I fall more in love with Hawaii every time I visit. I would love to someday call it home.

I letterpressed the baby shower invite on my L:

I carried over the stroller and bunting theme to the diaper cake, which I had so much fun decorating with Burt’s Bees Baby Bee items. The cake was the centerpiece of the dessert table, which featured mini chocolate cupcakes and vanilla and chocolate French macarons.

I love the two photos below. I took the one on the left the day she told me she was expecting, and RH took the one on the right this weekend after AR and I realized we hadn’t gotten a single photo together at the shower.

I miss my friend terribly, but I’m excited about planning a trip to visit her, her hubby and their new baby very soon!

Want to know how I made my reclaimed wood barn door headboard?

Once I decided to make my headboard, I began researching. I found lots of info on building your own headboard using wooden boards, and I also ran across tutorials on faking the reclaimed wood, but there wasn’t a tutorial on reclaiming your own wood from a barn and making a headboard out of it. So for those of you who are interested in doing the same thing, I’ll walk you through the following steps:

1. Find
2. Store
3. Clean
4. Treat
5. Assemble
6. Enjoy

Find

I wasn’t planning to make a headboard out of barn doors, but I guess it was meant to be. I knew I wanted to replace our headboard, and I was searching Craigslist for reclaimed wood when I ran across a listing for an old barn being taken apart and sold by the board. The owner of the barn also had four barn doors. I immediately thought of using a barn door for the headboard, thinking it would be cooler than a store-bought headboard and easier than building my own from scratch.

(Now that it’s finished, I realize I was right about the first part, but definitely wrong about the second part. Making this headboard was a lot of work!)

After communicating with the listing owner, RH and I made the trek out to what I would call “the country” in Gainesville, north of the metro Atlanta area. The barn was an honest-to-goodness barn, complete with the charming stench of horse manure.

Tips if you’re crazy enough to try this yourself:

1. Determine how many doors you need. I originally planned to turn one door on its side and mount it to wooden legs, but then I realized that it would have been far too narrow for my wide king-sized bed. I decided that two doors standing side-by-side would work better. I also bought one standalone barn wood board in case I decided to add extra width to the headboard.
2. Wear proper shoes. I totally wore the wrong shoes and—while I looked cute in my houndstooth knit flats—I was at risk of stepping on a nail or, at the very least, getting horse poop on them.
3. Make sure the door(s) will fit in your car. Get the dimensions ahead of time and measure your cargo area. Bring an old blanket to protect your seats and cargo bed from the doors, as they may be filthy and full of nails.
4. Bring a friend. These doors are frequently solid wood, so they can be very heavy!

Store

Our loft is on the small side, and we don’t have a basement, garage or other large storage area. I realized that it was really important to figure out a good spot to store the doors while I worked on them. I didn’t want them to be in the way, especially while they were still straight-from-the-barn dirty.

It was dark by the time we got home with the doors, and I couldn’t work on them immediately. I removed the dangerous nails that were sticking out and wedged the doors between the treadmill and the wall in our office, covered in one of those plastic blue tarps.

Clean

I waited until the next weekend to clean the doors so I could work outside during daylight. Because I live in a loft-condo, I’m very limited in the options I have for cleaning large items like these doors. Some of the info I read suggested using a pressure washer to wash barn wood clean. That might have worked, but I would have been worried about damaging the wood and metal hinges. I didn’t even access to a hose, much less a pressure washer. Instead, I used two 5-gallon buckets and a 20″ gong brush out on my little patio. I would have preferred to have had a hose and nozzle sprayer to wash down the doors. I’m sure the people walking by my place that day wondered what the heck I was up to!

I filled the first bucket with warm water and a mild detergent (a few drops of Shaklee Basic H—but you could use dishwashing liquid) and the second bucket with clean warm water. I dipped the brush into the soapy water and began scrubbing the doors down, alternating every now and then with clean water to rinse off the soap and dirt. It took me a couple of hours to scrub down the barn wood board and both doors, front and back. I replaced the water in both buckets halfway through when it became too dirty.

Once the doors and board were sufficiently scrubbed, I propped them up outside to let them dry. After a few hours of drying, I brought them inside overnight.

Treat

While I’m sure Timmy Termite and Paul the Powder Post Beetle would love to join us for dinner sometime, I knew I had to do something to make sure a host of creepy crawlies didn’t infiltrate our place. This is the subject that I spent the most time reading about.

There are many options for treating unfinished wood, including commercial products like Boracare and Timbor, but I didn’t feel comfortable using them on a headboard—which would be very close to our heads every night—especially since the homebrew version of Boracare contains antifreeze. Besides that, Boracare is pretty pricey.

The day after scrubbing the doors and board clean, I decided to treat the wood using a Borax solution. Borax has the same primary ingredient as Boracare (borate), but it’s much safer for people.

I mixed 3 cups of Borax into 1 gallon of warm water and stirred to dissolve as much of it as possible. My original plan was to spray the solution onto the wood, but that worked for about three minutes before the spray bottle became clogged by the Borax crystals solidifying. I ended up changing from my leather work gloves to latex gloves and soaking a sponge with the solution. I then pressed the sponge onto the surface of the wood, making sure to cover every exposed piece of the doors I could reach—front, back, top and bottom. This took way longer than spraying would have taken, but I was satisfied that I was able to sufficiently soak the wood in the solution. Theoretically, any pests in the wood will either dry out or eat the borate in the wood and die. I am counting on this working!

After treating the wood with the Borax solution, I let the doors and board dry all day outside and then for another six days inside since I had to wait for another weekend to continue the process. I figured this was plenty of time for the wood to dry thoroughly and also to acclimate to the temperature/humidity inside our place.

As the wood dried, little crystals of Borax began to form on the surface. My plan was to lay out a huge plastic drop cloth on my patio, move the doors back outside, and brush the crystals off. This weekend was insanely windy though, and I was worried about the crystals flying into my hair and my eyes, even though I am a safety nerd and wear the oh-so-stylish safety goggles and dust mask while I work.

Instead of working outside in the wind, I covered the guest bathroom in the plastic drop cloth and brushed down the wood board in the tub. Then I realized that there was no way the barn doors were going to make it into the guest bath tub gracefully, so I moved the drop cloth and set up a little work area in the living room. I don’t have any photos of that, but it seriously looked like a HazMat area with everything covered in plastic and me waving around my gong brush while decked out in goggles and a face mask.

I brushed down the doors, with the key word being brushed down. Downward strokes ensured that the crystals and any remaining dirt fell down onto the drop cloth instead of flying through the air. I vacuumed the drop cloth with my DustBuster a few times while I was working, and when every surface of the doors had been brushed, I rolled up the drop cloth and stuffed it into a garbage bag.

Assemble

If I wanted to stain the wood, I would have done that after thoroughly cleaning the wood from the Borax treatment. I decided to leave the wood natural and unfinished though.

With the doors in good shape, it was time to assemble the headboard! I moved the old headboard out of the way and carefully moved the single doors into place, side-by-side. I tried various configurations (the “Z” facing the wall, facing out, hinges open, hinges closed) before RH helped me find the winning look. The doors are a little crooked, so I placed the single barn wood board behind the middle of the headboard, where the two doors should meet and instead leave a rather large gap.

Enjoy

And with that, the headboard was pretty much complete! I want to get a pair of those little furniture wedges to try to tilt the doors toward the center a bit and minimize the gap. I also improvised a headboard “skirt” of sorts by taping together a few flat (unfolded) cupcake boxes and wrapping them around the base of the doors to provide a barrier between the wood and the mattress. I’d like to replace that with a piece of burlap or linen filled with batting.

The true test came when I moved the decorative pillows that were leaning up against the doors. Since they are white, I honestly expected them to show at least a little red dirt, but they were spotless!

I absolutely love it and can’t wait to continue the master bedroom transformation! I attended a Benjamin Moore color workshop at west elm tonight, so now I’m jazzed about picking paint colors. I’m planning on using a flat white paint, and tonight’s workshop convinced me to paint the trim in the same shade instead of using grey as I had originally planned. I had also thought a warmer shade of white would match the warm wood headboard better, but the Benjamin Moore color consultant suggested I use a cooler white on the walls with the warm wood headboard as the focal piece.

I’ll share how the updates are going, but in the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for stopping by!

Aren’t these aqua blue mason jars beautiful?

They were passed on to me by RH’s mother this weekend, and I can’t wait to transform them into something wonderful for our home!

Meanwhile, I’ve made fantastic progress on the barn door headboard. I’ll be sharing pics and details soon!

RH and I took these photos on our trip to Oregon last year. I think they’re pretty special, just like Leap Day!

We spent one night of our week in Oregon in Pacific City, a tiny little town on the coast. We stayed at an inn directly across from the beach, this awesome Haystack Rock, and a local brewery. Even though it was only one night and we hardly did a thing, this was one of my favorite parts of our trip.

If you haven’t been to Oregon, go—NOW. It’s one of my favorite places ever!

It was great to see so many people out supporting this local business after such a horrible event.

The wait was totally worth it. RH and I noshed on some yummy pastries for breakfast. My favorite was the buttermilk custard tart. Oh my WORD.

Best wishes to Sugar-Coated Radical for continued success and support from the community!

Today I learned that the owner and her family were robbed last night.

If you live in the area, please consider taking part in the CashMob on Sunday to show your support for a local business. And you can pick up some yummies, so it’s a win-win! Sundays are my favorite day of the week there, because it’s when the owner whips out her mad baking skills for “Bakery Sunday.”

I took these photos on one of my first “Bakery Sunday” visits to the shop. Here’s hoping that they can bounce back and keep on keepin’ on!

After reviewing my “bedroom” Pinterest board with RH, we decided on a general color scheme and theme. The walls will be painted white, with grey trim and simple furnishings and accessories.

One of the central components of my plan has been to replace our existing headboard—which I bought when I was single and is rather feminine—with something that has more character. So, today I reclaimed some wood!

I ran across a Craigslist posting for a 100-year-old barn that is being dismantled into barn wood boards and doors. I exchanged a few emails with the owner of the listing and confirmed that the doors would fit into the back of my car. RH and I drove way outside the city this afternoon (“this is like a road trip!” I said as the mountains of North Georgia came into sight), and eventually we were pulling into a long dirt driveway that led to a small house, two barns, and a friendly pit bull.

After stomping through mud and…well…barn debris, I decided to get two barn doors for the headboard. I also got one standalone board of the same height, figuring I could use the extra piece of wood either to add some width to the headboard or as a base for a bench.

As RH studied the doors, he noted that they were taller than him, which would make them several inches taller than the 60″ length I was quoted over email. I had measured the car and was satisfied when I saw that it had plenty of room to clear a 60″ long door. Now, however, we learned that the doors were actually 68″ long—and we weren’t sure if the doors would fit after all.

We measured the cargo area of the car and it was…68 inches long. The DIY faeries must have been smiling on me today, because the doors barely fit! And when I say barely, I really do mean it. If those doors had been just one inch longer, we would have had to turn around and come home empty-handed.

Hooray! Barn doors in my car!

By the time we swung by Home Depot to buy a tarp and finally made it home, it was dark. I tried dusting off the pieces with a broom, but they’re still pretty filthy. I also removed all the nails that were sticking out and just asking for an injury (and tetanus shot!).

The wood is now tucked away under the tarp in the office until I can put a plan together to turn it all into something beautiful! I’m really excited about transforming a small part of this 100-year-old barn into something so substantial for our home. I’m also a little nervous since I’ve never taken on a project quite like this before.

Most of all, though, I’m thankful for my sweet husband, who surely thinks I’m a little nuts for trying to tackle such a large project within the confines of our tiny condo. But he drove me out to the middle of nowhere, lugged the heavy barn doors around for me, and even helped me wrestle the last stubborn nail out of one of the doors.

I’m a very lucky girl.

Now let’s see if I’m as handy as I imagine myself to be!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Over the weekend (before I came down with the ick), I made marshmallows to take to the office for Valentine’s Day.

I made vanilla marshmallows and chocolate cinnamon marshmallows. So yummy!

• My favorite vanilla marshmallow recipe is Alton Brown’s Homemade Marshmallows. It’s pretty foolproof, although it is a bit messy.
• Inspired by this Chocolate Swirl Cinnamon Marshmallows recipe, I made a second batch of Alton’s vanilla marshmallows and tossed in about 3 oz. of chocolate chips near the end of whipping the marshmallow fluff. Hours later, after that batch was ready and had been cut into squares, I tossed those marshmallows in a combination of powdered sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon. While most of the chocolate chips melted into a pretty swirl, some of them didn’t melt completely, leaving chocolate chunks in some of the marshmallows. Divine!

I boxed the marshmallows up with some red ribbon and home-letterpressed tags. I’ve still got nothing but love for my L Letterpress. I’ve done a few more small-run letterpress projects at home since my personal notecards, and while inking up the brayer (and eventually cleaning it) are kind of a pain, I love the convenience of being able to produce really nice quality letterpress prints at home.

On another note, I’m feeling a lot better. Maybe I just had a 24-hour bug. Saturday, in addition to making marshmallows and letterpressing, I did several things around the house, so now I’m suspicious that I’m allergic to housework.

In any case, I’m glad I’m feeling better, because RH and I always cook a special dinner at home for Valentine’s Day. This year, we’re making filet mignon with red wine sauce and chocolate soufflés for dessert. RH could probably handle the filet mignon, but I’m having a hard time envisioning him pulling picture-perfect soufflés out of the oven!

I hope my co-workers enjoy their treats!

It sucks.

This, however, does not suck:

That, my friends, is the beautiful Nars Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Hopi—a pretty peachy nude that I’ll be sporting when I’m feeling well enough to care what the heck I look like. It’s a big, buttery pencil that glides on without the stickiness or goop of many lip glosses. It’s like a cross between a lip gloss, lipstick and lip pencil all in one!

It’s no fun being sick, especially when I don’t even have the energy to binge on chocolate and ice cream to make myself feel better. But sharing a new favorite lifts my spirits a bit and takes my mind off having the crud…and the fact that it’s Monday.

Any favorite tips for banishing a bad cold? Meanwhile, I’m off to down some more fluids!