Getting Organized & a DIY Porch Daybed

by Kristina

This weekend while my husband was out of town on a bike race, I decided to organize some of my photography props which ended up in me rearranging our porch and putting together a daybed.  It was one of those "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"kind of days.....

I'm sure many of you can relate, I have various photo props coming out of my ears. From an array of jars and vases to buttons and ribbons to scales and backdrops, I am accumulating a fair bit of photo-worthy goodies.

So I decided that I should turn an old armoire that we have on our porch into a little storage unit for my treasures.  But in the process of doing that, I thought what would really spiff up our porch would be a daybed and that is when I got sidetracked and a new project began.

You see, I have always wanted a daybed on our porch.  When we moved to this house from foggy San Francisco, I envisioned lounging on our porch on a daybed...but it never happened.  The porch started off and remained more of a playroom (first it was train tables and then ping pong tables).

Anyway, with this new bee in my bonnet, a quick peek on Pinterest (where I found this great idea from The Apprentice Extrovert) and a little help from my boys, we moved the ping pong table to our covered side yard and dragged in two old mattresses from the garage.  Next, using an striped duvet cover from IKEA and an extra plain white sheet (both of which I already had), I slip-covered the two mattresses.

Because our porch tends to get a fair bit of dust and dirt blown in through the screens, I decided to head over to Home Depot to purchase particle board underlayment to act as both a backrest and pillow protector.  My initial idea was to buy plywood and paint it white, but when I found this white particle board I thought that would be perfect and save me a few steps and it is very light (cost $20.00).  The Home Depot guys cut the piece down for me (it was 4'x8' to 3.5' to 6').  

Next I was off to TJMaxx/Home Goods, for some pillows.  I found these bright colored Sunbrella fabric cushions and pillows (I love the combination of orange, turquoise and green...look familiar?) and was so excited to come home and dress up the bed.  Oh and I hung some party lights that my friend Suzanne gave me a few weeks ago... they matched perfectly! 

As I lay on the bed, glancing around the room satisfied with my accomplishment, I realized that what I really meant to do was organize my stash of photo goodies........So that's what I did but instead of drinking a cold glass of milk, I had an ice tea.  

DIY Bottle-Cap Photo Thumbtacks and Magnets

I saw these easy to make bottle-cap thumbtacks on Martha Stewart's website.  You can watch a video of her version here.   I thought they were so cute and decided to whip some up using my leftover crafting supplies from my last photo magnet project.    Note: this is a simplified version, on Martha's site they used resin to fill the caps which is a nice touch but I was fine to do without it.

Anyway, all you need are some bottle-caps, a 1 inch circular hole punch, Modge Podge, thumbtacks or magnets, and a strong adhering glue (like Goop).   Using Photoshop Elements, I printed out a contact sheet of photos that were approximately 1.5" x 1.5".  I then punched out circles using my hole punch (the 1 inch size is a perfect fit).  Using the Modge Podge, I glued the photos into the caps and after they dried, I added another thin coat on the photo to seal it.

I then glued the tacks onto the backs (you could also use disc magnets) and waited a few hours for it to completely dry before pushing them into my bulletin board.

The project took me under an hour to assemble and cost the equivalent of a 6 pack of beer.  :)   Looks pretty good, eh?