DIY Modern Upholstered Platform Bed

I've always liked this modern, low profile upholstered bed frame from Blu Dot, especially in the bright chartreuse color. When it came time to order a new bed for our bedroom I was sick of spending money and wanted to see if I could make a simple bed frame for a lot less.

I first had to find some bright chartreuse linen, but I kept striking out at local fabric stores and I didn't really have time to order something from a trade source. I even tried buying some chartreuse linen on eBay, but the color was way different than the photos when the yardage arrived.

I had just dyed the playroom curtains and figured it could be pretty easy to get a chartreuse color by dying white linen with equal parts lemon yellow and green apple liquid dye. The final color was a little more yellow than I probably was shooting for, but I really like it.

I had the handy man that was over at the house helping us with trim work build me a simple box frame for the headboard and a platform base from mostly scrap wood and a few sheets of plywood.

It only took him about two hours to build both pieces so the project ended up being incredibly inexpensive, even with all that wood.

Here's a photos of the underside so you can see how he structured the very sturdy base.

I was a little nervous to upholster the platform base with the Parsons style legs, but the headboard was a breeze. I used my cheap pneumatic staple gun and flew through the rows of staples!

I think the layer of high loft batting really helps soften the edges of the upholstery.

I started on the two long sides of the bed by tacking on the batting which I cut to fit.

I stapled the fabric on the top of the platform and pulled and stapled around to the underside, but I used fabrictac to glue down the front side edges.

It made for a surprisingly crisp line!

I also wrapped the inside of the leg with fabric using glue.

The only tricky part ended up being the front of the platform. I had to use a roll of upholstery tack strip, which I hadn't used in a while. I had forgotten how awesome this stuff is! It makes for perfectly crisp lines.

I cut the tack strip to size (the length of the whole side of the platform) and then stapled it in place while it was sort of rolled into the fabric. Then I cut batting to size and tacked that into place before folding the fabric around, right side up.

Just look at that pretty line!

I used another pieces of tack strip to make a sharp line on the inside of the leg too and glued that part in place.

Ta-dah! The upholstery tack strip really saved the day and made it pretty simple to get a Parsons style leg. I love the clean, strait lines of our bed!

Not bad for about $200 in labor and materials!

Affordable Framing and Easy DIY Picture Rail

I love family photos - especially candid ones. They make a space feel so personal and home-y. But the ease of digital photography is such a blessing and curse, isn't it?! I have a million photos of my kids, but I so rarely get anything printed, and even more rarely framed. It's a pain to deal with, and it's impossibly expensive to do it well.

I wanted to make a family photo wall in our bedroom on the wall opposite the desert murals, but I wanted something a little different than the standard gallery wall. So I headed to Ace and picked up a few supplies and made a picture rail using just plumber's chain and two brass rods hung on cafe curtain brackets.

It's a pretty simple set up for displaying my newly printed family photos in some of the prettiest custom frames I've ever seen! I partnered up with a new-to-me company called Framebridge, and to say I was impressed with the simplicity, price and quality would be a huge understatement!

To print, frame and ship a photo from my Instagram account was only $39 with Framebridge! They have a really great app that makes it a breeze to order. (How's that for removing some of the anxiety of the upcoming gift-giving season?!)

I ordered a handful of my favorite instagrams in a mix of different frames. They have 25 really beautiful frame options - all of them simple, classic and high-quality. I'm obsessed with the burl and tiger wood options.

The frames come ready to hang with kraft paper backings, felt feet, saw tooth hangers and even nails! I removed the hangers and screwed in little brass hooks to hang the frames on the plumber's chain.

I love how the simplicity of the rail and chain let the frames (and photos!) be the stars of the show. Hardware store hack success!!

In addition to the great Instagram deal, Framebridge has really straight-forward pricing on bigger, even much bigger, prints that you can upload for them to print out or you can send in. Like this gorgeous Nicole Cohen print I had them frame. They sent me a prepaid mailing tube and I got this beautiful burl wood beauty right back. I LOVE it.

The art print can be purchased here (along with a ton of really cool images from the uber-talented Nicole!)

I love discovering companies that make it painless to finish projects for my house! After getting burned one too many times at the arts and crafts store framers, I feel like I've found a resource that I'll be using for a long time to come.

A big thanks to Framebridge for partnering with us on this post! And this just in: use the promo code 2INSTA50 to get two framed instagram prints for only $50! Super sweet.

Angela's Citrus Print

A few of you were curious about the citrus print in the photos posted yesterday. Good news! My talented friend, Angela is now selling a digital download of the image on both a black and a white background HERE.

We had ours printed to fit the largest Ribba frame (somewhere around 30x40") just by emailing the file to my local friends at Kinkos. We know each other well at this point - I'm there a lot. I think the total was about $50 and took 24 hours to get back. Not bad at all for a print that big!

House Warming Gifts with Boxed

My sweet friend and right hand helper, Kate, just moved into a new house with her husband. They've been tackling some really cool DIY projects the past couple weeks. Look how cute their house is now after a coat of paint and some grass seed!

One of our sponsors, Boxed, reached out about trying their service as a housewarming gift for Kate!

Boxed is like an easy-to-shop online wholesale club store, without any membership fees, and most importantly, none of the headache. (Going to Costco is truly like torture for me!) Boxed has a great website, but their phone app is a breeze to use, too. 

They sell non-perishables in bulk sizes for really great prices, and they ship right to your door in two days or less. I especially love popping over to the sale page every few days to see what specials they are running on my favorite cleaning products, like Mrs Meyers. Boxed also has great prices on baby items, like diapers and wipes, baby food and shampoo from companies I trust like Annie's and Honest Co.

Kate has this great little pantry space off of her new kitchen that we decided to give a little makeover before stocking it with items from Boxed. Here's the space before:

We took out the old thin shelves and painted the inside of the pantry a really pretty color called Templeton Gray from Benjamin Moore.

Using the same technique I talked about yesterday, we added wooden shelves to dress things up a bit. I think the wood looks so pretty against the gray/blue/green wall color!

We also painted her pantry door with chalkboard paint so Kate could make a note of supplies she's getting low on. Remember that it's important to "prime" a freshly painted chalkboard surface with a good layer of chalk before writing.

The black of the door looks so pretty with the art we hung in the kitchen. It's a print of a photo taken by our friend Angela Hardison we printed out ourselves and framed in an IKEA Ribba. I LOVE it.

We're both so happy with how Kate's pantry turned out! I'm a big fan of putting extra effort into cleaning and storage closets. It helps me feel more organized and inspired to keep my house cleaned.

A big thanks to Boxed for sponsoring this post and for the housewarming gift! :) All first orders on Boxed ship for free, so be sure to check out their app here!