#1 - the reclaimed wood bedhead and wall
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| our bedroom's wallpaper during the first 15 months of the project: happy to leave it! |
Welcome to the first of what will (hopefully) be a long series of side projects to the main home(t)raveling renovation project, aka "our own little Sagrada Familia". Even though we didn't have a clear idea of what and absolutely no idea of how, we somehow knew we wanted some sort of special headboard for our bedroom. Something handmade and homemade. Something with wood, possibly reclaimed and something that would make an otherwise very "neutral" room unique. The neutrality was something we were and are still absolutely comfortable with: we wanted white walls and a white ceiling, natural (old) wooden floor and nothing too fancy, too bright nor too rococo. If you are to spend hours of sleeping, resting, reading and resting in a room, you should NOT be surrounded by such a wallpaper (pic): believe us, we've been for the last 12 months and it was getting increasingly challenging. Anyway, Futuna had already gathered a lot of reclaimed/salvaged wood, including some rare and funky pieces, and a little old door. Little by little, he progressively sanded them all, until one day, late August, he took 'em all upstairs, lined 'em all on the floor and called Wallis:
(our own little Sagrada Familia is big and one has to speak loud and be patient).
- Waaaaaaaaaaaaa-lliiiiiiiis!
Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up in this room with all those set in a nice patchwork behind us? Okay, we'll make this short and easy: we attached four long 1x2's tight to the brick wall with solid screws and pegs after cutting them at the exact height of the room. Then, without planning too much nor overthinking it, we began to nail and screw our reclaimed/salvaged slats and boards, starting from the ground upward. About half an hour later it looked like that and we worried: "this is never going to end ; this is never going to work ; this is never going to look nice". We took a deep breath and stuck to it, nailing boards and screwing slats. We also had a couple of wine boxes we planned to use as a nightstand and bookshelf, plus some nice old oak lath to build another small bookshelf. And after two hours:
Like the old man in the old book, we looked at it we saw that it was good. So we kept going and we kept doing. And later on that day (almost night, actually, because as you know, the old man called the light "day" and the darkness he called "night". And there was an evening...) we eventually got to that point, then to that other point. With the tiny tailored bookshelf just fitting in where it was meant to and the other winebox in position for a few more selected books. There was light, also, but it wasn't called "day" because it came from a bulb hanging above us and the old man had given another name to it: "lamp" it was... Anyway, we were getting closer to the ceiling and our stock of wood was getting dangerously thin. No worries, we improvised a blank space for a future framed picture/artwork:
Eventually we reached theglass ceiling and thought it was good. Dangerously cool. Somebody even said "funky", maybe it was Wallis. Or Futuna. Anyway, that was it but we still had some leftovers so we nailed and screwed them here and there. With no apparent purpose nor intention. Then, we looked at the whole room and thought: "well, ain't that too much? ain't that maybe SLIGHTLY too woody and colour-intense?" So we brought an old bucket of white paint diluted with water and a sponge, and we gently rubbed the whole thing with the mixture. We left it all white-ish except for the wine boxes and shelf. We partly sanded the door back to an intermediate tone. And we called it a day!
- Wallis! Waaa-llis!
...
- Waaaaaaa-llis!
...
(our own little Sagrada Familia is big and one has to speak loud and be patient).
- Waaaaaaaaaaaaa-lliiiiiiiis!
- Mmmh?
(there she was, like she just teleported herself at the door)
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| the reclaimed, salvaged, recycled and pallet pieces o' wood - including a very cool door - recruited for the project! |
Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up in this room with all those set in a nice patchwork behind us? Okay, we'll make this short and easy: we attached four long 1x2's tight to the brick wall with solid screws and pegs after cutting them at the exact height of the room. Then, without planning too much nor overthinking it, we began to nail and screw our reclaimed/salvaged slats and boards, starting from the ground upward. About half an hour later it looked like that and we worried: "this is never going to end ; this is never going to work ; this is never going to look nice". We took a deep breath and stuck to it, nailing boards and screwing slats. We also had a couple of wine boxes we planned to use as a nightstand and bookshelf, plus some nice old oak lath to build another small bookshelf. And after two hours:
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| the first rows are the most challenging ; the tiny tailored oak bookshelf ; after a couple of hours: getting used to it and enjoying the ride! | ||
Like the old man in the old book, we looked at it we saw that it was good. So we kept going and we kept doing. And later on that day (almost night, actually, because as you know, the old man called the light "day" and the darkness he called "night". And there was an evening...) we eventually got to that point, then to that other point. With the tiny tailored bookshelf just fitting in where it was meant to and the other winebox in position for a few more selected books. There was light, also, but it wasn't called "day" because it came from a bulb hanging above us and the old man had given another name to it: "lamp" it was... Anyway, we were getting closer to the ceiling and our stock of wood was getting dangerously thin. No worries, we improvised a blank space for a future framed picture/artwork:
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| the headboard/wall at that point and at that point ; the little door to rest our heads ; some wineboxes as shelves and the "art frame"! | ||
Eventually we reached the
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| in [our]room: our homemade bed's headboard n' wall, with the bed, window, skirting boards and furniture missing. just a taste of it... |
And that's all, folks!
Hopefully it won't take
a year and a half til we do
the side project #2... ;)
Take care,
Usxx
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