Our First Headboard!!

So seeing how the weather has been absolutely GORGEOUS recently, I decided to finally take advantage of it and get to work on our headboard!

I actually bought this headboard at a garage sale back in October. My original plan was to make my own tufted headboard, but when I stumbled upon this at a garage sale I decided it would match our rustic decor much better! I think I paid $20? It's a queen size headboard, real wood. 

Here is the original:

It was a reddish brown color and had previously sustained water damage so it was peeling off in areas. The color just made it look cheap and I knew it would never match anything in our house. 

So first thing I did was sand off the original stain...which took forever and way more muscle power than I was anticipating. Me plus a power sander equals exhaustion. It took almost 2 hours to get it completely sanded off, here's a halfway picture.

After I got it completely sanded down to the original wood, for the most part, dad suggested I carve something into it before I stained it. So we dug out his Dremel and I carved our wedding date into the top of it! (obviously the backside didn't get sanded)

Next, I wanted it to still look destructed so dad and I took some tools out of the garage and gave it a few good whacks!

Next, it was time to apply the stain. I picked out a 'dark walnut' color, knowing that some of the original stain would probably still show through a little bit but hoping it would cover most of it pretty well. I love the look of dark wood furniture!

Once the color dried, it darkened and evened out a little more, and then I applied a layer of flat polyurethane. (I didn't want it super shiny)

Here's two pictures from my cell phone the next morning after it dried overnight.

I LOVE IT!!!! It looks a lot darker in person, but some of the original color that we couldn't quite get sanded off came through in a few areas and I love how the two combined to make it look even more rustic. There's a perfect amount of destruction on it and pictures just don't do it justice. It's my new favorite craft :-)

I can't wait to pair it with our new bedding!!!

67 days!

-The Future Mrs.