DIY French Country Bed Crown

Today, we’re sharing a bit more of how we created the DIY French Country Bed Crown for Week 4 of the One Room Challenge!

If you’re not familiar with this event, the One Room Challenge is currently in its fifteenth season and to date, more than 3,000 rooms have been transformed by featured designers, guest participants, and design influencers.

The entire process is documented over a six-week period as each participant shares inspiration, diy ideas, favorite tips and tricks, shopping resources, as well as a behind the scenes look at how everything is coming together along the way. It’s fun to follow because you never know what is going to happen during the 6 weeks!

As always, a big shout out to Linda of Calling it Home who created The One Room Challenge and to Better Homes and Gardens for being the official media partner of the ORC.

Of all the projects we’ve taken on for various One Room Challenge events, I have to say, this French Country bed crown definitely gave me a few moments of pause.

The bed crown was one of the only pieces my Dad was set to help me build and while I showed him picture after picture (about 12 too many he says ha ha), I just could not figure out how we were going to make it happen.

I have no problem envisioning the design concept but when it comes to the logistics that’s a completely different ball of wax.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures during the building process because I wanted to make sure I was fully focused on helping my Dad, but we basically built a diy French Country bed crown that was 60 inches long and 14 inches wide.

These measurements were based on the headboard which is actually an old mantel.  The headboard is 55 inches long and 9 ½ inches wide but I wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for the fabric to drape around the headboard nicely.

Once we built the shape of the bed crown which is basically a “U” with a support board in the back, we added molding to the top and basic trim to the bottom.  I found both of these pieces at Lowes.

We secured the molding and the trim pieces in place by using glue and nails. Just a heads up on the glue, you need to make sure you’re using the right type of glue for the specific type molding you’re adding to your bed crown.

After the glue for the molding was dry and had been completely secured to the bed crown, I painted the entire bed crown with two coats of Deco Arts Chalky Acrylic Paint in Primitive which is the same color we’ve used on the hutch in the dining room as well as on the outdoor dining table at Bliss Barracks.

It’s worth noting here, I totally forgot to fill in the nail holes before I painted this DIY Bed Crown. Thankfully, this Dap formula goes on pink and dries white so you immediately know when the nail hole filler has dried and is ready to paint.

I use either a q-tip or a fine detail brush to lightly touch up the nail hole filler with paint.

I had originally planned to add dark wax to both the headboard and the diy French Country bed crown to give them an aged feel but after seeing how soft they were in Primitive, I decided to seal the body with clear wax instead of dark furniture paste wax.

I also decided to use white furniture paste wax on the molding and the trim to bring out the details.

Given the bed crown is 60 inches long, I knew we would need to add something else to it besides the molding and the trim, but I didn’t want anything to elaborate. Thankfully, S found this applique at Lowe’s and it was the perfect fit!

I painted the applique with two coats of Primitive before lightly sanding

and adding a bit of white furniture paste wax to seal.

To secure the bed crown to the wall we used a stud finder to find the studs in the wall, then we used wood screws and a drill to attach the bed crown to the studs. As always, anytime you’re attempting to do a project like this you need to use all safety precautions and care.

I haven’t gotten the fabric for the bed crown just yet, but we’ll be using this metal strap and dowel rod system to hold the fabric in place.  The straps were secured with wood screws and a drill.

As you can see here, we used this system on the back and the sides of the DIY French Country bed crown. You’ll definitely want to keep the type of fabric you’re using in mind when deciding which system is best for your bed crown as fabric comes in multiple weights.

Another thing to keep in mind, is to consider the height and length of your bedroom’s crown molding BEFORE making your bed crown.  I never thought to mention that we had crown molding to my Dad when we were building the bed crown because we had originally planned to mount the bed crown to both the wall and the ceiling so I didn’t think it really mattered.

But on installation day we realized the bed crown would not fit flush against the ceiling because of the molding and that I had made a big boo boo! So, learn from my mistake, ok?

If you had a chance to follow last week, you know I was trying to decide which chandelier to use in this space.  Well, Team Crowned Goat voted 3-1 so I guess we’ll be using the same chandelier in the bedroom we had been using in the office.  You can see a peek of it in the photo.

Speaking of sneak peeks, we’re not completely finished with the headboard that was once a mantel, but we’re getting close…

It really feels like things are getting down to the wire now that we’re at the end of Week 4 and entering Week 5, you guys!  We still have an armoire to find, linens to order, trim to paint, nail holes to fill, accessories to style, a flower arrangement to create and a tiny closet that needs a major, major clean out.

If you’re new here or just want to catch up, you can find the rest of our One Room Challenge Bedroom Makeover series below:

Week 1: Design Board and Inspiration

Week 2: French Country Desk Makeover

Week 3: ORC Mid Project Update

Or if you’re ready to jump to the reveal post you can find that here:

One Room Challenge Bedroom Makeover Reveal

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the creatives participating in the One Room Challenge, here.  It’s been so much fun to follow along on everyone’s progress!

Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo