Faux Flower Headboard

So I found a super cute idea on pinterest (big shocker there) that I know I just had to do for Morgan. First I should start with the backstory to Morgan's bed. We bought a whole Ashley's Furniture bedroom set for her. I'm talking the whole shabang. Nightstand, chest, dresser, mirror, footboard, headboard and siderails. Only thing missing was the twin mattress and box spring for her new bed. We decided to wait until taxes to get those. Well my mother came to visit here in Germany for Morgan's second birthday and we set up our spare queen bed in Morgan's bedroom for her to stay in while Morgan slept with us (a king bed still isn't big enough when you have a toddler that throws her 25 lb body around at night). Once my mom left Morgan was obsessed with the "big bed" in her room and we just decided it would be easier to let her have it. Now we have a queen bed in her room with no headboard and a twin headboard, footboard and siderails in the garage, waiting to be sold. And now we need to get her a bedding set. She is using her twin comforter and I can't stand seeing the mattress.

This was the easiest, cheapest, cutest solution and I absolutely love it.

Probably more than she does.

The Inspiration  <-- Go to that site to see where  I got the idea and a million other room designing ideas.

This is my version. My inspiration used artificial (silk I'm assuming) flowers for the decor. I, on the other hand, have limited resources to inexpensive flowers so I decided to make my own.

Am I the only one who is totally loving the little blue bird off to the right?

I started by outlining a tree. I highly recommend you use a pencil to draw a tree instead of jumping right into the paint. It's nice to be able to step back and see where you need to add branches, take away, make it skinnier, etc. Then it took me a whole thirty minutes to paint in the tree. Did I mention this was a super quick project? Kinda wish it took longer because I was really enjoying myself.

The flowers and blue bird were by freehand.

Now these are some fun coffee filter flowers. I made a load of these for Morgan's second birthday party and had them all around.

To make one flower you will need three coffee filters, a bowl of water, wax paper and a washable marker. Make sure the marker is washable! Color the edge of the coffee filter. Doesn't have to be perfect because it is going to spread anyways. I did about 1/8 inch thick.

Dip the entire edges of the filter in water. You don't have to hold it there and soak it. Just dip in an edge and rotate it around until the part you put marker on has been dipped.

Lay the filters on a sheet of wax paper. The water will run as it sits there and the marker will spread on it's own. It won't look perfect right away, but as it sits it will start to spread. You can see that the filter on the far left was the first one I did as the water is moving more to the center than the one on the right.

Let them dry completely (you don't want to work with damp filters).

Pinch the center of one filter and crinkle and fluff it so it doesn't look so stiff. Place a second one on the outside and pinch it in the center as well so you are holding two, one inside the other. Do that with the third as well. For the time being I took a mini rubberband to hold together the pinched "stem" of the flower. Later I pushed a nail through all three and nailed it to the wall.

I also made smaller cupcake liner flowers.

Flatten four liners and stack them together. Push a nail through the center. Once it is nailed onto the wall, pinch and fluff the liners individually until you get a pretty carnation.

The flowers will eventually collect dust. A simple feather duster should do the trick. I would recommend dusting them before they look incredibly dirty, that way it doesn't build up and become to difficult. Though, it's not like it will cost you much to replace them.