Painted Headboard

Last summer I started redoing my Birmingham granddaughter’s bedroom.    She was transitioning to a bigger bedroom since she was getting a baby brother in August.    Fast forward several months and the room is about 85% complete….just waiting on me to get the headboard painted and curtains made.     Since it is 70+ degrees here today I decided to “make hay while the sun shines” and get started on finishing the headboard.     I had already applied a spray primer to the headboard but it had lots of streaks and was very rough to the touch.      So off to Home Depot I went and bought a sanding block, a Purdy paintbrush (which I can’t say enough about), and some Floetrol.      I read over at Centsational Girl’s blog about the Floetrol which is a paint additive used to extend the time for painting and doesn’t leave roller or brush marks.    And boy howdy, that is one of the greatest products on the market!      Floetrol is used with latex paint and Penetrol is used when using oil based paints.
I had hubby take the headboard outside and took my sanding block to the bed.     I used a very fine/fine grit sanding block which is used between coats and for light sanding.    It quickly eliminated the rough texture on the bed as well as smoothing out all the streaks.    Since I didn’t have a tack cloth I wiped it down with a damp wash cloth and then followed that with a dry cloth.     Then I added some Floetrol to my paint, stirred really well and started painting.  
The bed is extremely old and took several coats to cover.    I am going to do one more coat but I ran out of paint as I had bought one of those “try me” sizes in case I didn’t like the color.     I had used about 1/2 of the “try me” paint on a nightstand I’d already done so of course I wanted to use the same color on the bed.    It is called “Popcorn” by Behr.    

Here’s the “before” pic of the bed.    There is a footboard but DIL does not want to use it.





And here it is after 2-3 coats and I wish you could feel how smooth it is……like a baby’s hiney!     I’ve often wondered how people get their painted furniture so smooth with no brush marks and now I know.     I found out that by taking a few extra steps – like sanding and wiping down and adding the Floetrol to the paint - you get a great result with your painted furniture.   Sorry for the poor quality of the photos with all the shadows, etc.  but I wanted to show how it’s looking so far    

 


I love the shape of the bed…so feminine I think



And one more full shot


I’m thinking about adding an applique to the middle of the headboard.    I had one on hand but it was too big so I’ll have to look into getting one a little smaller.   
I love days like today cause I really get motivated to get some of my many projects started and/or done.    I’ve been putting off this headboard project for months so it really felt good to get it ALMOST done!     Now I’ve got to make some curtains for the room and then we’ll have the big reveal.
I hope everyone has a safe and WARM weekend!