

Then we just got to work! We mapped out 22 tufts total; 7 in the top row, 8 in the middle, and 7 on the bottom. It took about 2 hours I think for us to do them all. We also watched the Duke game during this step. This was upsetting for my dear husband.

At the end I was honestly so tired of the whole operation. I kind of half heartedly finished up the edges and almost lost it when one of the tufts came loose (not my finest moment). We still need to fix the far right tuft, but for now, it is finished! It's currently propped up on two boxes under our bed, but I think once we figure out how we want to secure it's position, we'll raise it a little higher so you can see more of the tufts with the pillows on the bed. Sorry I made the bed so sloppy, but here's the best photo I have!

Overall, we're really happy with it! I must say, it looks better in person. And I'm really happy I went with the olive green. I was really tempted to choose a neutral beige or cream color, but I scolded myself since neutral is my safe tendency. I said "Mariel, NO! Choose something with some color! You MUST!" and so I did. And I'm so happy I listened to me.

See the loose tuft on the right? Grrrrr!

So that's it! I think next year I'm going to ask for a new purse or something less stressful.