Repurposed headboard Command Center
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Good morning! I’ve been busy. Wednesday I worked on parting out some cribs, and that lead to making a table. But it’s in the middle of an experimental phase at the moment. Ya’ll know that little boy in the Family Circus cartoon…how he runs all around the neighborhood to get next door? That’s sort of the way I work. I just hop all around, not really knowing where I’m going!
On with today’s post, cause that’s why you’re here! I have had this junky headboard for quite a while. It was curbed of course.
When I picked it up to start working on it, it came apart. I glued it, but I needed to clamp it. Look at the new way I’ve learned to clamp! My clamp was not long enough so I “hooked” two clamps together! voila! It worked like a charm.
When I clamp my wood pieces, I always try to use a scrap piece (in this case, a shutter slat) especially on the end that has the “screw” round part of the clamp. If you don’t, you will end up with a little dimple.
This baby has seen better days! You will notice farther down in this post that I ended up cutting off part of the finials. I felt that would be easier than sanding or reshaping them.
I did not want to fill all the holes where the bolts were, so I simply used the compound miter saw to cut some of the legs off.
Then I inverted the whole thing! I cut a piece of luan for a chalkboard.
I used Kilz primer before I started painting.
I also used Kilz on the chalkboard part. I think it helps the chalkboard paint “take” better.
This is some oops paint Jamie bought me for Christmas. Isn’t she the best?
I painted about 3 coats of the yellow. I know that’s overkill, but it just didn’t seem to be covering very well. It certainly wasn’t because it was too thin. This paint was very thick. In this picture you can see that I’ve cut the finials off.
Do you know what these are? Crib spindles, or maybe they were from a changing table. I can’t remember, but I have a whole bucket of them. I used the compound miter saw to cut a couple of inches off of each end of 3 spindles, which gave me 6 pegs.
It is very hard to get a straight cut on a round spindle. See that little raised part?
Here’s a tip for you. To sand this off, lay your sand paper down on a flat surface and move the spindle back and forth.
See how smooth it came out?
I used a paddle bit to drill some holes.
I used wood filler and wood glue to insert the pegs into the holes.
You like so far? You know I’m the repurpose queen! I did not want to buy hooks or pegs for this project. I wanted to use what I had, which took a little imagination!
I made a dado with my table saw on a small scrap (leftover from my media center) to insert the luan, and hold it in place.
Adding the small scrap for the luan to rest on, raised it above the end.
I made dado groove in another scrap piece for the top of the chalkboard to fit into.
It’s coming together. I had never used a dado groove before, and I thought this would be a great time to try this technique.
After a few touchups, here is the (almost) completed project! This would be great in a mudroom or laundry room, by the back door. It’s intended purpose is for backpacks with the chalkboard being the perfect place to write reminders about field trips or special events. It’s not totally complete yet. I still need to attach something to hold chalk and an eraser. I’m also wondering if some small hooks or something would be helpful. Do you moms have any suggestions? It’s been too long since I had to rush out the door to get any kiddos to school. What else would be helpful to organize your busy life?
Command Center
I would prefer it to be glazed, but for now it will remain this pale yellow color.
Edited to Add updated pictures:
This wonderful fabric was a gift from my daughter Jamie. I used it to cover a piece of a ceiling tile to be used as a memo board.
I added a shelf (also turned upside down) to become the tray to hold some accessories.
Every chalkboard needs an eraser, right?
The words on the eraser were showing through the material, so I used a big sticky label to cover them.
I cut some fabric and ironed down a hem . . .
. . . to fit these cans.
I used double stick tape to adhere the fabric to the cans.
I taped around the felt so that I could adhere the fabric to the top of the eraser with spray adhesive.
It IS finally completely done!
The chalk tray is a repurposed Scrabble game tile holder.
The little cans are to hold pens, pencils etc.
gail
See other great chalkboard ideas here:
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and more coat racks here:
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This is SO clever! I never would have seen that potential, and I LOVE how it is turning out! Great job!
you are so stinkin’ clever, gail! you amaze me! ๐
you are so stinkin’ clever, gail! you amaze me! ๐
That came out great! Love it
Wow — you are amazing. Seriously. Amazing.
You just have a way with headboards. Another great idea, but I’m running out of space for all your great ideas.
I bow down to you and your talents….as usual, fantastic job.
I LOVE this! I have NO entry areas in my house…all my doors cause you to just fall right into my rooms…and that is SAD! Oh, you are so crafty it stinks!
How creative! You are the bomb!
I’m going to brainstorm with you all the way from Texas…. here are some of the ideas that just popped into my head – they could all be bad ideas, but might lead you to something useful.
– You could try some molding or trim of some sort above the chalkboard
– Put a strip of cork or metal on the little rectangular area between the chalk board and the spindles of the headboard. I’m forever signing papers for the boys to take to school, and then I could “hang” them there so they don’t forget to take the next morning
– Or some cork or metal behind the spindles themselves
– Another idea for the rectangular shelf between the chalkboard and spindles would be a little tiny shelf with a raised lip for chalk and eraser – the lip would keep it all from falling off when kids are jiggling the board taking coats and backpacks off.
Ok, I’m shutting up now. Feel free to dump all those ideas, I do realize its 7am and having just woken up, i can have really bad ideas, LOL
Love your transformation though – it is such an awesome idea, cute and functional – we all need cute AND functional! Happy Thursday!
Too cute! I love this make-over! I also like your new blog header. I guess I have not been by in a while.
I love your ideas….I’ve been keeping my eye peeled for free or extremely cheap head/foot boards! I check back often to see what you come up with! Thanks for sharing!
-Nicole