Dear Readers,
Last summer I made a headboard from a door from my grandmother's house. I did not like how it came out. It was too long, and did not look cool like the ones I had seen on pinterest.
So I had several people look at it and sent
pictures to Celeste, but no one really liked it. So Celeste sent me some pictures of headboards from pinterest. I did not see one I loved, but one looked like a braid quilt, and I liked that...but did not want to deal with cutting the angles. So I started thinking about quilt squares that had right angles, as they are so much easier to cut. I got my graph paper out and drew out a log cabin block using 1 x 4s for the logs. Of course 1 x 4's are not really 1x 4, they are 3.5 inches wide. So then I decided it needed a frame so I planned to use 1 x 6's (that are really 1 x 5.5's) for the frame. I made a trip to Madison and picked different types of wood and a medium stain that I hoped would look different on each type of wood. I picked a poplar, pine, red oak and cedar. I stained all the wood and the backing board and had it ready to go. I was a little disappointed there wasn't a bigger contrast. Celeste and her beau, Blake, and my son Will were coming for Labor Day and we had planned to assemble the headboard at that point. I borrowed the key to the wood shop at school and we moved over there and went to work.
Celeste, Blake and Will did the cutting, and I acted as general contractor. At some point during the process Will moved to doing the sanding and I stained the new cut ends. Celeste and Blake did the assembly once the cutting was done. Even though there wasn't as much contrast with the stain as I had wanted the change in the grain was really pretty and gives it enough contrast.
It went together pretty well. We had a few issues with tool my caulk gun that we were using with the liquid nails, as it was bent and we had a few runs to Wal-Mart, but it went together well. Blake screwed the frame to the backing board to further secure it.
When we came home, we had the trial of getting the door off the posts. I had put it on to stay so that was a trial, but the kids (well adults!) worked together and got it done. They put the new headboard on and I had them pull the mattress back so that I could put a coat of tongue oil on it to seal it. It is all sealed and back in place now, thanks to one of my students, her bother and friends, and dry enough that I can sleep in my room again. :)
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| Veiw of the Log Cabin Block Headboard |
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| Close up view |
