We're movin on up...

As I mentioned earlier this week in this post, I've just about had it with sleeping in the Guest Bedroom.  It's mostly because it gets pretty poor circulation, and no matter if the air conditioning is on or not, it gets really hot in there.  Me thinks we'll have to consider more insulation in the garage some day down the road, since this room sits directly above it.  In the meantime though, I have a big, beautiful Master Bedroom waiting for me upstairs, fit with a brand new ceiling fan.  The only thing I was missing was a bed. 

It's not that we don't have a bed, in fact, I built this bed frame back in The Bungalow thanks to another Ana-White design.

 

It's a little tough to see in the photo here, but this is Ana's take on the chunky wood bed frame from West Elm.  Paired with my golden oak furniture and traditional headboard this guy didn't really live up to its potential, but I had a Phase 1 and Phase 2 plan from the beginning.  

Phase 1- Build the frame and stain it to match my current furniture so that The Bungalow is staged and shows well.  

Phase 2- Re-stain bed frame to much darker color and pair it with new modern headboard to live in our new modern Master Bedroom. 

What I wasn't planning on was Phase 1.5- leave bed frame stashed in the garage for months rendering it unless.

Photo of our garage the day after Bath Crashers.

Time to finally right our situation.  Luckily I was smart enough not to apply polyurethane to my Phase 1 finish, so I just had to dust off the big guy and give it a light sanding.

Then I applied the left over stain from Bath Crashers so that my "new" Master Bedroom Furniture would match the built in closets in the Master Bathroom exactly.

  

As with most dark stains, this was going to take a couple of coats.  The good thing is that I was staining to a darker color, so the golden oak below disappeared pretty easily.  I simply brushed on the stain, let it sit for 15 minutes, and then wiped off the excess with a rag.  Let dry, repeat.  At coat number 2 I realized that I was out of plastic gloves, so I got a little ghetto resourceful.

Yes, that's my hand in a plastic bag holding a rag to wipe off my stain.  You call it strange, I call it recycling. 

Next I applied 2 thin coats of polyurethane using these tricks.  And now, we have FINALLY moved upstairs and have this:

Don't you hate when you look at "after" photos and only see more projects?  First, I'm going to need to adjust that bed frame so that the box spring can sit down lower and only the mattress will be visible.

Then I also need to try to break up all that blue on blue action.  I'm thinking:
-Make a new modern headboard
-Build 2 night stands on which we can place 2 shiny lamps.
-Potentially stencil some understated, geometric pattern on the wall behind the bed.
-Hang a mirror, and/or pictures, and/or shelves above the bed.

But there I go again... one project at a time.  Anyone else ever try to build a bed?  Anyone try any Ana White creations lately?  I love how easy she makes it, and how people don't realize how cheap and easy it can be when you show them your handy work.  (Unless you broadcast it on a blog... fail.)