ELIZABETH JOAN DESIGNS

Last time you saw our bedroom was during a sneak peak revealed in this post. It still looks pretty much the same, except for one subtle difference in the form of a lift. See those pretty little dark feet hanging out at the bottom of the bed skirt? Yup, they are new.

Since we are hosting my office area in the corner of our bedroom, we wanted to add some extra storage space. The best place to achieve this was under the bed, since we didn’t want to add more furniture pieces. So, we researched some different ideas and after eliminating traditional, store bought bed risers (which we heard have a tendency to break in the middle of the night,) we decided to go the DIY route. No surprise there, right?

I found this tutorial on Pinterest and thought it looked cool, but unfortunately, our bed frame is made differently than theirs, so we had to think of another way to do it. After a little brainstorming, my genius husband figured out how to make it work.

We started out with 4 round, wooden, deck post finials which we bought for around $16 from our local hardware store.

After a quick sanding to smooth them out, we popped the screws into some floral foam so that they would be easier to spray paint. We chose to use Rustoleum Universal Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint with the hopes that they would semi-match our existing headboard. (I neglected to take a photo of them all together and painted though.)

Here is our old bed frame’s little wheels that held everything up. Kind of pathetic, right?

Well, the hubs figured out how to remove the entire wheel base and the plastic part that kept it tight inside of the leg. Then he pried the plastic piece off with a screw driver.

Lucky for us, the post screws fit perfectly inside of the original plastic frame pieces.

And with a few taps of the hammer, they were secured in place.

Finally, we just lifted the bed back up and positioned each post in place.

So far, the bed is holding up great and seems to be very secure. The kids even jumped on it a bit to double check the sturdiness. Plus, we gained several inches of storage space, which was exactly what we were looking for. Yay!

Here is my sweet little model showing off the new height of the bed and how it is perfectly toddler proof.

My youngest little guy LOVES to color. I wanted to make sure I incorporated his passion into our playroom designs. That is exactly why I chose to do a chalkboard accent wall.

Instead of doing straight up black chalkboard paint, I wanted to choose my own color. My choice; Restoration Hardware Flint. (I had it color matched in latex paint at Home Depot to keep it a little more budget friendly.)

To get from plain latex to chalkboard paint, I mixed 2 cups of the color matched paint and 4 Tablespoons non-sanded grout together. This worked beautifully.

Along with the help of my four year old, I applied two coats of this concoction to the wall and let it dry for 24 hours.

Then, I primed the surface with chalk. That way the first scribbles drawings on the wall weren’t our permanent artwork for the room.

Finally, to add an educational touch to the kid’s space, I choose to stencil the alphabet across the top of the accent wall.

This process took a little while, but was pretty easy.

I taped the stencils to the wall and chalked each letter. This way they can be easily changed if we so desire.

To touch up the ABC’s, I used a wet Q-tip to erase any unwanted markings.

We are in love with this wall. The boys enjoy coloring on it and so do I.

Now, if I can only make it clear to my two year old that this is the only wall we chalk on.  *sigh*