Wednesday, October 10, 2012

a bed fit for a queen {...or princess...or ballerina}


Maddie’s princess bed is coming together, slowly but surely.  It helped that we already had the bed and the bed frame as a hand-me-down from mommy and daddy.

The wrought iron frame was a total score from craigslist.  I had been looking for bed frames for Steve and I for several months.  We had purchased one that wasn’t a canopy bed from craigslist that, according to the ad, was in good condition.  If good condition meant a giant bend in one part of the frame that made the bed tilt at a 30 degree angle.  So we cut our losses and sold it to someone else – making it clear it needed to be repaired before it was usable.  I kept searching and finally came across this beauty for…wait for it…$10.  Yes, that’s right, ten dollars.  One zero.  I couldn’t believe it either.  The couple said they had tried to give it away but no one wanted it, so they listed it for $10.  Talk about a score.



Then Steve and I decided to buy the “marriage saving king bed” so the queen, and it’s beautiful frame, were booted to the extra room/guest room.  That room became Maddie’s room and the bed became Maddie’s bed.  It even has a feather bed on it, a very awesome gift from my great friend Megan’s parents.  I was sad to pass that on, even to my spawn.

Once we decided to make the bed and room hers I began searching pinterest for ideas.  The bed is fairly geometric for a canopy bed and doesn’t have lots of scrolling or other princessy traits.  I had to ballerina princessify it.  Here were some of the cute ideas I found.

This canopy bed was linked from hometrenddecorating.com.  I loved the pink and white and the bows.




There is this little beauty that I can’t find the original link for.  It’s so soft and has a dark bed wrought iron bed.



There is this beautiful blue, white and pink bedroom from justagirlblog.com



And this gorgeous bedding from beddingsuperstore.com



There is so much great inspiration out there.  But enough with that, let’s get on to what I actually did.

First I have to talk about the bedding.  The bedding was found by happy accident.  The whole fam was at Target getting special slippers for Mad (Evie ended up with a pair too) to wear at school since she hates to wear shoes while she sleeps.  We were wandering past an end cap when I spied the bedding - on clearance. 



It was perfect.  It was pink and ruffly and marked down.  Like way down.  From $89.99 to $26.98!  I got giddy. Steve mocked me. We bought the bedding.



I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for the fabric on the canopy, or even what color.  But the other day, while walking through IKEA, I had an “ahhhhhh” kind of moment.  In the curtain section I found the LILL curtains for $4.99/pair.  And guess what they are made of…tulle.  Perfect, I know.  Great price, great fabric.  Those suckers were mine.  I bought 5 pairs (4 for the bed and one for the window). 



Putting them on the bed couldn’t be any simpler.  I just unscrewed the bars on the canopy, but a pair of curtains on each bar, and wah-lah!  Fancy, girlie canopy bed.  But, of course, that wasn’t the end. I got some ribbon at JoAnn fabrics for under $5 in a soft pink.  I cut 4 equal lengths of ribbon and tied them around each post.  Then I tied them into a bow and trimmed the ends of the ribbon.  So cute!



The curtains were pretty long so I decided to trim them up.  Super easy since you don’t have to hem tulle (thank goodness!).  I tried first to measure it to the floor and then evenly cut the ends.  Too much work and mediocre results.  On the next curtain I simply bunched it in my hand, ran my hand to the floor and cut. 



Tah-Dah!  Perfect!





How cute did this turn out?!  I’m totally in love with it.  If you notice I also took the "headboard" part off.  It was just an extra piece that screwed in and it was too much angle with the soft ruffles and swirls.  

Project Cost
Mattress - $0 (already owned)
Bedframe - $10 (from CL)
White sheets - $0 (already owned)
Pink ruffle bedding - $27
4 sets IKEA Lill curtains - $20
Pink ribbon - about $5
------------------------------
Total cost - $62

I think I’m living vicariously through Mad right now.  But seriously, what little girl wouldn’t love this bed?!

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