Ikea head board turned dog gate.

Well Hello there!
 I am starting this new blog as way to keep family and friends updated with my upcycles and life in general. Anyhoo back to the point right?

                This is an Ikea twin size FJELLSE headboard. It came with the rest of the bed but my kids like anyone else's I hope, have a habit of jumping on the bed. Which led to the screws being ripped from the wood and then a loud crashing noise from the opposite side of the house followed by chorus of "UH OH." After a "This is why we can't have nice things!" moment. I dealt with the situation much like a kid myself throwing the remaining parts of the bed in a closet to be dealt with at a later time. So it sat there ...... for..... months.....

 

**Hold on rewind back up** Insight.
I'm living with my mother while we save for a home. So we have three rooms at the back part of the house to ourselves. plus a bathroom. It's lovely, I'm grateful. I really and truly am! blah, blah, blah.  Anyway "TO THE POINT!" you say?... Separating said rooms from the rest of the house was a white metal swinging baby gate of doom. To my ears... It would hardly latch and led to a lot of banging in attempts to shut it. My kids are 6 and 8 so why not get rid of the gate you ask? Well because we also have a menagerie of animals between our two families. My mom has two dogs and a cat. And we have two hamsters and two cats and one more cat on the way. With the smaller part of the food chain on our side of the house, there needed to be some separation and sanctuary for the animals.... And a reason for a gate.

So I happen to be cleaning the closet and I'm wondering if I should toss, trash or keep this bed. And as I look at it, I think its about the exact size of the hallway that the current gate resided in. I pull it out and get and odd look from my husband as he sees the gears in my brain turning. I put the head board into place of where it would be and realize it would be a perfect fit and replacement for the big white eye sore currently there. He likes the idea, Mom likes the idea. Alright lets do this!

So I take the headboard out onto the patio and wipe it down. This model in particular is unfinished. So it was an easy redo. I used my favorite stain I had on hand Minwax in the color Jacobean.  No sanding or anything, just straight on to the wood. And it turned out great!

 Sorry for the way I'm dressed and the quality of these pictures. I had no idea what I would be starting at the time. Above I am testing out the stain to see how well the wood would hold it. And it soaked it right up. One coat was all it needed. Side note ** from experience when staining always go back and give it a good wipe down to take off any residual stain or it will be sticky.

Ah... Ain't it beautiful? For what ever reason I'm not a huge fan of blonde wood. Because I'm a child of the late 80's early 90's maybe? We were going to stain these later down the line anyway but hadn't gotten to it. I highly recommend these beds if you want to be able to make it your own quick. (my kids aren't easy on furniture so I think it was a fluke) And Ikea also sells other unfinished dressers and more so you can complete the set. 

I liked the way it looked just the way it was but it had two obvious issues. The two GIANT holes the dogs hadn't figured out they could go through yet. The solution was actually my moms idea. It's a grill thingy... you know the part of the grill you cook on? Yeah that thingy. You can buy it at Home Depot for $20.00. It's called Expanded Metal. Who knew it had a name? I know, I get easily distracted bare with me it will be worth it. We used an angle grinder saw and cut the metal square in half. The headboard itself has a half in grove in the top rail so we inserted the metal into it. For the bottom we let it drape over the back and screwed it in. (I will get pictures of this tomorrow I swear) Then we added a double swinging gate hinges so the gate can swing both ways. I believe this also came from Home Depot but the name of the brand escapes me. I'll look into it.


So this is the finished product. And here is a rough estimate of prices.

The bed itself sells at Ikea for $79.00 
(we got it from a friend. It lasted a lot longer then I thought with my boys so I take off depreciation cost.)
The rest was bought at the Home Depot
The stain was 1 qt. Wood finish oil based interior stain in the color Jacobean for $7.77 (I had it on hand so free)
The hinges are 3 in. x 3 in Oil-Rubbed Bronze double-action spring door hinges for $17.98 time 2.
only come in 1 hinge packs..Why I don't know.
And last but not least the Expanded metal sheet in the size 3/4" x 24" for $19.97

Making a grand total of $124.72 if I had bought all separate. I still have left over pieces of the bed that are going to be used for later projects. Could I have bought a new gate? Yes. But I'm all about reusing things as much as possible. And I honestly couldn't have found a awesome looking gate such as this one in stores. So there you go Ikea Hack 1938729837298 head board turned dog gate. 

PS. If you noticed the light saber without me mentioning it you deserve a cookie!