In this post, I will share my review of the Immunity mattresses and if you like, you can see our Agility Mattress review here. Stay tuned below for our discount code!

Choosing a quality mattress is something that has become more and more important to me over time. There is such a stark difference when we stay at an Airbnb on an uncomfortable mattress—it’s jarring now that we are used to our incredible mattresses. We now have only Agility and Immunity mattresses in all the bedrooms of our home, so let me tell you more about why I love them!

Which Immunity mattresses did we choose?

For our main bedroom, we chose the Immunity Terracotta Medium Firm Copper mattress. It is an absolute dream to sleep on (more on this below!) and my favorite mattress I have ever owned. I am super impressed by it and would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a soft and firm mattress—it’s the perfect mix of both.

For our children’s bedrooms, we chose the Immunity Cinnamon Firm Copper mattresses. They are the perfect children’s mattresses and very comfortable as well. I lay on my kids’ beds pretty often for stories, snuggles, etc., and I never want to leave once laying down. It’s very nice!

Reasons I love our Immunity mattresses:

Comfort – Far and away this is the most comfortable mattress I have ever tried. Recently, I was laying in bed and I said to my husband, “Isn’t our bed the best place in the world?” (He agreed.) I wish I would have known what a big difference mattresses can make. When I was younger, I had a lot of sleeping issues, but I honestly never thought a mattress could help. Recently, I am sleeping better than ever!

100-Night Risk-Free Trial – It can take 30 days for your body to adjust to a new mattress, so this trial gives you plenty of time to be sure you made the right choice for you.

Free Delivery – Your mattress will arrive in a box that seems way too small to fit a mattress, they are packed so well. They are easy to unbox and use right away and delivery is free.

It wouldn’t be a complete review without sharing any downsides of the product. My honest opinion is the only downside of these mattresses is the price. They are definitely not the cheapest mattresses on the market and I can understand why the price would create pause for a budget-minded shopper. With that in mind, I encourage you to shop their sales (which are amazing!). There is one going on now and we regularly share significant sales and discount codes on our podcast as well.

Labor Day Sale

1. Labor Day Sale. Save 20% off any mattress and get 2 FREE temp-regulating, memory foam pillows. Sale ends 9/4.
2. After Labor Day, use the code ABM to receive $300 off any mattress.

To try an Immunity mattress in person, find a retailer near you.

Disclosure: This post is not sponsored. However, we have a long-term sponsor relationship with Shop Therapedic, both on our blog and podcast, and I did receive a free mattress as well as a discount on other mattresses for our new home.

More children’s rooms: 50 Kids Room (and Nursery) Ideas, Kids Shared Bedroom, Reconfiguring a Closet, Daisy Painted Wallpaper.

The first thing we did before we moved in was paint the walls pink. We chose the color Sulking Room Pink by Farrow and Ball. At first, I was worried it was too dark (it reads almost brown in certain lights), but once the curtains and other details went in, I knew it was the perfect color. It’s rich and deep and balances a lot of the other uber pink decor.

We found the antique bed locally on Marketplace. The bed canopy is such great quality and comes in a bunch of different colors. For the mattress, we chose an Immunity mattress (Cinnamon) and I’ll be sharing a full review of it in an upcoming post (short story—we love it!).

For curtains, we chose to go with Two Pages Curtains for this room (and our entire home). I love the classic pleated look they have. I ordered a swatch book before choosing colors and it helped SO much. I highly recommend the swatch book if you are choosing colored curtains to coordinate with painted walls.

Our daughter is a budding artist, so we decided to create an art gallery in her room! As you can see, it’s comprised mainly of her own art. I plan to add more and swap out over time.

Etsy art included: Julie Andrews Print and the other piece is from Janet Hill.

Before we moved, I found this gorgeous antique vanity. She uses it to store all her makeup (I give her my old makeup every time I do a clean out and she squirrels it away and is OBSESSED).

Wood toys we love:

• Wood Stacked Rainbow
• Wood Animal Set
• Wood Play Camera
• Castle Music Box
• Wood Name Puzzle

This bear rug from Etsy was the first purchase I made for her new bedroom. I thought it was so cute and charming—and COZY.

Here you can see a little row of flea market art we have displayed along with one of the kid’s photos from Disney. I love mixing antique gold frame art with photos in ornate gold frames that are new.

It was our daughter’s dream to have a “real” tea set, so I started collecting blue china and have created a mix and match collection for her to play with. She spends so much time decorating and redecorating her table, I absolutely love these memories for her! The white table is new and the rest are flea market finds.

Can’t you just taste the (pretend) tea and cakes?

Another key element we leaned on when decorating our new home was vintage and antique light fixtures. This chandelier was an Etsy find. I found so many charming fixtures there, as well as locally at flea markets. They make a room so special and add a lot of historic charm. The sconces around her gallery wall match as well.

We chose the Lila area rug for this bedroom and the toy box is a DIY.

I was cleaning and decorating this room while my daughters were having a sleepover at my parents’ home. The instant she returned home she ran into the room and started re-decorating it her own way (before I even had a chance to take photos) and so these dolls are her personal touch. I think it’s important to let your kids be involved and put their touches on their spaces, even when they aren’t old enough to care about most details—they will love to organize their own things in their special, unique way.

I’m so excited to keep adding details to this room over time! We are collecting little mermaid and princess things along the way. It’s so fun.

Thanks so much for reading!! If you’re curious what other home projects we’ve completed recently, check out our dining room wallpaper and stair runner carpet updates. More to come soon! xx – Elsie

It is true that the elastic sides make it a bit more of a puzzle, but there’s actually an easy hack to folding a fitted sheet that you’ll want to know.

Some tutorials I’ve seen make it seem even more confusing, but this is our easy way to get a flat and folded fitted sheet to neatly tuck away in your linen closet.

Folding a fitted sheet is something that I didn’t take time to figure out until I was in my 30s … it just looked so complicated. But once I saw this method, it clicked for me after a few tries—and I’ve been folding like a pro ever since!

Want a makeover for your bed? Reupholster Your Bed Frame in One Afternoon (With a No-Sew Option, Too)!

I would definitely suggest watching this short video a few times before starting! That way you will know where you are going, and then you can follow along with your own sheet more easily.

I’ll show you how to do it with a twin sheet (which makes it easier to see what I’m doing since it’s smaller), but the same exact method applies to crib size, twin, queen, or king size fitted sheets.

Step One: Start with a fitted sheet turned inside out. Holding the sheet lengthwise (so the longer way) put your hands all the way into the corners where the corner seams are like you would put on a mitten.

Step Two: Take your right hand and “clap” it onto your left hand so the two seams are touching. Fold that right hand side over the left so they fit within each other.

Shake out the sheet a bit to untangle the excess fabric.

Step Three: Slide your right hand in where your left hand is and swap hands so your left hand is free. Follow the elastic edges with your left hand down the side of the sheet until you find the two corners that are dangling on that side.

You can shake that side a bit so they are right side out at first. Fit those two corners into each other so they match and mirror how your right hand looks.

Now, you should have two corners on your left hand and two corners on your right hand.

Step Four: Repeat the process of taking your right hand and “clapping” it onto your left and then folding over your right hand corners so that they are laying on top of the left hand with all four corners now on top of each other.

Shake out the sheet a little and you should have a loose rectangle shape.

Step Five: Lay your sheet on a large flat area like a table, bed, or floor so you can smooth it out. Fold the sheet lengthwise (the long way) into three sections to make it a very long rectangle.

Then, fold the sheet three more times widthwise (the short way) to end up with a neat rectangle. You did it!

PRO TIP: When folding a sheet set, fold the fitted and flat sheet and tuck both of them into the corresponding pillowcase so you can keep the whole set neatly together!

There you go! Once you realize how easy it really is to get a fitted sheet to behave, you’ll never go back to just balling it up and throwing it in the linen closet. Happy folding!

P.S. Check out this post to Make An Easy Duvet Cover With Any Flat Sheet!

The biggest news of all has got to be the conversion of our man cave into a nursery for my 1-year-old son!

Much to my husband’s dismay, of course … he did love that man cave, but sacrifices have to be made when you have kids! You can see my nursery reveal here.

Related: Find more DIY home decor projects here.

As you can see, the room is quite small (in the UK, the third bedroom is usually quite small and we often jokingly refer to it as a “box room”), which meant there wasn’t much space for the bigger essentials like a wardrobe.

Not that I minded—I find wardrobes to be like bulky oversized boxes. So, I decided to create a DIY hanging rail from the ceiling!

It looks so light and minimal but still holds plenty of clothes. And, of course, baby clothes are *the* cutest, so this DIY rail ended up looking aesthetically pleasing, too!

Supplies Needed:
–branch/driftwood or dowel rod
–strong cord/rope
–ceiling hooks
-scissors
-drill
-sandpaper (optional)

Tutorial:

Decide how long you want your clothing rack to be and cut your branch/dowel rod down to this size. I cut mine to the length of the drawers so that the rail would be suspended above and line up nicely.

Drill a hole into both the ends of the branch that’s big enough for your rope/cord to fit through. Sand around the holes if needed to smooth things out and make it easier to pass the rope/cord to go through.

Now, fix your ceiling hooks in using wall plugs (wall anchors). Remember to mark precisely where the holes are in your branch/dowel rod and space the ceiling hooks at exactly the same distance.

Again, I used the dresser as my marker for spacing! But I also used some masking/Frog Tape to mark where the holes would need to be drilled in. It’s a simple but useful way of ensuring precision.

Please note if you’re in a rental where you aren’t allow to draw holes, this branch could be hung with heavy duty self adhesive hooks.

However, It would greatly limit how much you could hang on the rail and would be more for aesthetic purposes rather than function.

Next, cut two pieces of rope to the desired length. Make sure you have a little extra rope to make room for any errors. The extra can always be trimmed later!

Thread your rope through one end of the the branch and make a knot. Do the same with the other side.

At the top of the rope, make a loop knot.

Hang it up on one of the ceiling hooks and trim any excess rope.

Now, hang the other end of the branch on the other hook and tie a loop knot at the end of the rope. This can be a little tricky, as you need to make sure the branch itself hangs level.

And you’re done! I’ve put mine up high enough so that there’s room to hold my son’s longer clothing, like his bedtime onesies. And although I haven’t got many clothes hanging up in the pictures, it can actually hold 2-3 times more!

What do you think? Is this something you think you’ll try? xo, Medina

You can follow me on my blog, Instagram, and TikTok!

P.S. Love this post? Check out Hanging Copper Pipe Clothing Rack DIY.

Print

DIY Hanging Clothes Rail

How to make a DIY hanging rail from the ceiling!

Author Medina Grillo

Equipment

• -scissors
• drill

Ingredients

• branch/driftwood or dowel rod
• strong cord/rope
• ceiling hooks
• sandpaper optional

Instructions

• Decide how long you want your clothing rack to be and cut your branch/dowel rod down to this size. I cut mine to the length of the drawers so that the rail would be suspended above and line up nicely.
• Drill a hole into both the ends of the branch that’s big enough for your rope/cord to fit through. Sand around the holes if needed to smooth things out and make it easier to pass the rope/cord to go through.
• Now, fix your ceiling hooks in using wall plugs (wall anchors). Remember to mark precisely where the holes are in your branch/dowel rod and space the ceiling hooks at exactly the same distance.
• Again, I used the dresser as my marker for spacing! But I also used some masking/Frog Tape to mark where the holes would need to be drilled in. It’s a simple but useful way of ensuring precision.
• Next, cut two pieces of rope to the desired length. Make sure you have a little extra rope to make room for any errors. The extra can always be trimmed later!
• Thread your rope through one end of the the branch and make a knot. Do the same with the other side.
• At the top of the rope, make a loop knot.
• Hang it up on one of the ceiling hooks and trim any excess rope.
• Now, hang the other end of the branch on the other hook and tie a loop knot at the end of the rope. This can be a little tricky, as you need to make sure the branch itself hangs level.

Notes

• I put mine up high enough so that there’s room to hold my son’s longer clothing, like his bedtime onesies. And although I haven’t got many clothes hanging up in the pictures, it can actually hold 2-3 times more!

So why would you want to add more to your plate by also decorating your kids’ rooms for the holidays? While there’s certainly no rule that says you have to, we have a few reasons why we love the tradition and we may convince you to do the same!

For this cheery post we are partnering with our friends at Spoonflower who, in addition to being a go-to spot for wallpaper and fabric, are the perfect place to shop for home decor (and other finishing touches) you may need for your space.

They also support the work of thousands of independent artists and have designs to pick from for any holiday!

Looking for more decor ideas? Check out:

• Choosing My Nursery Wallpaper
• Nova’s Retro Floral Bedroom
• Office Wallpaper – In My Home Office

For my daughter Lola’s holiday room, I picked out this adorable Santa print for a duvet cover. I love how these checked red and green sheets set match, but gives another pop of pattern and color.

I also thought it would be fun to do holiday curtains and picked out these candy cane curtains and this nutcracker wall hanging.

So, why should I decorate my kid’s room for the holidays? I’ll tell you why …

Childhood holiday magic doesn’t last forever: Sad but true. While the holidays still retain magic as an adult, it just can’t quite match the level that you felt as a kid, with the promise of presents, decorations, and the smell of cookies in the air.

So why not play into all that fun while you can and make it as special as possible for them? And seeing that light in their eyes is so fun for you, too!

The holidays are about memories (and physical items have a role!): While holidays are about people and time with loved ones at its core, I think we all have special memories connected with a few physical items from the holidays.

I know my family has a special connection to some Christmas plates and cups we still use every year for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning brunch.

And, I remember the thrill of getting out our special Christmas pajamas and sheet sets each year to make going to bed a magical time.

You can buy items to use year after year to make it simple: While there are some categories that are super fun (like holiday pajamas) if you have kids, you know they grow out of those yearly.

It’s nice to have your main kid’s room decorations be things that they can use year after year like bedsheets and pillows, duvet covers, throw blankets, curtains, or wall hangings.

Making a holiday bookshelf area is also a really cute tradition, and you can use those books over and over and add new ones here and there (or get them from the library!).

Choosing the right items makes decorating super fast: While everyone’s to-do list gets loooong during the holidays, items like bedding are easy to change out. You have to change and wash their sheets every so often anyways, throw pillows can be tossed out in a second, and switching out artwork is super fast.

You can even make paper Santa hats to add to artwork like I did to her cat picture! Picking items that are a snap to set up means that you have more time for cookie decorating and hot chocolate by the fire, right?

It’s just CUTE, OK?!? I mean, do you really need a reason to surprise a kiddo with an adorable room decorated just for them for their favorite holiday of the year?! I didn’t think so. It’s. Just. CUTE.

If your kiddo loves the holidays as much as mine does, then the look on their face once their room is decorated is totally enough to make the effort worth it.

And some kids (like mine) love to help decorate for any occasion, so you can get a mini-helper for the changeover as well. Hope these ideas help make the holidays a little more special for everyone in your house! xo. Laura

Looking to bake something special for the holidays with kids? Check out:

• The Best Vegan Sugar Cookie
• Vegan Royal Icing
• Overnight Cinnamon Rolls – Small Batch
• Our Best Cookie Recipes of All Time!
• Spiced Gingerbread Waffles

Adding trim is a quick way to take a set of Pax wardrobes from looking stock to chic, and you can customize your doors to fit your home’s personality.

Love a good IKEA hack? Check out:

• IKEA Hack: How to Add Cane Webbing to an IVAR Cabinet
• Fluted IKEA Besta Sideboard Hack!
• IKEA Hack: Star Toddler Learning Tower DIY
• Mid-Century Modern IKEA Play Kitchen Hack!

Supplies:
–drill
–painter’s tape
–level
–14″ wooden circle
-straight half round molding (I did a 3/8″ x 3/4″ size moulding)
-half round flexible molding (I did this 3/8″x 3/4″ size flexible moulding)
–miter saw or hand saw and a miter box
–craft saw
–finish nail gun (I love that battery one but this one is a little more budget friendly) and 3/4″ brad nails
–wood filler and fine sandpaper
–caulk
-paint primer (use this one so you don’t have to sand the laminate doors first)
-acrylic paint (with a spindle brush if you can as they are super helpful for painting moulding)

*Note: I like this site a lot for flexible moulding, as they have lots of sizes and you can get it pre-bent into a circle, which is really helpful since the material can be tough to bend from straight.

If you get confused on how to order it, they are really helpful over the phone.

This type of door style works best with a single knob for your door hardware, and it’s usually placed in the middle of the door. So add your hardware first so you can build around it. Knobs like this work great!

Now, we’ll want to use our wooden circle for our arch guide. Drill a hole in the middle of your circle that’s the same size as your door handle screw, so you can take the door handle off and kind of hang the circle on the screw. Use some painter’s tape to keep it from rotating.

Drape the start of your flexible trim over the top of the circle (you can tape it in place if you want to) and line up and tape your first straight trim piece for the top left side.

It should be 3.5″ in from the edge of the door and the end of the trim needs to hang all the way down to just touch the wooden circle.

Now that your straight and flex trim are lined up on the circle, mark a straight line with a pen or pencil where the straight trim hits the top of your flex molding, all the way down to where it hits your wooden circle. Now you have your angle to cut!

When I went to cut the straight trim on my miter saw, I realized pretty quickly that the angle I needed to cut was greater than 45°, which is the max angle for most miter saws. Fortunately, there’s a trick to get your saw to cut more than 45° (which you can fully see in this video).

But, you basically clamp or glue a scrap piece of wood onto your saw, make a 45° cut, and then keep that cut board clamped in place like you see above and you use that as your new guide.

When I rotated my saw angle back towards the middle to the 25° mark, that gave me a 70° angle (45° + 25° = 70°) which lined up with the angle I had drawn and that’s how I found what angle I needed to cut.

To cut the reverse angle for the other side, you can either cut another 45° to mount to the other side of your saw and reverse the process, or you can flip the trim upside down and it will cut a mirror angle.

Want a super simple (no power saw) way to do it? All you have to do is use a hand saw to eyeball it and saw straight across the line you drew the best you can.

Will it be perfect? No, but it will be pretty close and you can use wood filler to fill in any areas where it didn’t perfectly line up.

Now that you have your deep angles cut on your straight sides, tape them back in place while your flexible trim is still draped over your circle and mark with a pen/pencil where the straight trim overlaps the flex trim (so you know where to cut your flex trim).

It is possible to cut flex moulding on a miter saw, but from experience, I would only do that with straight pieces. Sometimes, you can buy them pre-bent like I did, which makes handling them around the circle easier.

Cut it very slowly and carefully—it has a tendency to move or bounce back since it’s kind of a rubbery material.

Overall, I would recommend buying pieces pre-bent like mine and using a craft or hand saw to make the cut since it’s such a steep angle and that material is finicky with a miter saw. Just eyeball the line you made and saw through it to make the cut.

You can also use a heavy duty X-Acto knife and make lots of cuts, but be careful not to cut yourself since the material is rather dense.

Once your flex moulding is cut, you can put your puzzle pieces together as shown to make sure they fit! Now repeat for the bottom section of trim.

Once you are happy with that, you can cut the height of your straight pieces to also hit 3.5″ from the top and bottom of the door at mirroring 45° angles so you can add a smaller piece of straight trim to connect them.

Repeat the process with each of your doors—you can use the pieces you already cut as a template to make it go a lot faster).

Once they are taped in place and you make sure they are all level with the door edges, use a finish nail gun to attach the trim to the door. You can also put down a little wood glue first between the trim and door if you want for extra hold.

Once your trim is attached, it’s time to fill any nail holes with wood filler and sand smooth when dry, caulk where the trim meets the door for a seamless look, and paint the doors so it all matches.

You can also use the wood filled to fill any gaps where your trim didn’t line up perfectly, and that helps it all look like one unit as well.

Since the IKEA doors are laminate, you’ll want to use this primer before you paint. It will help the actual paint stick to the laminate, and you won’t have to sand the doors before painting.

I used Melting Icicles by Behr to match the white that IKEA furniture comes in, and it’s a really great match for your final coats of paint. I used a spindle brush for the trim parts and a small roller for the flat areas.

Once your paint is dry, your customized IKEA Pax cabinets are ready to fill and use!

I really feel like adding the trim to the doors brings the whole wardrobe up to another level. It makes it look so custom and luxe and I absolutely love it.

You can customize your trim to be whatever shape you want, but this Parisian feel fits my home perfectly. If you are about to add an IKEA Pax wardrobe to your space, try this custom trim idea to make it a little more chic and I think you’ll be so glad you did. xo Laura

For more door ideas, check out:

• DIY Arched Door Trim (with Flexible Molding!)
• DIY Circle French Closet Doors
• Star Trim Closet Door DIY
• Add Geometric Panels to Your Plain Closet Doors

Print

Tips to Customize an IKEA Pax Wardrobe

Customize IKEA Pax Wardrobes with Wooden Trim!

Cook Time 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day

Servings 4 doors

Author Laura Gummerman

Cost $50

Equipment

• drill
• level
• miter saw or hand saw and a miter box
• craft saw
• finish nail gun you can rent these from home improvement stores

Ingredients

• painter's tape
• 14" wooden circle
• straight half round molding I did a 3/8″ x 3/4″ size moulding
• half round flexible molding I did this 3/8″x 3/4″ size flexible moulding
• ¾" 18 gauge brad nails
• wood filler and fine sandpaper
• caulk
• paint primer use Zinsser 1, 2, 3
• acrylic paint use a spindle brush

Instructions

• First, we’ll want to use our wooden circle for our arch guide. Drill a hole in the middle of your circle that is the same size as your door handle screw so that you can take the door handle off and kind of hang the circle on the screw. Use some painter’s tape to keep it from rotating.

  Drape the start of your flexible trim over the top of the circle (you can tape it in place if you want to) and line up and tape your first straight trim piece for the top left side so that it’s 3.5″ in from the edge of the door and the end of the trim hangs all the way down to just touch the wooden circle.
• Now that your straight and flex trim are lined up on the circle, mark a straight line with a pen or pencil from where the straight trim hits the top of your flex molding all the way down to where it hits your wooden circle. Now you have your angle to cut!
• When I went to cut the straight trim on my miter saw I realized pretty quickly that the angle I needed to cut was greater than 45°, which is the max angle for most miter saws. Fortunately, there’s a trick to get your saw to cut more than 45° (which you can fully see in this video), but you basically clamp or glue a scrap piece of wood onto your saw, make a 45° cut, and then keep that cut board clamped in place like you see above and you use that as your new guide. When I rotated my saw angle back towards the middle to the 25° mark, that gave me a 70° angle (45° + 25° = 70°) which lined up with the angle I had drawn and that’s how I found what angle I needed to cut.
• To cut the reverse angle for the other side, you can either cut another 45° to mount to the other side of your saw and reverse the process, or you can flip the trim upside down and it will cut a mirror angle.

  Want a super simple (no power saw) way to do it? All you have to do is use a hand saw to eyeball it and saw straight across the line you drew the best you can. Will it be perfect? No, but it will be pretty close and you can use wood filler to fill in any areas where it didn’t perfectly line up.
• Now that you have your deep angles cut on your straight sides, tape them back in place while your flexible trim is still draped over your circle and mark with a pen/pencil where the straight trim overlaps the flex trim so you know where to cut your flex trim.

  It is possible to cut flex moulding on a miter saw, but from experience I would only do that with straight pieces (sometimes you can buy them pre-bent like I did which makes handling them around the circle easer) and cut it very slowly and carefully—it has a tendency to move or bounce back since it’s kind of a rubbery material.

  Overall, I would recommend buying pieces pre-bent like mine and using a craft or hand saw to make the cut since it’s such a steep angle and that material is finicky with a miter saw. Just eyeball the line you made and saw through it to make the cut. You can also use a heavy duty X-Acto knife and make lots of cuts, but be careful not to cut yourself since the material is rather dense.
• Once your flex moulding is cut, you can put your puzzle pieces together as shown to make sure they fit! Now repeat for the bottom section of trim.
• Once you are happy with that, you can cut the height of your straight pieces to also hit 3.5″ from the top and bottom of the door at mirroring 45° angles so you can add a smaller piece of straight trim to connect them.
• Repeat the process with each of your doors (you can use the pieces you already cut as a template to make it go a lot faster) and once they are taped in place and you make sure they are all level with the door edges, use a finish nail gun to attach the trim to the door (you can also put down a little wood glue first between the trim and door if you want for extra hold).
• Once your trim is attached, it’s time to fill any nail holes with wood filler and sand smooth when dry, caulk where the trim meets the door for a seamless look, and paint the doors so it all matches. You can also use the wood filled to fill any gaps where your trim didn’t line up perfectly and that helps it all look like one unit as well.

  Since the IKEA doors are laminate, you’ll want to use this primer before you paint. It will help the actual paint stick to the laminate and you won’t have to sand the doors before painting. I use Melting Icicle by Behr to match the white that IKEA furniture comes in and it’s a really great match for your final coats of paint. I use a spindle brush for the trim parts and then a small roller for the flat areas.

  Once your paint is dry, your customized IKEA Pax cabinets are ready to fill and use!

Notes

*Note: I do like this site a lot for flexible moulding as they have lots of sizes and you can get it pre-bent into a circle, which is really helpful since the material can be tough to bend from straight. If you get confused on how to order it, they are really helpful over the phone.

But, then I remembered that ordering an inexpensive Pax wardrobe and building it into the wall would be the fastest, easiest, and best looking solution to my closet storage problem.

If you’re asking, “How do you make IKEA Pax wardrobes look built in?” it’s actually pretty simple and I was surprised how fast the process went. I’ll show you what I did!

Looking to organize your closet space? Check out these posts:

• How To Customize A Store-Bought Closet System
• How To Organize a Closet in a Non-Permanent Way (No Drilling and Perfect For Renters!)
• Divided Built-In Closet DIY
• Elsie’s Low Waste Closet Renovation
• Easy Built-In Closet DIY

Supplies:
–IKEA Pax wardrobes (I did this double set and added plain doors)
–2 1/2″ or 3″ construction screws
-drill
–miter saw or hand saw with a miter box
-2x4s or 2x2s for base
–finishing nail gun or small finish nails, a hammer, and a nail setter
-baseboard to match your current baseboard
–wood filler and caulk
-paint in your current baseboard color and/or IKEA Pax Wardrobe color

Step one: Remove the baseboard. You’ll want to first remove the baseboard on the wall that you are placing your shelving so that it can sit totally flush against the wall. Just use a box cutter/razor to cut the bead of caulk between the top of the baseboard and the wall to disconnect that connection point.

Then, use a crowbar to gently pry the baseboard off the wall (pull it a little bit every foot or so to try and keep it all coming off at about the same pace to avoid breaking it).

If you want to only remove the amount needed rather than the whole baseboard, you can use a multi-tool like this and mark how much board you want removed based on your closet width and length measurements.

Then cut a line down the board so you can simply pull off the piece you want removed (you can see I did that on the back right corner of my photo).

Step two: Build your simple rectangle platform. You know what a rectangle looks like? Good. All you have to do now is build a base with either 2x4s or 2x2s that is the same size as your cabinet dimensions.

So let’s say for simplicity’s sake your total closet measures 24″ wide and 80″ long, you would build a base 24″ wide and 80″ long so it fits perfectly under your closet.

I used a miter saw for this, but you can also use a hand saw with a miter box to cut your boards to the right lengths.

You’ll see I also cut some middle support boards that are the same length as my end pieces so the middle of the closet had something to rest on as well. Just screw your boards in place from the outside edges and your platform is ready to go.

Optional note: As you can see, the right side of my cabinet is right against the wall, so I did add a 3″ spacer trim board to that side to make it easier to open that door without feeling super tight (I’ll show you how).

You won’t need to do that if you are in a free-standing area, but you may consider it if one side is against the wall like mine and you want to move it out a bit.

It is one extra step, and you need to add that into your total width measurements, but it helped a lot since I had a wall and a window in that corner.

Step three: Attach platform to wall. Use some all-purpose screws to attach the back edge of your base to the wall every 12″ or so. If you had flooring you didn’t care about, you could also drill down into the front edge to secure that to the floor.

But there’s certainly enough weight on the platform once complete to not really need to do that step.

Step four: Add your wardrobes on top (one at a time). Place your closet sections one at a time on the platform, making sure it’s snug against the wall.

The IKEA instructions show you how to connect the sections to each other and then how to connect them to the wall, so just follow their instructions to install.

Step five: Add your trim. Now that your units are sitting on the platform and connected to the wall, you can go ahead and add your baseboard back on. For best results, use a miter saw to cut your baseboard to fit all the way up to and then around your closet (I cut a 45° angle on the corners for a clean look).

Or you can use your hand saw and a miter box if you don’t have a power saw. I cut the wall pieces first to fit and then measured for the pieces around the closet.

Attach with either a finishing nail gun (I have this battery one and I love it) or small finish nails and a hammer and use a nail setter to make sure the head of the nails go in past the face of the wood.

I also added a small piece of cabinet trim to the vertical side gap between the wall and the cabinet (it was actually leftover from my kitchen renovation), but you can order something similar from the cabinet department of a home improvement store.

Or just browse their trim aisle and see if you like anything over there. I just cut it to the height of the cabinet and attached it with a finish nailer.

Step six: Caulk/paint your trim and you’re done! Fill any nail holes with a small amount of wood filler (just wipe with a damp cloth to smooth, easier than sanding) and caulk between the baseboard and the wall or closet to make them look seamless.

When the filler and caulk is dry, paint your baseboards to match either the cabinet or the baseboards in the rest of the room for the ones against the wall only, and your new closet system is ready to use!

I used Melting Icicles by Behr to match IKEA Pax white and it’s a great color match if you are trying to match the stock wardrobe.

Optional side trim/spacer step: If you do decide to add some length to one side (or both) to get a wardrobe door further from a wall (or to center the whole thing into a recessed area but you have a gap on both sides), add your closets to the platform first.

Once they are attached, scribe the curves of the wall onto a board. Walls are never perfectly straight, or in my case, even a little straight, so you want to trace the actual curve of the wall onto the board.

If you haven’t scribed an uneven wall or floor onto a board, this is a good video that shows you how to scribe in general and this one shows how to do it when filling in a cabinet gap like I did. I cut my board to the right height first and then scribed the curves and used an inexpensive jig saw to cut the lines.

Then, I gently tapped my board into the space with a hammer/mallet (being really careful not to push it back too far so that it lined up flush with the wardrobe front) and attached the spacer to the wardrobe with a finish nailer from inside the wardrobe where it’s barely noticeable at all.

Caulk and paint the spacer and the area will totally disappear into the built-in.

How great does that look?! I did also add some custom trim to the doors to make them feel more Parisian and special.

I’ll show you how to do that in another post, but it’s pretty similar to how I added DIY Arched Door Trim (with Flexible Molding!) to the doors in my house.

If you’ve always wanted some built-in closet or wardrobe storage, this is a great way to do it yourself and you can customize it to the size that you need by buying more or less Pax wardrobe units.

This solved a big problem for me in an affordable way and I love the way that it looks in the room. Hope this helps if you’re thinking of doing the same! xo. Laura

P.S. Love this post? Check out Young House Love’s IKEA Pax Wardrobe Closet Makeover.

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Easy Hack to Build-In an IKEA Pax Wardrobe

Easy way to make an IKEA Pax wardrobe look built into the wall

Keyword ikea hack

Prep Time 5 hours hours

Total Time 5 hours hours

Author Laura Gummerman

Cost $50 (not including wardrobe)

Equipment

• drill
• miter saw  or hand saw with a miter box
• finishing nail gun or small finish nails
• hammer
• nail setter

Ingredients

• IKEA Pax wardrobes 
• 2 1/2″ or 3″ construction screws
• 2x4s or 2x2s for base
• baseboard to match your current baseboard
• wood filler and caulk
• paint in your current baseboard color and/or IKEA Pax Wardrobe color

Instructions

• Step one: Remove the baseboard. You’ll want to first remove the baseboard on the wall that you are placing your shelving so that it can sit totally flush against the wall. Just use a box cutter/razor to cut the bead of caulk between the top of the baseboard and the wall to disconnect that connection point and use a crowbar to gently pry the baseboard off the wall (pull it a little bit every foot or so to try and keep it all coming off at about the same pace to avoid breaking it).
• If you want to only remove the amount needed rather than the whole baseboard, you can use a multi-tool like this and mark how much board you want removed based on your closet width and length measurements and the cut a line down the board so you can simply pull off the piece you want removed (you can see I did that on the back right corner of my photo).
• Step two: Build your simple rectangle platform. You know what a rectangle looks like? Good. All you have to do now is build a base with either 2x4s or 2x2s that is the same size as your cabinet dimensions. So let’s say for simplicity’s sake your total closet measures 24″ wide and 80″ long, you would build a base 24″ wide and 80″ long so it fits perfectly under your closet. I used a miter saw for this, but you can also use a hand saw with a miter box to cut your boards to the right lengths.

  You’ll see I also cut some middle support boards that are the same length as my end pieces so the middle of the closet had something to rest on as well. Just screw your boards in place from the outside edges and your platform is ready to go.
• Step three: Attach platform to wall. Use some all-purpose screws to attach the back edge of your base to the wall every 12″ or so. If you had flooring you didn’t care about, you could also drill down into the front edge to secure that to the floor as well, but there’s certainly enough weight on the platform once complete to not really need to do that step.
• Step four: Add your wardrobes on top (one at a time). Place your closet sections one at a time on the platform making sure it’s snug against the wall. The IKEA instructions show you how to connect the sections to each other and then how to connect them to the wall, so just follow their instructions to install.
• Step five: Add your trim. Now that your units are sitting on the platform and connected to the wall, you can go ahead and add your baseboard back on. For best results, use a miter saw to cut your baseboard to fit all the way up to and then around your closet (I cut a 45° angle on the corners for a clean look) or you can use your hand saw and a miter box if you don’t have a power saw. I cut the wall pieces first to fit and then measured for the pieces around the closet. Attach with either a finishing nail gun (I have this battery one and I love it) or small finish nails and a hammer and use a nail-setter to make sure the head of the nails goes in past the face of the wood.

  I also added a small piece of cabinet trim to the vertical side gap between the wall and the cabinet (it was actually leftover from my kitchen renovation but you can order something similar from the cabinet department of a home improvement store or just browse their trim aisle and see if you like anything over there). I just cut it to the height of the cabinet and attached it with a finish nailer.
• Step six: Caulk/paint your trim and you’re done! Fill any nail holes with a small amount of wood filler (just wipe with a damp cloth to smooth, easier than sanding) and caulk between the baseboard and the wall or closet to make them look seamless. When the filler and caulk is dry, paint your baseboards to match either the cabinet or the baseboards in the rest of the room for the ones against the wall only, and your new closet system is ready to use! I use Melting Icicles by Behr to match IKEA Pax white and it’s a great color match if you are trying to match the stock wardrobe.
• Optional side trim/spacer step: If you do decide to add some length to one side (or both) to get a wardrobe door further from a wall (or to center the whole thing into a recessed area but you have a gap on both sides), add your closets to the platform first and once they are attached, scribe the curves of the wall onto a board. Walls are never perfectly straight, or in my case, even a little straight, so you want to trace the actual curve of the wall onto the board.

  If you haven’t scribed an uneven wall or floor onto a board, this is a good video that shows you how to scribe in general and this one shows how to do it when filling in a cabinet gap like I did. I cut my board to the right height first and then scribed the curves and used an inexpensive jig saw to cut the lines. Then I gently tapped my board into the space with a hammer/mallet (being really careful not to push it back too far so that it lined up flush with the wardrobe front) and attached the spacer to the wardrobe with a finish nailer from inside the wardrobe where it’s barely noticeable at all. Caulk and paint the spacer and the area will totally disappear into the built-in.

Notes

Optional note: As you can see, the right side of my cabinet is right against the wall, so I did add a 3″ spacer trim board to that side to make it easier to open that door without feeling super tight (I’ll show you how). You won’t need to do that if you are in a free-standing area, but you may consider it if one side is against the wall like mine and you want to move it out a bit. It is one extra step, and you need to add that into your total width measurements, but it helped a lot since I had a wall and a window in that corner.

We have a pretty small bedroom, and having large dark pieces of furniture doesn’t help the room feel its largest/brightest. But when a bed is fabric, you can’t just repaint it when you get tired of the color.

So what’s a girl to do? Reupholster the bed frame!

Related: How to Easily Fold a Fitted Sheet (With Video)

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Isn’t that a crazy difference in just one day?! I’ll show you what I did with mine, and give you choices to do things the easier no-sew route if you would rather. Or, you can do 10 minutes of very basic sewing—it’s up to you!

Supplies:
–wide bolt upholstery or multi-use fabric in your color of choice (wide enough to cover your headboard and be wrapped around the back, the blush fabric I chose was 54″ wide). I used about 5.5 yards for my bed.
–wide bolt white fabric as an underlayment (optional but helpful if you have thin primary fabric and are going from a dark bed to a light bed)*
–electric staple gun and 1/2″ staples
–fabric scissors and straight pins

*NOW, BEFORE WE BEGIN, I’ll let you know that my bed took a little longer to cover than yours probably will because of two things: the fabric I liked best was on the thinner side and the bed I was covering was a super dark color.

If I didn’t cover the bed in white fabric first, then the blush pink would look kind of dull because you’d be seeing some of the dark grey coming through, but by covering it in white first, you got the full blush color.

If you aren’t going from a very dark bed to a very light colored bed OR if you have a thicker backed fabric like an upholstery grade fabric then you probably won’t need to do this step.

Just lay your fabric choice over your bed frame and if you can’t see any of the color underneath coming through, then skip the white fabric step—faster and cheaper!

OK! So, most fabric covered beds come in four pieces (headboard, two side rails, and a footer) that connect with some sort of hardware pieces like you see above.

Most beds come apart like that because it’s both easier for the manufacturer to wrap the pieces individually, and who has a house with doors and hallways big enough to move a full-sized bed into rooms if it doesn’t come apart, right?

You can also see above that the bed was originally covered with fabric and then stapled into place, and that’s basically what we are going to do too!

Once we had taken apart each of the rails (and removed that wooden spine part in the middle that holds the mattress up) we also took off the connecting hardware on each section, too.

Make sure to label where each piece goes and what direction it faces so you can put it back together at the end.

I also suggest jotting down a quick measurement of where the hardware is connected on each board so you can easily find that spot again if you end up covering that area with fabric.

For example, 8″ in from the outside edge and 1/2″ up from the bottom type of measurements. 

I also unscrewed the legs from the header and footer and made a note of where those holes were located.

Your legs may have a plate they attach to or just go directly into the wood, so remove the plate if there is one there. 

The Sewing Option

I laid the headboard onto a section of my white fabric (with the right side of the fabric facing the headboard) that was big enough to wrap the headboard, and wrapped and pinned the fabric around the back. Be sure to get the fabric smooth and tight.

The small section of sewing that I did was at the top corner of each side of the headboard. I smoothed out the fabric and pinned the corner together so that the sides came together nicely (like you see in the top two frames.) Repeat that smoothing and pinning with the opposite side.

Next, I removed the pins that were holding the fabric on the headboard, removed the fabric from the headboard, and sewed down that line where the corner pins were and cut the excess.

Then, I tried the cover back on the headboard to see how it fit and pinched and sewed a little more fabric if it didn’t fit very snugly.

Once I had the fit right, I turned the fabric right side out and put it back on so that I had the nice sewn corner that you see in the last frame.

The No-Sew Option

If you don’t want to be bothered by sewing, you can lay your headboard on your fabric (with the right side facing outwards) and wrap your corners like you would wrap a nice present and staple in place!

The above two photos are how I wrapped the bottom of the headboard, so the only difference is that you’ll want to make sure you have enough fabric length to have that open side (in the first picture) come all the way up and over the back. That way, you can staple it on the back where it won’t be seen at all.

I did the quick sewing option at the top two corners of the headboard and the footboard to make them look extra clean, but I wrapped all the other edges like you see above.

Just be constantly thinking about what edges will be seen and which will be hidden under the bed, etc., so you know which edges should be totally covered.

And if you are using two layers of fabric and doing the new-sew option, I would layer the fabrics on top of each other with your main fabric on the bottom and the right side facing the floor. Then, wrap them around the corners at the same time rather than one at a time.

Take care to smooth them really well before placing your headboard on top, but doing them together should give you a less bulky fold than if you did them separately.

Once your sides are wrapped and the fabric is smoothed and pinned to the back, use your staple gun to secure your fabric in place on the back/bottom of your headboard.

You’ll want to staple into something hard rather than just an area of foam or something, so feel around for the wooden frame under your fabric and staple your fabric secure to that down each side.

I like to start in the middle of each section and have one person smooth and hold the fabric tight while the other staples every 5-6″. Once you reach one end, go back to the middle and complete the other side.

You may occasionally reach a spot that’s really hard wood where your staple gun doesn’t quite go all the way in and that’s OK.

You can try another spot nearby or hammer your staple flat, and as long as most of it went in it will hold. Trim any excess fabric as needed.

Once I had my headboard wrapped and covering the white fabric, I repeated the process (with the pink fabric) of pinning the corners, sewing, and stapling the fabric in place.

You’ll only have to do it once though if you don’t need the white underneath. 

Here’s what the bottom side looks like from the back with both layers stapled!

How Do I Put the Hardware Back On?

To put the hardware back on, we poked around the spots where we knew the holes were (based on our measurements we took before taking them off) with a pin or an awl until we found the holes. Then, we drilled our screws back in to create holes in the fabric.

It’s a little harder to find the holes with two layers of fabric, so we found the holes through one layer and put the screws in and took them out again.

This made the holes easier to find (and mark on the second layer) so we could put the hardware back on over the top of the fabric. We used the same method for connecting the legs back on.

See? All ready to connect to the other pieces!

At this point, I just repeated the process of laying out fabric that was big enough for my section, wrapping each piece, and stapling it in place.

I found it easier to do the two sides with both fabric layers at once since I was simply folding and stapling those corners.

But then, I did the headboard and footboard with the white and pink layers separately since I was sewing those top corners and that kept the fabric smooth. 

Tip: If you are using two layers of fabric, trim excess fabric off the underneath layer to get a cleaner, less bulky corner fold (like I did with the white fabric) above.

What if the Staples Don’t Go Through the Fabric?

If you come to a really hard spot in the wood where your staple gun can’t get through, you can use small nails to tack that section in place.

Once all your pieces are covered, reattach all your hardware and legs and put your new bed back together!

Since the fabric made the bed a little thicker in some spots, it was helpful to leave the screws out about 1/4″ when putting the hardware back on. That way, you could fit the pieces together more easily and then tighten the screws once the frame was back together again.

Reattach the spine middle part of your bed and you’re ready for the mattress and covers!

Love this post? Learn how to make an upholstered headboard here!

I have to say, I felt pretty good about this project, but it came out so much better than I ever expected! I would be shocked if I saw this in someone else’s house and they told me they had recovered it.

This simple method did remove the tufted look that the headboard had before, but I like it better that way since it looks more modern.

If your headboard has tufts that you want to keep, use extra fabric to cover some buttons in the new color, find the buttons under the fabric, and use a curved needle to sew the buttons onto the top of the existing buttons for more of a tufted look.

Overall, I love this before/after and you could actually grab a staple remover in the future if you ever want to recover again in another color. Hope this DIY helps you give your bedroom a budget makeover, too!

P.S. You can see how my bedroom finally came together and the rest of my home tours here! xo. Laura

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Reupholster Your Bed Frame in One Afternoon

How to recover your bed in one day!

Keyword bed frame, upholstery

Author Laura Gummerman

Equipment

• electric staple gun and 1/2" staples or manual staple gun
• fabric scissors
• straight pins

Ingredients

• wide bolt upholstery or multi-use fabric in your color of choice wide enough to cover your headboard and be wrapped around the back (the fabric I chose was 54″ wide). I used about 5.5 yards for my bed
• wide bolt white fabric as an underlayment optional, but helpful if you have thin primary fabric and are going from a dark bed to a light bed

Instructions

• Take apart the pieces of your bed frame
• Once we had taken apart each of the rails (and removed that wooden spine part in the middle that holds the mattress up) we also took off the connecting hardware on each section too. Make sure to label where each piece goes and what direction it faces so you can put it back together at the end. I also suggest jotting down a quick measurement of where the hardware is connected on each board so you can easily find that spot again if you end up covering that area with fabric (like 8″ in from the outside edge and 1/2″ up from the bottom type of measurements). 
• I also unscrewed the legs as well from the header and footer and made a note of where those holes are located too. Your legs may have a plate they attach to or just go directly into the wood, so remove the plate if there is one there. 
• THE SEWING OPTION: Next, I laid the headboard onto a section of my white fabric (with the right side of the fabric facing the headboard) that was big enough to wrap the headboard and wrapped and pinned the fabric around the back trying to get the fabric smooth and tight. The small section of sewing that I did was at the top corner of each side of the headboard. I smoothed out the fabric and pinned the corner together so that the sides came together nicely like you see in the top two frames. Repeat that smoothing and pinning with the opposite side.
• Next, I removed the pins that were holding the fabric on the headboard, removed the fabric from the headboard and sewed down that line where the corner pins were and cut the excess. I then tried the cover back on the headboard again to see how it fit and pinched and sewed a little more fabric if it didn’t fit very snugly. Once I had the fit right, I turned the fabric right side out and put it back on so that I had the nice sewn corner that you see in the last frame.
• THE NO-SEW OPTION: If you don’t want to be bothered by sewing, you can lay your headboard on your fabric (with the right side facing outwards) and wrap your corners like you would wrap a nice present and staple in place! The above two photos are how I wrapped the bottom of the headboard so the only difference is that you’ll want to make sure you have enough fabric length to have that open side in the first picture come all the way up and over the back so you can staple it on the back where it won’t be seen at all.

  I did the quick sewing option at the top two corners of the headboard and the footboard to make them look extra clean, but I wrapped all the other edges like you see above. Just be constantly thinking about what edges will be seen and which will be hidden under the bed, etc., so you know which edges should be totally covered.

  And if you are using two layers of fabric and doing the new-sew option, I would layer the fabrics on top of each other with your main fabric on the bottom and the right side facing the floor, and wrap them around the corners at the same time rather than one at a time. Take care to smooth them really well before placing your headboard on top, but doing them together should give you a less bulky fold than if you did them separately.
• Once your sides are wrapped in whichever way you choose and the fabric is smoothed and pinned to the back, use your staple gun to secure your fabric in place on the back/bottom of your headboard. You’ll want to staple into something hard rather than just an area of foam or something, so feel around for the wooden frame under your fabric and staple your fabric secure to that down each side. I like to start in the middle of each section and have one person smooth and hold the fabric tight while the other staples every 5-6″. Once you reach one end, go back to the middle and complete the other side. You may occasionally reach a spot that’s really hard wood where your staple gun doesn’t quite go all the way in and that’s OK. You can try another spot nearby or hammer your staple flat, and as long as most of it went in it will hold. Trim any excess fabric as needed.
• So, once I had my headboard wrapped and covering the white fabric, I repeated the process with the pink fabric of pinning the corners, sewing, and stapling the fabric in place. You’ll only have to do it once though if you don’t need the white underneath. 
• To put the hardware back on, we poked around the spots where we knew the holes were (based on our measurements we took before taking them off) with a pin or an awl until we found the holes and drilled our screws back in to create holes in the fabric. It’s a little harder to find the holes with two layers of fabric, so we found the holes through one layer, put the screws in and took them out again, and that made the holes easier to find and mark on the second layer so we could put the hardware back on over the top of the fabric. Do the same thing for connecting the legs back on as well.
• Basically, at this point, I just repeated the process of laying out fabric that was big enough for my section, wrapping each piece, and stapling in place. I found it easier to do the two sides with both fabric layers at once since I was simply folding and stapling those corners, but then I did the headboard and footboard with the white and pink layers separately since I was sewing those top corners and that kept the fabric smooth. 
• A little tip if you are doing two layers of fabric is that you can trim excess fabric off the underneath layer to get a cleaner, less bulky corner fold like I did with the white above. Also, if you come to a really hard spot in the wood where your staple gun just can’t get through, you can use small nails to tack that section in place.
• Once all your pieces are covered, reattach all your hardware and legs and put your new bed back together! Since the fabric made the bed a little thicker in some spots, it was helpful to leave the screws out about 1/4″ when putting the hardware back on. That way, you could fit the pieces together more easily and then tighten the screws once the frame was back together again. Reattach the spine middle part of your bed and you’re ready for the mattress and covers!

Plus, adding new envelope pillow cover to your space is one of the quickest ways to give your couch or bed a mini makeover. You can slip it on and off with the seasons— but you might never want to put this velvet pillow away!

If you’ve got access to a sewing machine and can stitch a straight-ish line, you can fill your couch with a lush, quilted velvet pillow for a little more hygge this winter. Warning: you’ll want to take more naps.

Adding simple stitch lines to the front piece of your pillow is an easy way to add a subtle pattern and add more interest to your pile.

I even added some mid-century looking star shapes to my brick red pillow to give it a subtle nod to the holidays. You can layer these up or mix and match with different woven cotton or knitted wool pillows for a visual feast at the end of your couch. Supplies:
-2/3 yard of wide selvedge pink velvet fabric for 16″ pillows and 1/2 yard for 12″ pillows
–pillow insert of matching size (16″ pillow insert for 16″ pillow, etc.)
-sewing machine and coordinating thread
-fabric scissors
-straight pins
-chalk or marker
-acrylic ruler
–cutting mat (optional)

Since these are a bit larger, I’m going to share the process of making the gold version of the quilted lines pillow using a smaller sample. It’s a 6″ x 6″ size instead of 16″ x 16″.

No matter what size pillow you are wanting to create, cut the fabric to be the same size as the pillow insert. You don’t want to add an inch to make it fit or it will be loose and floppy. Ask me how I know this.

Step One: For a 16″ pillow, cut one piece of fabric that measures 16″ x 16″ for the front.

Then, cut another two pieces that measure 12″ x 16″ for the back pieces. You want your two back pieces to overlap by at least 5″. For diagonal stripes on your pillow, turn your 16″ square piece so that the velvet side is facing down.

Use your acrylic ruler and cutting mat to draw straight lines as far apart as you’d like them for your design. I suggest either 1/2″ or 1″ apart. Just keep it consistent and it’ll look great!

If you’d like a star design, use your acrylic ruler to draw a variety of star shapes on the back side. Just be sure you’re back stitching at the beginning and ending of a stitch line to keep your stitches from unraveling.

Step Two: Follow your stitch lines with your sewing machine and trim up your ends when you’re finished.

Step Three: For each of the two back sides, fold one of the long edges down once for a 1/2″ and then again 1/2″. Pin in place. Stitch along the folded edge. Make sure you’re folding onto the wrong side so that the right side of the fabric is showing after you’ve stitched together as shown.

Step Four: Place one of your back sides on top of the front piece so that the right sides are facing each other and three of the edges are lined up as shown. Pin in place along the three edges.

Step Five: Repeat with the second back side. Your hemmed edges should be overlapping a bit more than mine show in the example. Pin in place.

Stitch all the way around the perimeter of your pillow so that you’re stitching through both pieces as you go. Remove pins.

Step Six: Turn pillow right side out, poke out the corners, and insert your pillow form. Fluff and enjoy!

I love the way the light catches the velvet. It makes you want to grab a good book and cozy up for the evening!Are we still karate chopping our pillows? I think these didn’t have enough weight to them to stay chopped.

Find yourself a faux down insert for an even more high end effect and everyone will be asking where you bought your pillow! – Rachel

Looking for more cute pillow DIYS?

• Round Velvet Pillow DIY
• How to Sew a Zippered Throw Pillow
• Rainbow Roving Pillow DIY
• The Cutest Throw Pillow Roundup!

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Quilted Velvet Pillow DIY

An easy pillow tutorial using velvet fabric

Keyword pillow diy, velvet pillow

Author Rachel Denbow

Equipment

• sewing machine

Ingredients

• 2/3 yard of wide selvedge pink velvet fabric for 16″ pillows and 1/2 yard for 12″ pillows
• pillow insert of matching size 16″ pillow insert for 16″ pillow, etc.
• sewing machine and coordinating thread
• fabric scissors
• straight pins
• chalk or marker
• acrylic ruler
• cutting mat optional

Instructions

• For a 16″ pillow, cut one piece of fabric that measures 16″ x 16″ for the front.

  Then, cut another two pieces that measure 12″ x 16″ for the back pieces. You want your two back pieces to overlap by at least 5″. For diagonal stripes on your pillow, turn your 16″ square piece so that the velvet side is facing down.

  Use your acrylic ruler and cutting mat to draw straight lines as far apart as you’d like them for your design. I suggest either 1/2″ or 1″ apart. Just keep it consistent and it’ll look great!

  If you’d like a star design, use your acrylic ruler to draw a variety of star shapes on the back side. Just be sure you’re back stitching at the beginning and ending of a stitch line to keep your stitches from unraveling.
• Follow your stitch lines with your sewing machine and trim up your ends when you’re finished.
• For each of the two back sides, fold one of the long edges down once for a 1/2″ and then again 1/2″. Pin in place. Stitch along the folded edge. Make sure you’re folding onto the wrong side so that the right side of the fabric is showing after you’ve stitched together as shown.
• Place one of your back sides on top of the front piece so that the right sides are facing each other and three of the edges are lined up as shown. Pin in place along the three edges.
• Repeat with the second back side. Your hemmed edges should be overlapping a bit more than mine show in the example. Pin in place.

  Stitch all the way around the perimeter of your pillow so that you’re stitching through both pieces as you go. Remove pins.
• Turn pillow right side out, poke out the corners, and insert your pillow form. Fluff and enjoy!

Notes

Since these are a bit larger, I’m going to share the process of making the gold version of the quilted lines pillow using a smaller sample. It’s a 6″ x 6″ size instead of 16″ x 16″. No matter what size pillow you are wanting to create, cut the fabric to be the same size as the pillow insert. You don’t want to add an inch to make it fit or it will be loose and floppy.

Credits//Author and Photography: Rachel Denbow.

It all started with this beautiful antique mantle I found on Facebook Marketplace. I’ve been trying to squeeze a fireplace into our historic home for years now (yes, my home is the old ABM studio) and when I saw this piece, I knew it had to be mine. It matches the time period of our house perfectly! Just look at that stained glass. *Sigh*

After a bit of haggling on the price, thanks to my husband (I CANNOT HAGGLE—I am so bad at it), the mantle was mine! I had already planned out how I wanted to box in the mantle opening to fit an electric fireplace insert, so I called up my friend, Evan, to tell me if my idea was crazy or doable. Yes, I bought the mantle before asking if my vision was realistic. I have no chill. Evan is also the person who helped me finish up the daisy table and built the shelves for my book nook, so I knew if my idea wouldn’t work, he could find a way.

Also, here’s your friendly reminder: if you aren’t a woodworker, there’s no shame in hiring someone or asking a friend! You don’t have to do EVERYTHING yourself!

Here are a couple of Evan’s renderings so you can get an idea of how he fit the insert into the mantle. I sent him the measurements for the fireplace insert I was planning to buy, and he boxed in the bottom and added a panel at the top so I could add some decorative stick-on tile. Oh! Let’s pause here. Stick-on tile has come a LONG way since I last checked it out. From where we sit in our bedroom, you cant even tell it’s fake!

The plywood behind it had to be painted for it to adhere, but I was very impressed with the quality of the stickers and the stickiness of the adhesive. I just cut them to size with scissors and stuck them where I wanted! So easy.

So, the breakdown for this DIY is: find a mantle secondhand, pick a electric fireplace insert that will fit, have the opening customized (by someone with skills if you aren’t a woodworker), don’t forget the tile stickers to add some pizazz, and enjoy your very own fireplace! I’ve never loved my bedroom more!

When I walk in here at night and turn on the faux flame and the little heater, it feels so magical. 2020 is definitely my year for all things cozy. What projects have been you been getting excited over lately? xo. Katie