Faux French Headboard For Real

Long before I knew what a blog was, I took a photo of a headboard my French friend (I call her my French sister) painted.  It is on the wall of the guest room in her large townhouse in Brussels, Belgium where she and her husband must live six months of the year.  (It’s for tax purposes, but we won’t go there).  They also have a home on the shore inBrittany, a country house in Provence, and a ski chalet in the French mountains, but that is another story for another day.

 

 

(Sorry about the photo quality)

Once Jordan and I had our blog, I shared a photo, even though the quality was poor, in a post, and it received a very positive response.   I was crazy about that painted headboard.  I wanted to have the same look in one of our bedrooms here. I even talked about it with my art teacher, and she suggested I get an overhead projector and trace it.

 

 

I didn’t have to go that far, though.  You can imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered head board decals one day when I was surfing the web.  I immediately ordered one because we didn’t have a headboard in our master bedroom.

 

 

We once had a headboard until we bought a new mattress and frame.  The mattress has a small motor so that we can move it into gymnastic like positions when we want to read or watch television comfortably in bed.  Because of where the motor is placed, we could no longer attach our old headboard to the frame so we ended up selling it on Craig’s List.

 

 

When the first head board arrived, I tried to hang it on my own, and it ended up in a wad in the trash within five minutes.  I realized that it would take a village.  Then I ordered a second headboard decal and let it sit patiently until this past week-end when I knew that Jordan and her college roommate, who is a decorator in Atlanta, would be visiting.  Hanging it was so tedious that we even had their husbands in on the action.  NOTE:  Jordan and Anna had just woken up.  These photos were taken pre-shower/pre-make-up/pre-church on Sunday morning.

 

 

The decal is like one big piece of sticky contact paper that is the width of a king size bed.  After we removed the backing, we had to position it on the wall, and we only had one chance to get it right.  If we goofed, we couldn’t undo the error.  I had already pre-measured to find the wall’s center and to find how high it needed to be.  Even with that, we still had to be extra careful.

 

 

Even though I knew it was too late to move the decal, I still checked to see if it was level.  It is off ever so slightly, but it doesn’t show up.

 

After it was placed on the wall, we had to go over every inch with the edges of credit cards to get it pressed down and to remove any air bubbles.

 

Then we painstakingly peeled off the second backing.  This took at least an hour in two sessions. We worked on it some that day, and I finished it up after our guests had gone home.

 

I couldn’t wait to see how it would look with the bed made and pushed back against the wall. When I started taking photos, I realized the pillow that I made in the winter mirrors the center shape on the decal.

 

 

Also, the fabric that is on the bedroom bench that I redid also mirrors the decal design.

 

 

I would like to say I planned the repetition of patterns, but it was a total but good accident.  (And by the way, I will steam that bed skirt.  I had to take advantage of the free labor on hand when I switched out the fall/winter bed skirt for the spring/summer look.  There was no time to iron it).

 

Okay.  Here’s my evaluation of our new headboard.  Would I love to have a real head board?  Yes.  Is it possible?  No.  Is this the next best thing?  Absolutely.  Was I lucky to find one that looks almost exactly like the one my friend painted?  Of course.  I/We are very pleased with the results.

Take care.

Linking to Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday,