My First Project

A few years ago (4ish) a park was built in Laurel, it involved a week of community volunteers working to get it done. That was probably one of the first times I used a power tool. I was drilling a hole for a bolt, pushing as hard as I could when a kind older gentleman asked me if the drill was in reverse. You know what, it was! What a difference it made when I actually drilled in forward (it was easy)! Power tools aren't so scary when you know what you are doing. I really enjoyed working on that project.

It lead to me not being afraid to use KELLYS tools while he was at work, I hung blinds.

Then my mind started wandering, Kelly and I could build a house...which led to us doing quite a bit of work on this.

Notice the pack-n-play Taylor was a new baby

Oh my, that was alot of work!

Well a few months ago I came across this blog. I was amazed! I spent way too many hours looking and planning. Ana at Knock-off Wood (one of the most blogged about blogs) has beautiful furniture plans for FREE. I finally decided on my first project, a headboard. The lumber cost me $44.oo at Pottery Barn a similar headboard is $699 plus shipping! Look at the pictures and tell me which you would choose. Granted Kelly has some sweet tools from building our house, we would be at a hardware store and he would say "I need this for the house" and I would say "O.K." At Lowes a nice guy in the lumber department cut each board to the length in the plan. The only tool at home that I used was the nail gun. Kelly only helped me with the top piece (it was a little warped so I needed the extra muscle to "bend" the 2x4). It took me less than 2 hours start to finish to nail and glue it together. I then distressed the headboard with a meat tenderizer/cleaver thing from my kitchen and chisels. I wish that I would have "distressed" a little more but it was scary(I wasn't sure what I was doing to my headboard)! Then I sanded and put 2 coats of dark walnut stain on it and then a coat of antique walnut polyurethane.

My wood after the nice man a Lowes cut it

Almost ready for finish work

When it dried my headboard looked like this.....

Panic set in.

After sane people talked me through the panic/what did I do wrong? I put another coat of polyurethane on and here is my final result.

Notice the little distress marks

The Pottery Barn headboard is beautiful, but I am darn happy with mine!
This is not my room,

but this is

I am so happy with my first piece of furniture, I am hooked. Now when I see a picture of a piece that I like I wonder if I could make it for a fraction of the retail price. Now I need your help I plan on making nightstands, have any of you seen a headboard close to the color of mine with black or white/off white furniture? I have a dresser that is painted black but if I decide to go with white I am fine with painting it. I am also going to make a bench the same color as my headboard for the foot of my bed. Let me know what you think would look good.

Tech Support

Can anyone tell me the easiest way to create a link (I think that is what it is called). When for example on a blog it says click here to go somewhere.
Thank you!