DIY Door Headboard

So many projects!  In honor of the ShakeOut on Thursday, I will share a project done this weekend and earlier today, not just for aesthetics, but for safety reasons.

When I was younger, my mother owned a floral shop, and she had this amazing door that she would use to spray paint against.  I have used this door as my headboard for years-- but even in San Francisco, I just screwed it into the wall!  No anchors, no studs, just straight, powdery, flaky drywall.  I can't believe I lived in San Francisco for four years with this wedge of wood just hanging precariously over my head... not to mention the unaware who would bonk their head on the doorknob.  

Once again relocated to an earthquake zone (and to make it pretty, of course), I added legs and thick bolts (with washers) to stabilize the door behind the bed.  It now looks a proper headboard: whaddya think?

New Digs!

I have returned, with all kinds of newness and fabulosity!  A new design, a new apartment, a new city, a new school... even some new flats-- but more on those later.  

With all this newness, I have committed myself to this blogging thing, in the sake of being a future "information professional"-- a librarian, that is.  After only three classes, I have been amazed and astounded at the intensity of academic study that goes into blogs, Wikipedia, Google, Bing... you name it, somebody has written a thesis on it!  I imagine I'll talk more about this later, as well.  The really juicy bits I want to share is my new pad.

I've been in my new West Hollywood apartment for one and a half weeks, and my stuff is all moved in. Things are still changing-- and missing.  I need a couch, a nightstand, and a cheese grater, among other things, but in the past I have always jumped into buying what I needed, in addition to what I already had, right away.  The resulting effect was being sick of my apartment decor in two months, which meant taking all the curtains down, re-dying them, sewing new pillows, and spending hours in thrift stores looking for dishes in this particular shade of olive that they have exactly at Restoration Hardware, but who can afford that malarkey?  I want this to be a bit more of a growing process, adding only things I love, one at a time.  

So I may have to lie on the carpet for awhile-- I don't really like chairs anyway-- at least, for sitting in.  I use to rescue chairs from the San Francisco sidewalks, and line them up on the walls all over my apartment, then stack books, plants, or whatever on the seats.  This was incredibly frustrating to my roommates, but I thought it was just adorable.  When I moved all my things out of storage last fall, I had eight mis-matched chairs (two with no seats), and almost nothing else!

So let's see where things stand so far, some areas I'm really digging:

My desk (vitally important, as I already have a ton of homework!), and my coffee cart, which I have some plans for, but is serving its caffeinating purpose just fine for now:

I love my mantel, but I cannot figure out what to do with my empty fireplace: I have a couple ideas, but I would love to hear more!

And, of course, what would my apartment be without a wall of books?  I really need to get a fourth bookcase though; they're starting to spill out!

Today-- the new apartment; tomorrow, the new school!