Better in an Hour: DIY Canopy Bed

Since Alan moved in, we've been working on making the house feel 'finished'. The bedroom is the only space

left in the house that I haven't managed to choose a paint colour for yet, but something needed to be done until a colour is chosen and the room can really come together. We happened upon a gorgeous orange and gold sari at a textile sale, and this canopy bed came to be.

Here's an easy DIY for your home that only takes about an hour, and can add some real drama to your space.


SARI CANOPY BED

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
-Sari, or other long stretch of fabric
-push pins
-2 dowels
-4 plant hooks

STEPS:

1. Measure your bed.

You want to make sure that the canopy will hang directly down the centre, regardless of whether the fabric smaller or larger than your actual bed. It's a bit of basic math, but let's say your bed is 6 feet wide and your fabric is 4 feet wide, you'll need to measure inwards by 1 foot on either side of the bed to make sure it comes out centered. Mark this on the wall if need be.

2. Measure for your dowels.
Measure so that your dowels will be centered in much the same way. Be sure to screw in your hooks a few inches inwards so that the dowels won't slip off the hooks at the ends. You can also choose to have a full canopy (where the furthest dowel lines up with foot of the bed) or a partial canopy (where the canopy only hangs over the bed by a few feet.)

3. Screw in your hooks, hang your dowels.
Once the dowels are hung, you may also find it helps to stick a pushpin into the dowel ends beyond the hooks, so that as they move and roll for the next step, they don't slip free of the hooks.

4. Slide your fabric into place.
Put your fabric in behind the dowels, and be sure the pretty side is facing downwards toward the bed. Decide how much fabric you want hanging down at the end. For our room, it looked best to have only about a foot of fabric hanging. Sliding the fabric into space can be frustrating, as your dowels will turn and twist, but be patient; you're almost done.

5. Tack the fabric.
Use gold or silver old-school thumbtacks to tack the fabric along the wall at the head of the bed so that you don't pull it down in the night. Add a couple of tacks to the fabric where it touches the dowels so that it won't roll off the dowels, either.

EXTRA:
We took a few minutes before final reveal and painted our dowels gold to match the fabric. Not necessary, but nice.

Voila! You have an easy, pretty canopy bed. Impress your friends, impress your mate, and add some

ambiance to your quarters--in under an hour, no less.