Small Guest Room "Grows" with New Paint, Bed

While our home was move-in ready, I still saw it as a project list: Add a deck, move the hot tub, build my husband a proper office, redo the kitchen. Repainting the freshly painted bedrooms, especially ones I rarely enter, fell low on the list. 

But with those big projects mostly behind us, it's time to tackle the smaller ones, starting with the guest room. First, I sold the day/trundle bed set that we'd split to serve as the bed for our youngest and the guest bed. We initially caved to his request for a bunk bed. But, After adding his pillow top mattress, it became apparent that it was a concussion waiting to happen. Rather than convert the bed into a loft, we opted to set up the bottom half and sell the top as a separate bed. (And yes, he loves the room's mustard color, so it stays for now. Sigh.)

Debating a full mattress, it occured to me that for the average guest, bed space outranked floor space. I used an air mattress to make sure the larger bed would work, and began a weeklong Craigslist and Ikea obsession before settling on the Fjellse frame. It's super cheap ($89-109 with slats) and the headboard is only about 31" tall--so it could slide under the window and not obstruct it. Important in our tiny guest room!

I eventually found the frame, spring mattress and 3" memory foam topper together for only $99 on Craigslist, and paid another $60 to have a mover pick it up. Bought new, the cheapest slat and mattress combo at Ikea is $218, and is not very comfortable. Buying used, I was able to upgrade AND save.Ok, so here's the peachy-keen before:

It's not awful. But the walls were MUCH more orange in real life and felt like they closed in on you. So step one was a coat of Behr "Light French Gray." And of course I had an Ikea duvet set lying around (#futurehoarder), as well as some other odds and ends, like a large mirror and petite dresser. 

I love how the lighter, calmer color allowed me to use a larger bed, but somehow still have the room feel more spacious. There's a few more tweaks to go (may center the bed under the window, get smaller night stand), and it will never be palatial, but it is welcoming and cozy. And not orange. Thank goodness. 

No-Sew Ottoman Make-over

This summer I inherited a storage ottoman from my parents. Because you are never too old for free stuff from the 'rents. Ever. I loved everything about it. The size, craftsmanship, comfort level. Oh, except for one (huge) thing--I hated how it looked. The top had scratches from their cats, and even sans claw marks, the fabric, while great at the time of purchase, hadn't been in style for a dozen or more years.

For months, I covered it in blankets, and eventually draped it with a burlap coffee sack. That sack has now been promoted to a permanent piece of the furniture, with the help of scissors, a staple gun and hot glue.

For the bottom section, which I decided to cover in burlap, I sliced and diced a dark gray curtain I found....where else....in Ikea As-is, for $6.90. My technique, such as it is, was pretty much acting like I was about to wrap a giant, awkward Christmas present. Using staples. 

• Dissassemble the ottoman, removing the lid and feet
• Drape fabric over where you want to cover. Mark this with chalk, and allow a few extra inches on the top and bottom. Cut. 
• Line the fabric with the top, and start stapling away. Be sure to keep the fabric taut as you go. 
• When you come to corners, pulling the fabric tightly, tuck and fold the fabric in (again, like on a present). I did mine with a straight fold along each edge, but you could get fancy and go diagnonal. 

• Process was similiar for the top, other than I cut the back of the bag open so it'd wrap around the top. Then flipped it over and started streching and stapling.

• For the open end of the bag, I tried stich witch, but it wouldn't take, I'm guessing because the burlap is so thick. Brought in my trusty glue gun as the closer. 

It's the first time I've redone something bigger than a chair cushion. And if you look closely, that probably shows. But guess what? Nobody's doing that? And for $15 worth of upcycled material and a little effort, I have an ottoman that I adore. I'm sure it will wear off, but after months of staring at or disguising those ugly stripes, this new look stops in my tracks when I enter the family room. Or maybe that's the constant, faint aroma of coffee.

What Has Six Legs & a Bed?

Thanks to a little ingenuity mixed with desperation-- my Kivik sleeper couch with new, taller legs! 

As mentioned in an earlier post, this well designed sleeper sofa has one fatal flaw: Legs that barely come off the ground. And no threaded hole to screw in new, taller legs.

There really wasn't much out there on how to add taller legs to a Kivik couch. and none on adding them to the sleeper. (Make It-Love It has a great post on custom legs for the couch-only version.) Uncle Bob's Workshop is the only place I found offering Kivik legs that didn't require an adapter. Their prices are reasonable, starting at $11 + shipping, but I'd heard there was a long lead time.  

Lo and behold, a recent date night found us at...Ikea. (What? That is married date night. We grabbed dinner first.) I of course had to swing by the As-is section, where I found two pairs of Besta legs marked down to $2.00 each. While it's not 100% what I'd pictured, it's hard to argue with that price. Or fate. Which this seemed to be.

We checked in with an employee to find the best way to attach them. Turns out, Besta legs just screws right in, they don't sell brackets for it. Luckily, the gentleman we were talking to was no quitter. He went through his database and found mounting plates for a desk that he thought would work. Back in As-is, an employee sought out the parts (normally not sold separately) and sold us four for $.80. Say what you will about Ikea, I'm always impressed with their service! 

Back at home,we figured out a trick to make the legs flush to the bracket, rather than gapped: Remove the black  glide from the bottom, reach a flathead screw driver into the hold and give it a few twists to raise the leg up. It then just took a few screws per leg to attach the brackets to the sofa frame. Using this technique means you can just easily run to Home Depot, choose a leg you like, some brackets, and viola-- normal height couch!

About 45 minutes after we began the project, our couch had four 4.5" legs holding it aloft. However, the pesky bed was now resting on the floor, refusing to join the taller parts of the couch. Can you see how it droops and gaps? 

Which brings us back to the six legs. I returned to Ikea and purchased two more Besta legs. Sadly, at full price. For now, they are strategically wedged under the bed frame. A near-future project will be drilling into the metal to permanently attach them, with felt pads on the bottom so we can still slide into bed-mode as needed. In the meantime, we're pretty pleased with our six-legged couch. 

A Girl Lands Her Van

This post is more of a sneak preview of a work in progress. There's really not much to show yet, but I'm so obsessed excited that I couldn't wait. My gypsy side has long been drawn to romanticized visions of road trips in VW campers. So far, an Impala is the roomiest vehicle I've managed to traverse the country in.

But I'm nothing if not persistent. With a just a touch of practicality. Eventually, I had to admit that I would never have it in me to care for a VW. I don't have a mechanical side. Or patience. Or that kind of cash. However, with this epiphany, a new traveling dream was born: Converting a van into a mini-RV. I ruled out pop-ups, because it still means airing something out after a rainy camping trip (might as well be an oversized tent). And hauling any trailer would raise my stress factor too high to enjoy the drive. Ditto for full-sized campers. Luckily, with a little ingenuity, conversion vans offer a compromise. The rear benches fold into BEDS. Well, bed-like structures that could benefit from being longer and plusher. Like so...

Oh yes I did! After a year of on-and-off looking on CL, I took the plunge. With winter here, I wasn't even searching. Till out of the blue Kevin sent me a few links of vans for sale on CL. Which of course meant I had to take a peek at what else was out there. And lo and behold, there she was! In all her green glory-- a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 with Mark III high-top conversion package. For only $2,500. With only 75,000 miles. THEN it turns out the owner works near my house, so it was easy to check out. THEN it turns out that he and Kevin used to work together, and that the guy was my son's friend's drum teacher. Clearly, she was meant to be mine. 

While I've spent the last week drooling over camper van renos (who knew van dwelling was so huge??), we won't make much progress until it warms up. However, Kevin made one of the most crucial pieces today: a 65" x 16" platform that I'll cover in foam and slide behind the bench. This will extend the bed space enough that we can *hopefully* sleep peacefully together. 

The ends are hinged so that:

1. When folded, the platform will slide right out. Otherwise, it's wider than the door frame and could be a hassle.
2. We can store items below, and still access. The van is huge, but only until we start putting stuff in it. Organization will be everything!

He also reinforced the platform underneath in case anybody sits on it. While that's not the purpose, I figure it's pretty much inevitable. I ordered a lot of supplies online today; does that count as progress too? Of course, given that it was 9 degrees this morning, we have a bit of time before we'll be ready to camp, even with the new "camper."

(This is Big Sheila parked at the end of my friend's street. I was staging it to take pics so I could list it for rent on Just Share It. Note to self: Visit my friend more often. What a view!)

Crafty Kivik, Making Short Stylish

I have to say Kivik is my favorite sleeper couch that I've owned. No pokey springs or saggy, inch-high mattresses.

To turn this hunky couch (ok, maybe chunky) into bedding, pull the bottom front of the couch out to reveal a wooden slat frame. Then, flip the cushions, made of memory foam, over. They tuck into the frame, becoming half of the mattress. The other half, also memory foam, is underneath them, exactly where they need to be, at all times.

The pic above is an old one from an Ikea showroom. Mine of course came from Craigslist. (It recently occured to me that all of our bed frames and three of our four couches were CL or thrift finds. Cheap or savvy? Hmm...) Where I found a steal on the exact cover I wanted, a tweed-ish charcoal grey. The cover is removable and washable. And if that is not enough couch-cleverness, check this out:

Why, yes, that IS a hidden storage compartment on each side of the couch. Those Swedes are a crafty bunch! Sadly, Ikea discontinued this Transformer of a sleep sofa, though you can still get it as a regular couch.

Either way, it turns out that its stylish utility comes at a price: The Kivik sofa bed is way short. It's stubby legs are less than two inches tall. Meaning you sit low, and you practically sleep on the ground. My husband is on couch-strike until I make it taller. 

The problem is, Kivik is no ordinary couch. The legs are each made from one piece of plastic, with a dowel-like protusion that slips into a hole in the bottom of the frame. Which means you can't simply screw in new, taller legs. I guess it's time to do some idea hunting on Pinterest...