Last week one of the projects I was busy working on was this Twin Headboard Makeover. This project was going to be whipped up in an afternoon. Ha, famous last words.

Twin Headboard Makeover

Mr. Frugalista brought home this sweet Twin Headboard and as soon as I set eyes on it I knew exactly what I was going to do with it...or so I thought.


After repairing the knicks and giving it a coat of shellac, to avoid bleed through, I painted the entire headboard with Simplicity White.


I gave the silver medallions a light buff with Silver gilding wax to tone down the shininess and then decided to gild some of the edges of the headboard as well.


When I came back down to the shop after letting the white paint dry I discovered it had crackled and the panic button went off.  I gave it a light sanding in hopes it would remove the cracks but no such luck.  So a third coat of paint went on and I called it a day.

The following morning...surprise...it cracked too.  So much for that smooth clean look I was going for!  This thing had a mind of it's own and obviously wanted to have an aged antique look.  Alrighty then...next!


I had a roll of pretty Quatrefoil patterned paper set aside for this piece and so out came the wallpaper paste and I got right to it. I let it dry for about an hour and when I returned it looked like a sheet of bubble wrap!  Sorry, I was in such panic mode that I didn't take a picture.  I meticulously peeled it off and started all over again.  This time I used Modge Podge on the back of the paper and a brayer roller to ensure there would be no air bubbles.

Day 3...surprise, more bubbles!  This time when I removed the paper it took some of the paint off. Did you notice I didn't use the word "meticulously" this time?  And yet again in panic mode I forgot to take a picture but you can see the pretty paper I had in mind in the picture below.


Sanding the bits that came off wasn't working so I removed all the white paint and started over again.  This time I painted a coat of white primer first and a couple coats of Simplicity white.

Day 4...four bloody days for a simple headboard...good grief!  I opened the shop door and SURPRISE, crackled paint again.  At this point I threw my hands in the air and said, "oh well"  "@#$%&*"!  Out came the Frog Tape and I created vertical stripes.  I painted the stripes with the color Perfection chalk paint.  It took three coats before I got the coverage I wanted.  The purple didn't crackle, WTH? In the end I decided that I liked the contrast of the two finishes.


I gave it a coat of clear wax followed by dark wax, working it deep into the cracks.  So my Modern Twin Headboard Makeover ended up being an Antiqued Twin Headboard Makeover.  While I'm not happy with the time it took to complete this project, I am pleased with the results.


I still have the Stenciled Table and I think they would compliment each other nicely in a girl's bedroom.


I'm not going to lie, I'm so happy to see the back end of this project! Next up a coffee table makeover with a hand painted graphic.