{DIY Bedside Art - Burlap & Nail-head Trim, Oh My!}

I have always liked decorating with monograms and initials. Ever since I had my very first "big-girl" apartment back in college, if I would stumble across my initial ("L") in any form (metal, wood, painted, unfinished, etc.) I would buy it. Back then, I had no idea what to do with the letters I had collected, so I always ended up leaning them on a shelf or setting them against a wall or on my dresser. Not too creative. Today, I have no idea where all of my fantastic initials went, but I have a ton of ideas of what I could do with them! Typical!! Anyway, a while back when Josh and I first moved in together, I was on the hunt for some stylish way to designate "our side" of the bed, but I just needed an idea to hit me! A-ha!! Initials!! While out shopping with my sister, she came across a large white wooden "L", but they did not have the matching "J". Bummer! I decided to buy the "L" anyway, in hopes of finding something similar (if not the same) to use for Josh's side. Low and behold, several weeks later, my sister found the matching "J"! I was so excited!! (I know, it's kind of silly to be excited about a wooden letter, but I totally was!!).

My style/taste was evolving, and I had my heart set on a tufted wingback bed (I'll go deeper into that in another post), and I had become obsessed with two things....burlap & nickel-finish nail-head trim. My wheels started turning, and soon enough I knew exactly what I wanted to do! Because the letters were white, and so was my bedroom wall, I knew I needed to get creative. I could have painted them, but I had another idea in mind. I bought two large art canvases at Micheal's (11x14? 16x20 maybe? can't remember the exact size, but they were pretty big), I ordered nickel nailhead trim from Beacon fabrics & notions (I just googled "Nickel Nail-head Trim and stumbled upon them), and I bought a few yards of natural burlap from Walmart. I used my staple-gun to staple the burlap around the canvases (I just stapled it into the wood frame of the canvas), and then used E-6000 to adhere the large wooden letters to the center of each of the canvases (I wasn't blogging then, so I of course failed to take pictures of the beginning stages of the process - Duh!).

Here they are semi early on in the process - the letters were glued to the burlap-wrapped canvases....
(*tip: I didn't do this, but if I made these again, I would secure the burlap to the canvas with glue (or something) prior to staple-gunning it on. Once I attached the letter, it was so heavy that it sort of made the the canvas itself wobbly. It was glued on tightly, so it wasn't really a problem, just something to note.)
Then I began to add the nail-head trim. Nail-head trim is SO easy!! It comes on a roll, and only every fifth nail needs to be nailed in.
(*tip: I used a rubber mallet instead of a real hammer so as not to damage the pretty nail-heads)

And here they are all finished!! I was so pleased with myself and so happy with how they turned out. I was sort of new to crafting at the time, so I was sure that something would go awry, but my project was a success and I was thrilled!!
Once they were done, they sat in my crafting-area for a while. My room hadn't quite come together yet (my dream bed was in the works, and my dream nightstands were too), and I didn't want to just put them up all willy-nilly, so I waited. And waited. And....waited! Until finally, when the room was pretty much set, they found their home....

My side....

And Josh's side.....

Can't you tell which side is mine ;)

Now they are "leaned up against the wall", but in a current and stylish way! I am still so in love with them!

Keep your eyes peeled for your own initials!! They are a ton of fun to decorate with!!

:)

-lisa