The Ol' Husband and Wife Home Decorating Miss-Communication....

Okay so my husband is gone at Summer Camp (he's a youth pastor- remember?) and coincidentally I'm long overdue on a vent-sesh...

Since Shawn and I have been married (7 years- if you haven't read THAT post, you're in for a real treat!) we have had BED issues. Okaaaaaay, c'mon... get your head out of the gutter... I'm talking legitimate bed, as in where we lie down to go to sleep- issues. As in he has been complaining about our sleep situation for seven. flippin'. years. It's enough to drive a woman insane. I mean, I can sleep anywhere, on anything. I am part narcoleptic I think... Come to think of it I actually fell asleep at a 1997 Blink 182 concert ("Kenna! Wake up! It's time to go, the show's over!" -Kenna's ex boyfriend). I recently slept in my daughters crib and no, I'm not joking. (Yes she was in it- I'm not a total freak!)

At first it was that Shawn hated my mattress protector. He said it made him "sweaty". So I took it off. Next he said the bed was, "Waaaay too soft." I pointed him towards the couch and relished in the softness of my Sealy Black Label Pillow Top as this was one of my only big purchases as a single woman and was purchased at a time when pillow tops were the Sleep Number of mattresses! I felt like we could definitely get a few more years out of the mattress so I put my foot down and said we were keeping it.

A year goes by and a sweet lady from our church calls and offers us a brand new mattress. Shawn was jumping up and down and hello, how could I say no to free? I couldn't, I tried. So out with my amazing pillow top and in with... well, the opposite of a pillow top. I'm pretty sure it was called the Rock Top. I thought I could sleep on anything until we got the Rock Top. A month later my birthday rolled around and I bought myself a memory foam mattress topper from Costco. Brought it home and bam... perfection- we were both happy with our bed for the first time in 5 years.

After a week though we started realizing the memory foam topper slid around a lot. It would move its way down the bed and cause our pillows to slide down in between our bed and our "head board" (we'll get to why this is in quotes in a minute...) Shawn was losing his mind over his disappearing pillows and would ask me at 2 a.m., "Where are my PILLOWS Kenna- I need them!" Please don't ever try talking to me at 2 a.m.... unless it is the night before a party and we're up hot gluing some last minute details. Any other circumstance, and it's a bad idea.

THE HEADBOARD...

We've never owned like a REAL bed frame. I actually don't know if in all of my life I've even owned a REAL bed frame. I've owned futons a plenty... but a big bed frame just hasn't come in to my possession. So when we moved to Orcutt, I took this bamboo divider I had and put it behind our bed. I liked the look and it was the perfect fit- another reason to never buy a bed frame I figured. The problem with this was that it wasn't connected to the actual bed and because of that the memory foam topper was sliding down the end of the bed... we had a gap... and well, you get the point.

To be honest, it never even bothered me. Like I said. Pillow? No pillow? I'm asleep, who cares. But Shawn kept telling me we needed a new head board. Finally I agreed and I told him we'd put aside a little savings for one... and I started doing some research.

And this part of the story is actually what this post is about... (the rest was my intro.)

Over the course of the next few weeks (2 months ago) I showed him a bunch of head boards I liked... he seemed to like them too? I assumed we were in the deciding/saving process of the headboard purchase and since I knew this was a big deal to him I wanted him to weigh in on the designs too... I personally was really hoping for something like one of these...

                                              Camden Tufted Headboard by Ballard Designs

I mean, in a dream world I'd have loved to have found something like this at an antique store- I was willing to do some serious searching for something perfect!

Of course, this was a stretch, but I'd pinned it- which means I needed it...

Headboard by Casa Midy

All I really cared about was that at the end of the day Shawn would look like the first picture in the post... well, and that the headboard would GO with the rest of our house... like the old wannabe one pretty much kind of did...

I thought I was open to so many head board ideas- until that is- I came home to the handmade-by-Shawn ALL WOOD FENCE POST HEADBOARD. Mr. Pinterest himself came up with his own idea for a head board, our head board. Lord help me. Have I mentioned he's handy? And a man's man? A deadly combination for home decorating...

So I walked in the house after a long day of waitressing and my son yelled, "Me and Daddy made you something today!" I looked at them both puzzled and confused.... I hadn't even asked for anything... what in the world could it be? Well, let me go through the things that popped in to my head. #1- Finally- a Party Shed (I knew it was a stretch they made it in 6 hours but I though at least a start would be nice?) #2- new shelving in the Party Cave (Early birthday gift?) #3- closet remodel?!

Cormac took me to my bedroom and pointed at what I am now referring to as Wilson's Headboard (Makes me think some creeper is going to be peeking over it?)

As I stood and stared at said head board I couldn't quite find the words I needed to say thank you to my two handy men... I mean, it was a fence... attached to my bed. Shawn thought it was amazing. Cormac was yelling, "What color are we painting it?" and I was trying my hardest to not sound like a total jerk and ask, "What happened to the headboards we loved online?"

Shawn must have repeated, "It was less than $50.00 and solves all of the pillow problems!" like, I don't know... 100 times. I guess the boys in the house had a momentary lapse of memory on how I kind of care about our home decor...

And here's the thing. They LOVE it. Cormac feels involved in making me something "I wanted". Shawn feels like he solved all the world's pillow problems. And I'm all... WOW, did I mention it's a fence... attached to our bed!

And so ok, I know headboards are oh-so-makeable and this is a solid base I could add on to. I see tutorials for making headboards on Pinterest all the time. I've known a lot of people to make them and they've turned out pretty good. To be honest I've tried to upholsterer a few things in the past and hated the process... and never liked the outcome because I am a perfectionist...

Here are my current thoughts... I could paint it gloss black and add some gold glitter to the tops of all of the posts (juxtaposition?), change up our bedding (which I've been wanting to do) and maybe then I'd love it...? Or screw some picture frames to it and make it an "eclectic" look? I could include Cormac in the process of both of these, a major plus? Work with me!

What do YOU think? Remember, Shawn's at camp...

xo Party or Die xo

kenna