The life of plywood, part 2

I originally posted in the Just Life post, near the end, that we recently bought a cheap piece of plywood to use between our mattresses in order to get our bed back up off the floor. Well, when we bought the wood, it was bigger than we needed it to be, so Jesse had them cut it at the store, and he went home with two pieces. One, we used for our bed. The other has been floating around while we figured out what to do with it. It measures 2 feet by 4 feet.

It just so happens that when our bed was on the floor, we had the box spring vertical against the wall, since we had nowhere else to put it, and we didn't really want to throw it away. We covered it with a large blanket that my Grandma had made for me as a wedding gift. So we basically had a queen-sized box spring as our headboard and wall decoration in one. Follow me so far? Anyway, when we put our bed back on the frame, the wall behind our bed suddenly looked extremely bare, and white.

I finally had an idea come to me for that extra piece of plywood. And today, I put it into action! We headed out to JoAnne's Fabrics today, and took advantage of a President's Day sale: We bought a piece of upholstery fabric for 50% off, and then used a coupon for an extra 10% off the total purchase. The whole family made the trip, but Jesse wasn't up for offering opinions on which fabric to pick. He kept shrugging his shoulders and saying, "I don't know, I can't really picture how this is going to look in the end, anyway...."

So finally I settled on a fabric that I liked, despite the fact that it pretty much matches nothing in our bedroom. Because, let's face it, nothing matches in our bedroom, anyway. We've got navy blue cheapo curtains, a hand-me-down dresser that has chunks of veneer missing and a mish-mash of knobs on the drawers, navy blue sheets and pillowcases (although right now, we're sporting beautiful red striped and green patterned Christmas pillowcases that Jesse's sister, Rachel, made for our family), and a brown and cream quilt that a different Grandma made for us, also for our wedding. And then we have a rocking chair in a forest green color, and our "bedside tables" are covered in blue cloths. So, nothing matches. And as a result, I just decided to pick something that I liked instead of worrying about trying to match something in the bedroom.

I also grabbed some batting-by-the-yard, and then we picked up a couple packages of small flat thumbtacks. And at home, I went to work: I laid the fabric face down, then the batting, then the extra piece of plywood on top. And started thumb-tacking the fabric to the back of the plywood. After the first few, I could tell my thumb was going to get sore quickly, so I grabbed a hammer to help. But even with that help, I still had to get them started with my thumb, and boy is it sore now. Yes, a staple gun would have been immensely less painful, and much quicker, but hey- we're cheap, remember? We don't have a staple gun. So thumbtacks worked just fine.

Here is the end result on the back, with all the lovely thumbtacks that made my thumb nearly get a blister:














And the front, where things actually look nice:














And then I finally manage to drag Jesse away from his computer, so he could help me screw some wire into the back, and then help me hang it on the wall. And here is our new "art" above our bed. Yay! It's so fun to do a quick project that makes a nice difference in your room. I really do like the fabric - it's very peaceful and calming, and I'm really finding that I like green a lot. Maybe enough to make it my "favorite" color. Maybe my favorite house color, at least. I still love love love blues for clothes. Oh, and for the record, Jesse really likes it, too, even though he couldn't picture it before! He said, and I quote, "It looks great, Becky." and "Nice picking, hon!" :)


















































Sure, maybe it's not super fancy, as far as projects go, and it's certainly not an entirely redecorated room, but it was still fun to do, and I really appreciate the wall not being completely bare now. And besides, we used the extra piece of plywood and gave it a new life! Now it's not stuck in the back seat of Jesse's car, or relegated to become a junk piece of wood for Cub Scouts to practice their skills with screwdrivers and nails. Nope, it's become a lovely piece of art! :)