Master Bedroom - Handpainted Headboard

When times get tough, the tough get craigslisting.  And that's where I live these days.  Since I am forced to keep to a particular budget I use it as my playground.  I know I can paint anything to look better and I already like the "shabby chic" look so a little beat up works fine for me. 

Now this is a funny story.  This is a king headboard and footboard in the "Fontana" design sold about 20 years ago at Sears and many other places.  Sears unfortunately now just sells particle board stuff, but back then it had a big furniture department.   Remember when Billy Joel sang about "Brenda and Eddie" and how they "bought a couple of paintings from Sears"??  Maybe Sears should think about it's history and go back to that.  Ok, I digress.
As a newlywed, I picked out this very set.  BTW, it can still be seen as the Master Bedroom set in "Everybody Loves Raymond".  We used it for years and when it no longer suited our taste, donated all of the other pieces that came with it, chest of drawers, mirror, etc.  It was a queen size then and I did EXACTLY the same thing to the headboard.  I shabby-chic'd it.  That was about 5 years ago.  So the story goes that we did a big kitchen remodel, thought the big master bedroom remodel would come soon after and we would upgrade to a king-size bed.  The queen headboard was sold at a yard sale for $20.00. (YES YOU READ IT CORRECTLY - biggest yard sale regret ever!) 

Fast forward to July 2012.  I still had no headboard.  What to do, what to do.  I knew I wanted a big headboard but couldn't afford the luxurious upholstered linen ones from Ballard Design and Pottery Barn that I would get if money were no object.  So in the meantime, what do I find?  Yup.  A King size Fontana bed on craigslist including frame for $100.00.  So back to the drawing board.  I painted it a pretty light gray and added some "Marie Antoinette" highlights of turquoise, lilac and rose.  I used the scrapbooking paper design as a template.
Not the finished product yet, but I think I have taken a dandelion and made it into a rose.