Mallory’s Epic Renter-Friendly Wall Treatment And Headboard DIY Idea That’s In Need Of Your Opinion

Have you ever had a genius design but struggled to figure out the execution?? Hi, I’m Mallory and let me tell you about my current design dilemma. Now I’m not a “DIYer” per se, but I’m attempting to be one for the sake of the blank wall above my bed. It’s 50/50 if I will die by staple gun, but it’s a risk we’re gonna have to take. Let’s dig into the situation at hand.

You may remember I’ve been designing my studio apartment and have come a loooong way from the mattress on the floor we started with (no seriously, I did not have one piece of furniture when we moved in. Even the mattress was freshly purchased). Let me set the stage: it’s a 500 sqft studio apartment with some very “white box” architecture (it’s a new-ish building so let’s just say it’s not dripping with charm). So you get it, I’m in a rental apartment that screams “rental” and I’m on a mission to make it my own. The design style we’re going for? Thank you for asking. The vibe is “Palm Springs, fun, with a smothering of sexy+ Hollywood, and California cool”. I want it to be indisputably Californian (as you can probably tell from the description lol) but also full of personal charm. I LOVE the feeling of being in Palm Springs hotels, homes, and the all-around aesthetics, so I’m hoping to bring some of that “Googie” vibe into this space as well. SO with that, I OBVIOUSLY could not just leave the wall above my bed blank!! This is a design blog after all and I’m just not that kinda gal. So after much deliberation and drowning in wallpaper samples, I figured out the plan. Almost.

When I saw this photo I freaked. The cane bed is MAGIC and I wanted to create something that would feel as luxe and awesome as this. One option would be to just make a custom bed, but that’s pricey and I wanted this to be a fun renter-friendly solution that incorporated the entire wall. Also, I’ve been wanting to add wallpaper somewhere into my main living space (I already wallpapered my bathroom which I’ll show you very soon and I’m IN LOVE) because it adds an incredible amount of personality and style. Plus, I’d like to do a magic trick where we all see the white box disappear before our eyes – please and thank you. So, with that headboard inspiration and a wallpaper inspiration from the Sands Hotel, Pink Cabana by Martyn Lawrence Bullard, it was time to draw up my dream and make it become a reality. But first, we had a bed situation to take care of.

The Bed Debacle

Remember when I said we started out with nothing but a mattress on the floor? Our second purchase was an incredibly necessary one: the bed for the mattress. We needed it fast and cheap, which narrowed down our options quite a bit. Surprisingly, we scored a blue velvet bed from Wayfair for $150 that was INCREDIBLE for the price, but not so surprisingly, two years in one of the legs snapped off and we were sleeping at a diagonal for longer than I’d like to admit. I ended up propping it up with a wood block where the leg would be (bc I’m such a little DIY girly) and that got us through until we could find the bed of our dreams (which was a journey trying to find), first let me show you a photo of the old bed.

She was so good to us and if the bed was better quality I probably would have pushed to keep her, but the reality was that at any given moment our bodies could “plop” onto the bed and immediately land on the floor. The screws were also coming loose, so I lovingly referred to her as “Rickety”. She was there for us at a pivotal time in life and we learned so much from her, but it was time that our relationship with Rickety had to come to a close. Here’s our last photo together:

So sweet. The mems were good, but we were ready (even in this photo that front leg was so wobbly it was only a matter of time). So, I went hunting for the perfect bed that ideally had legs that could hold human weight (seemed like a reasonable ask). While that was a baseline request, we also had some other boxes this bed needed to check, and those boxes were so fricken specific that I don’t know where to begin but I’ll try.

To start, my boyfriend, Chase had literally one dream for this apartment and that dream was a black velvet bed. He truly wanted nothing else, just a black velvet bed. Should be an easy request to fill right? WRONG. Retailers are not interested in selling black velvet beds, and if they did the dimensions were be all wrong for our very small space. So let me tell you about what else this bed needed to have:

1. Black velvet fabric
2. 7″ legs so we could store things under the bed (critical for 500 sqft)
3. A shape that wasn’t just a boring square
4. A tall headboard so we could comfortably sit up in bed without our backs being on the wall
5. Fit a queen mattress

So our “little, simple dream” became a very complex journey, but I was determined to get it right so we wouldn’t end up with a bed in a landfill in 2 more years. I scoured and scoured until my scourer was sore. I almost bought this Target bed (but the headboard was a bit too low for us although the price is IDEAL), this Apt2B bed was a consideration (but it didn’t have the curved headboard I was so horny for) and this bed was another consideration but it had no legs at all (sigh). Then I found a bed that sent my heart straight out of my chest: the Berlin Bed from Modshop (one of my favorite furniture stores ever!!) The only problem? Well it didn’t have legs either and it didn’t come in black on the website (soooo close!!) BUT THEN I read the fine print and had heart palpitations again “don’t see what you want? email us and we can do any fabric you want.” I screamed. I sent a pleading email asking if they could create the black velvet bed of my dreams and throw some 7″ legs on it and was surprised to see a response that said “of course and let’s partner while we’re at it!!” For transparency, this post is not sponsored but Modshop did gift us the bed of my dreams and I am literally still screaming with excitement that this all fell into place. LET ME SHOW YOU THIS FREAKIN AWESOME BED!!!

Unreal right?! I still can’t believe it and feel so lucky to be able to work with this brand I’ve always loved. So with that, I knew I had an even stronger obligation to make this feature wall as epic as possible as you can imagine. So are you ready to see my design plan?? Note: I have 6 versions and need your help narrowing down the details but here is our first rendering!! DRUM ROLL PLEASE.

Option 1:

Eh?? EH?? What do we think?? I honestly love the way that this looks (and btw some of these options are real life and some are photoshopped). We started doing the DIY with foam, velvet, and a staple gun but then stopped so we could decide exactly how we want to proceed, and because I’m not that great at DIYing. It’s still up for debate if I should go to an upholstery place to get that black curve line professionally made because mine is looking a little jank in real life. BUT the cane and wallpaper are for sure going to be DIYed (I have a way to make wallpaper removable that I’m planning on using). So anyway, this is Option 1, the next option is nearly the same but the cane on the sides is a little lower, a subtle difference but I’m planning to hang pendant lights (I think these) on the sides of the bed so I gotta figure out if I want them to line up with the cane or live above the cane. Here’s what I mean:

Option 2:

Like I said, a subtle difference but one that I care about. Which version is best?? The next option is also a little different (look at where the black lines meet). Basically, the vertical line goes all the way down and the horizontal line is shorter, let me show you:

Option 3:

So that’s a line joining option to think about, and then of course we could also go for no horizontal lines at all, like in this option:

Option 4:

I think this one looks a little wild and takes away from the cool wall-to-wall thing that was happening but I figured I’d throw it in for fun. Same thing with this next one which I thought was interesting but not necessarily my favorite:

Option 5:

It would look better with the pendant lights hanging there, but still not one of my top options. Lastly is one I’m highly considering (but not sure how it would look having to join these pieces of cane together without the black velvet foam outline thing:

Option 6:

Alright, so those are the 6 options. Tell me what ya think in the comments please and thank you!!! I can’t wait to show you the full reveal SO SOON –– this is the last big step!! AH OKAY SEE YOU IN THE COMMENTS!! xx