King Me.

Is that a chess thing? You know, I have never ever played chess.

And I don’t think I particularly want to. Sorry.

I was informed it's a checkers thing... thanks Laurel. I do like playing checkers!

Growing up, I never had my own bedroom. Ever! My mom was a single mom working 2 jobs, and she took care of her mom. So, we always had a 2-bedroom apartment, and I shared a room with my mom. Which made us super close, and made me really, really want my own room.

I technically didn’t have my own bedroom until my sophomore year of college because my first year of college I spent in the Kinsolving dorms over at UT Austin. I loved my roomies (one of which is the lovely Meagan- check out her blog, her son Hudson is CAAA-UTE!)

Finally, I am married to my bestest friend, and we have a FULL size bed. Why? Well, a couple of reasons. For starters, I had a full size bed in college that he bought for me, so naturally when I moved over here, I brought the bed with me. When we moved into our apartment 3 years ago, we didn’t want to spring for a new mattress AND bedroom furniture, so we just bought a full sized bed and thought it’d be fine.

Um, no.

Not fine.

The other reason is that our bedroom is rather small and we want a KING sized bed. So, a queen wouldn’t make much of a difference to us. Our dog sleeps between us, and I never knew a 16-pound dog could take up SO MUCH ROOM. And he kicks my ribs. All. Night. Long.

Ugh.

We’ve been looking at a house, and while it has the majority of my wants: big kitchen…check, 3 bedrooms…check, office area…check, good neighborhood…check, tall ceilings…not quite! There is a rather impressive tray ceiling in the den (oh yeah, den…check!), the master bedroom ceiling height is the standard 8-foot ceiling height. A bummer, but not a deal breaker.

I’ve always, and I mean always, have wanted a canopy bed. Would it overwhelm the space? Part of me thinks yes, part of me thinks no. My 2 friends were kind enough to answer my Facebook question about this and posted their bedrooms with canopy beds.

Here’s Katie’s (another fellow Longhorn- Hook ‘Em!)

And here’s Amber’s (a fellow damask bride- yay!) Coincidentally, Amber’s bed is the exact one we’re looking at from Rooms To Go.

I don’t think they overwhelm the room at all, and I think they both look sleek and sophisticated. However, is it that their beds are queen sized? Who knows.

So, then I started thinking of an alternative- the tall tufted headboard look. You’ve seen it EVERYWHERE, I am sure, but I still love it’s modern appeal.

There’s the ones that incorporate wood + upholstered headboard:

Both of the above images are from Google Images.

There’s this $1129 bed from Overstock (ouch!)

And there’s also the completely upholstered look:

The above one is from Target and is $700 for a king with free shipping.

I like them all, but I am not digging the 100% upholstered bed for the main reason that I think it’d be a PITA to clean it. And the reviews on similar type beds on both Target.com and CSN Stores seem to agree with my train of thought.

I posted a question on Facebook (as I do with all major life decisions…) as to where I can find a reasonable (read: CHEAP) bed that resembles any of the above. Gwen and Kris both stated, “why not make it?”

Yeah, why not?

Well, because I don’t want to lose a finger or four but really…why not?

I then remembered Knock Off Wood. Ana gives AMAZING, and I mean UH-MAY-ZING, detailed, precise, and easy-to-follow instructions for making stuff.

From plans:

To BAM:

Close your jaw, I know it’s open at the sight of such awesomeness. Go check out even more awesomeness at the Flickr group that showcases what people have done using her FREE plans. I honestly spent about 2 hours on her blog today and I found this lovely, lovely piece:

Yes, a canopy bed. She shows you how to make a canopy bed addition to her basic farmhouse bed plans.

GENIUS!

So, you probably know where I am going with this don’t ya? I think you do. I plan on making this sucker. And possibly upping my life insurance coverage during open enrollment at work this month. You never know.

But honestly, I can do this! I even plan on adding a lovely tufted inset panel to the headboard instead of having the wooden stuff showing. I am so filled with excitement I can barely contain myself.

After I tackle this bed, I may also do these projects, also from Ana’s website:

Outdoor Daybed

Or perhaps an outdoor sectional:

And maybe a kick-ass craft desk:

Go check out her website now, and then report back to me on what you’d make!

And what would you do about the bed? Build, buy? Tufted, canopy or both? Do tell!