reader diy: farmhouse door headboard

One of my very best Tennessee friends recently finished an impressive DIY headboard project! For as long as I've known her, Kathryn has always had a creative idea up her sleeve. From designing "make your own monster" games in high school Spanish FLTA (where we team taught 3rd graders Spanish!) to scouting flea markets and Goodwill for sturdy pieces to furnish her grad school apartment, Kat is crafty and skilled in ways I truly admire. Today I'm excited to showcase one of her newest projects - a headboard made out of a salvaged door from the 1917 farmhouse her grandfather grew up in.

{the finished product!}

In her own words, here's how she created it:

"All I had to do (which turned out to take several months) was remove the loose paint chips with a wire brush, add some coats of polyurethane to seal the wood, cut the excess molding off, and build a frame. I used tools from my dad's garage, including homemade polyurethane in a mason jar, a circular saw, and wood screws."

{original color of the door} 

{before and after staining}

"I also prevailed on my wonderful boyfriend Zach to help me build the frame, which meant I tried to tell him what to do and he did it a completely different way and of course it turned out much better! All in all, the only things I had to purchase were paintbrushes, bolts for the bed frame, and four 2x4s for the headboard frame."

{almost finished!} 

{all done! Puppy Buster makes a great model!}

Kat has great plans to refinish two windows from the farmhouse and turn them into picture windows - literally! She's going to put family photos in each pane of one window and scenes from a hiking trip in the other.

So excited to celebrate Kat and this awesome headboard project! Next up, a cute and colorful DIY project from best friend Kim!

If you have crafty projects you've made recently, send them my way!