Ideas For Upholstering A Headboard

So I am in no way a professional at this arts and crafts stuff. I don't even like to peruse Pinterest because it just reminds me of the fact that I live in a rental and have no money to do anything creative with that space.

Some of you are probably thinking, "Why would I cover a perfectly good looking headboard?"

Well, its because I tripped over the end of the bed once and broke the side bar on one side.  Over the year I've done pretty much all I can to fashion it back together. Finally I decided to do something about it.

So this was my headboard before.

Some of you are probably thinking, "Why would I cover a perfectly good looking headboard?"

Well, its because I tripped over the end of the bed once and broke the side bar on one side.  Over the year I've done pretty much all I can to fashion it back together. Finally I decided to do something about it.

When I took the picture above my bed had been on the floor for a few weeks and I was getting tired of looking at a messy room with an unfinished bed frame.

So anyway I bought all the fabric at the fabric store. Walking in that place is like a lost puppy in a room full of dog cookies. OVERWHELMING! There are too many choices, and not enough guidance for someone who usually doesn't plan ahead or do a ton of research. I just come up with a picture in my mind and its hard to explain exactly what I want to someone else.

This picture is me starting the "covering" process. I wanted to add some cushion to the headboard so its more comfortable, hence the pink felt. It was really just the cheapest fabric and there was plenty of it. I covered the middle in little squares to make the indents in the middle of the headboard less noticeable, and to make the surface smoother when I used the final printed fabric.

TA-DA! All done. Keep in mind I went to town with my staple gun! I tried to hide each staple as best I could in the back, but along the top to get that crisp edge I stapled it a lot. Later I covered those up with tiny brass tacks. Sorry I don't have a picture of that detail.

Anyway.

This is the inexpensive medal frame I purchased from a thrift store. They had so many just lying around in a bin, unused and unopened. It was nice and only $60. To buy a new bed that has a upholstered headboard foot board combo is around $400 to a whole lot more!!

I bolted the headboard to the frame (which I need to make sturdier). My favorite thing to do lately is wander around Home Depot and finding different hooks and whatnot which will work for the purpose I need it for. Not sure how many people actually do that, but I've become a professional. 

And this is what the final product looks like. I still need to put the cover on my down comforter, but this is the basic idea.. I love it. And the best part is, if I get tired of that fabric its pretty easy to recover and start with something new. 

Update: This headboard worked very well for several moves. I never did recover it, since I liked the material I originally picked. I've since upgraded to a new bedroom set, but this headboard had found a new home. 

I have a new house now that I've been remodeling so stay tuned for updates!

Ideal Protein Journey

Finally Deciding to Write this Down

I've been on the Ideal Protein Diet Since November 2012, and have lost 70 pounds. I've decided to start this blog because I need a hypothetical piece of paper. It's not going to be entirely about Ideal Protein, but my life as well. So let's get started.

I decided to start this Diet because basically I've done all the others. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem.. all of them. I was even considering weight loss surgery. At the time the only thing that stopped me from the surgery, was funding. My employment insurance was less than happy to cover anything weight related, even counseling.

So my aunt had a friend who started going to an Ideal Protein Clinic. She looked AMAZING, but I thought it was just another diet, and at the time wasn't interested in starting anything new. During this time I was at my highest ever weight of 340. 

After much coaxing I was finally convinced by my Aunt to attend an open house. At the open house we learned how the diet works, and what the financial responsibility was. We even got to taste some of the food and Walden Farm's Products. The diet is expensive, but my Aunt and Grandma wanted to help. And for me it was a Go Big or Go Home kind of situation. I needed something intense if I was going to succeed in finally losing weight.

The program was not hard at all. Since I was over 300 pounds I "needed" 4 packets of food to get my necessary intake of food. A packet is what they call the food. It can be anything from soups and puddings to drinks and breakfast bars. And each one has more protein than any normal food. 

The food is pretty good. For the first 2 weeks they give you preprepared menus with about 40 different types of food. This is so you can try everything and see what you like. Growing up my mom always told me that she "has never met a child that didn't like soup." Well surprise surprise I didn't like it on the diet either. Eating the Mushroom Soup was a train wreck and a half. But this diet requires you to eat all your food everyday. After the first 2 weeks you can decide what you want to eat. My clinic sells the packets individually, which is nice because I might not want Wildberry Yogurt everyday for breakfast. Most clinics don't sell them this way, but my clinic sees the benefit of variety if you want it. I ended up not really needing variety because generally I choose 17 chocolate drinks and a handful of restricted bars and crackers for my menus. I would say the first few months my body was excited by the fact that I was no longer drinking Mountain Dew or anything else bad, and I was no longer eating crap.

My goal for this diet is to be healthy and be able to shop anywhere. I am only 27 (Just had my Birthday) and still trying to figure life out. But I'll get to that in another post.

Thanks for reading.