GUEST POST: Operation 1135

Hello All!  I know it's been a while, but I've been uber busy readying the house for my house warming Saturday after next (amongst other things).  So I figured this would be a great opportunity to feature one of my fav bloggers in a get post.  I asked A (from the henna hair challenge with me to write a guest post on the blog...and she did exactly what I thought she would do...show up and show out.

Without further delay...Ms. A...

I was super excited when Ms. K asked me to do a post for Locs and Keys because this is my first guest post! Whoop whoop! I pondered what to write about since Ms. K’s blog has a very specific theme. Then it hit me!

I recently just purchased a home as well. Operation 1135, as I like to call it, was truly one of the most rewarding, blessed, scary, and amazing experiences of my young life.  I have been in my home for only 3 weeks now and I am in love. As much as I love purchasing a good bag, nice top, and earrings (they are my children and each and every single pair holds a special place in my heart) my wallet is totally a slave to furniture and home purchases right now.

After moving out from under mom’s wings, I notice that I moved into my fabulous new home and I need everything. The ongoing list that I have is quite daunting at times. I want to get pass all of the little items and needs and get to the fun stuff  -- DECORATING!!!  I am ready for the fun stuff – painting, reupholstering, etc.

My goal is to go room by room to achieve the look that I want. I have a modern flair with vintage appeal. I don’t know if that makes sense to you guys but it does to me. My first room to tackle would be my bedroom. I want it to be cozy, sexy, sophisticated, and comfortable all at the same time. I am shopping for the focal point now – THE BED! Of course I fall in love with a beauty from Ethan Allen that made my eyes drool and my wallet cry with a $2,000 price tag!

HERE IS THE LINK FOR THE BED: http://www.ethanallen.com/product?productId=3141818&categoryId=8028

Needless to say that I immediately put my BFF up to a search to find a cheaper option with the same appeal and she totally succedded with this beauty available at Macy’s.

HERE IS THE LINK FOR THE BED: http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=514774&CategoryID=35420#fn=sp%3D1%26spc%3D586

After falling in love with my bed I instantly thought, wait…my hair! My precious and luscious curls will destroy this light color fabric in no time! Damn you Chaka (my hair’s name)! So now the hunt is back on for the same look in a leathered upholstered option…

Stay tuned for updates as I continue to decorate 1135…

DIY Project: Upholstered Headboard

One of the projects on my DIY To-Do-List was an upholstered headboard. Yes, I said was. 

The initial plan was for me to get a platform bed from West Elm for my master bedroom and make an upholstered headbord for it.  Well, if you've been following the blog you know that I went to Ashley Furniture and fell in love with another bed and that was all she wrote.

So, I then decided instead of waisting that idea, to just transfer it to another room...the guest room to be exact. :-)

So, my trusty decorating partner in crime (my mommy) and I decided to take on this challenge despite all the naysayers (namely my daddy, lol).

Off we went to Home Depot and picked out some plywood.  We had the nice young chap at Home Depot straight cut the board to the dimensions we needed, strapped the board to the top of MiMi (my mini SUV) and off we went.  Once we got home, mommy free handed some curves on the board with a marker to indicate the shape we wanted the board cut in.  Then we roped daddy in by having him cut the shape of the board using mommy's outline as a guide.

Next we used density foam (purchased from Walmart) to cover the board.  We then secured the density foam to the board using batting (purchased from Michaels).  We used a heavy duty staple gun to staple the batting tightly to the plywood.

Once the batting was secured, we cut the excess batting and covered the entire board with the fabric we purchased from DeBois Textiles.  Once the fabric was secured, we then cut the excess fabric off (mommy is currently deciding what we are going to do with the excess fabric...an accent of some sort).

To finish this off, daddy used D-ring hooks to hang the headboard on the wall.

All of this took a few hours and really was not as labor intensive as I thought it would be.  Mommy and I were very pleased with the results and even daddy was pleasantly surprised.

The finished product and the higlight of my guest room:

I used the instructions found here as a guide.

DIY To-Do List

Mommy and I have an ever growing DIY To-Do List for the house.  So far we have the following on our list:

#1 Re-upholstering Chair

#2 Sanding and Staining Desk

#3 Painting Bookshelf

#4 Upholstered Headboard (for guest room)

#5 Making decor/throw pillows (for the couch)

We are adding things to the list, but not marking anything off.  So we took a vow to mark at least 1 of these items off the list this week.  It will likely be the Bookshelf or the Desk. 

So, I drafted this post over a week ago and sat on it for so long that we actually managed to mark a few things off the list.  The desk is done and so is the bookshelf.  I also started making the decor/throw pillows.  I will do a separate post for each project.


Stay tuned for pics...

Ms. K