In my last post I left off with the construction of the sides of the daybed and promised more pictures to come later. So, here they are!
Before applying the batting, ply grip, and fabric, you'll want to attach your giant l-brackets to the back of the side rail. So get out your drill and drill bits and make like a handy man! Woo hoo!
After that, attach the batting and piping, being careful not to add too many staples. You don't want an overabundance of them, just enough to hold it in place. When you staple down the curve ease, you will get a more secure hold.
This is the curve ease ply grip. Scary right? You've got to staple it down, lining your staple gun up just right so that the staple goes through that little bitty hole...Yeah right.
I found that if I lined the center line on my staple gun up just perfectly with the last little tooth on the monster tooth side (don't they look like mini monster teeth) then the staple would go through the hole most of the time.
On the straight areas I would staple only one side down, and on the curves I would do both sides. Doesn't have to be pretty, just needs to be secure. Learn from my mistake: try not to create too many layers of fabric when folding the fabric over on your curves because too much fabric keeps the staple from grabbing the wood properly. If your staples don't go through all the way, don't fret. Just hammer the little suckers down with a tiny hammer, being careful not to hammer down the monster teeth.
So, once you have stapled it all down on the bottom, front, and top, fold the monster teeth down with your thumb and lay your fabric on top. Trim the fabric to 1/2" past your piping and stuff it in the curve ease with a flat head screw driver. Make sure you are keeping the fabric taught and centered as you do this. You can pull the fabric back out at this point if it's not lining up correctly.
Then, once it's looking nice, hammer your curve ease down with a rubber mallet. If you are using a velvet or other fabric with a pile, you'll want to keep from crushing the pile. So, use a scrap piece of fabric to lay in between the upholstered piece and the mallet, right sides facing together.
And voilá. You can see it looks much more finished after the hammering. If you need to trim some of the fabric as you go along, go for it, just don't trim too much or the monster teeth won't be able to hold it. Once both sides are finished, you are ready to assemble this bad boy. Screw the l-brackets into the back of the headboard using long wood screws. This really is a two-person job. As you can see, I decided to add piping to the headboard. It's not really noticeable but it does give it a finished look, especially from the side. I used cardboard tack strip to make sure it was nice and flat and then trimmed the excess fabric and batting.
Here's what it looks like with the three sides! Almost finished!
I wanted the arms to be super sturdy, so I attached an upholstered board with bed skirt to the front of the side rails with bed rail connectors. Best. Decision. Ever!
To sew the bed skirt, just cut a piece of fabric a little longer than 75" (the width of the bed), hem it, and create a simple box pleat in the center. The finished bed skirt will cover the entire front of the board with a little to wrap around the inside of the side rails so you don't see where it ends on the corners.
I don't know about you, but I can't stand bed skirts that shift, so this next step was my ingenious plan to rectify that problem. I stapled the bed skirt to the back of the front rail. Problem solved. Then I sewed a slipcover for the mattress complete with piping.
I attached the front rail with the bed rail connectors which turned out to be easier said than done without another person to help hold up the other side of the rail. In the end, I propped it up on some board games and tupperware and an hour later I was finished! Kind of...I had to tweak the slipcover a little bit because you can see the seems on the corner weren't straight. I'm not including the tutorial for that because, honestly, I'm tired of thinking about the darn slipcover, and although it turned out alright in the end, I'm still not completely happy with it. So we'll just save that convo for another day - another day with chocolate and coffee and comfy lounge pants. You know - like those popular instagram pictures people take that make you think they are having a relaxing afternoon when, in all reality, they just spent thirty minutes setting up the shot and now their coffee is cold and their kids are banging on the bedroom door...So yeah, all that to say, we may never have that conversation.
Pretty snazzy, huh? Overall, I'm really happy with the daybed. All in all I think I spent around $350-$400 on this project. Which was a steal compared to the $1500 Restoration Hardware daybed that didn't even come with a mattress cover. You could definitely do the project for less than that if you found less expensive fabric. Can't wait to show you more of Lilly Kate's nursery! I'm currently working on adding color with curtains and throw pillows. And pom pom trim! Oh how I love the pom pom trim!