Hello, denizens of the ‘net! Kris here, sitting in for Kelley once again. It’s been a little over a month now since we launched our Etsy store, Hemlock & Heather, and I have to say that we’re even more excited about it now than we were then. Since you last tuned in, we have restored/re-purposed six pieces of furniture, and built (from the ground up) four unique pieces of furniture (two of which have not been unveiled yet). To date, we’ve sold three of the ten that we’ve worked on. Between the two of us, and family members who’ve made donations, we’ve got enough ideas and raggedy-ass furniture sitting around the house to keep us busy for at least a few more months. In all seriousness, though, we’re having a great time collaborating, and we hope that this is a sign of bigger things to come for us in the future.

I mentioned earlier that we had a few things up our sleeves that you guys hadn’t properly seen yet, and it’s the main subject of today’s blog post. As you might have read in my previous post, a year and a half’s experience building custom frames at Briley’s Upholstery Shop significantly rounded out my list of skills. I got particularly handy cutting intricate shapes for headboards, and I learned a thing or two about how furniture gets put together. And since I do so many beds and headboards for Rebecca, Kelley and I thought it was only natural that I attempt an all-wood headboard for Hemlock & Heather.

Initially, we thought shaped tops would be the order of the day, but after Kelley mentioned that Southwestern themes were making a come-back, I began to think in a different direction. Well, she was due to spend a weekend in Houston with her sister, Katie, and so I set myself the task of designing and building the very first Hemlock & Heather headboard. Running with the Southwestern idea, I began to do a bit of research online and found a few Native American designs that I liked. But I was unsure of how to incorporate these designs without applying them too literally. I mean, let’s be honest, anyone can crib an idea from history. It’s much more interesting when the design reflects the designer and the inspiration rather than just being a direct copy. It took a few mindless hours of internet surfing and PS3 gaming, but around 2 ‘o clock on that Friday I had a light bulb moment. I mean that in the most literal sense. I immediately stopped what I was doing, sought out a piece of graph paper and pencil, and began to draw. Reflecting on the moment later, I thought I must have looked a lot like Steve Martin in Roxanne when his character, a fire marshal, senses that there is a fire somewhere nearby and his whole demeanor completely changes as he stops what he’s doing and begins to try and sniff out the fire.

Anyway, I got the thing designed and set about building it straight away. By that evening, after working straight through ‘til about 10 ‘o clock, I was nearly halfway done with the construction of the thing. It was looking better than I had hoped it would. I made a few design revisions on the fly, continued working all day Saturday while a colorless, odorless liquid fell from the sky outside my garage door, and by that night I was pretty much done with the sucker.

I dubbed it “The Four Corners” in honor of the Navajo design I’d been inspired by, and set it aside in our guest room to await Kelley’s arrival and reaction.

Well, she was pretty freakin’ excited, and I was too. We instantly began to brainstorm on other designs that we could work into similar headboards. Further inspiration wasn’t far away, and a quilt that Kelley’s mom had given her was settled upon as our next design. Kelley has carried her beloved quilt with her on numerous moves from college to adult-hood and, unfortunately since it’s slowly becoming tattered and worn, she thought what better way to preserve the essence of the quilt by incorporating it into our next headboard design. We decided that, having never had a headboard since we’d been married, this puppy, if it turned out okay, would be ours. And it did. And it was!

As you can see in the background, our source of inspiration – the quilt that was given to Kelley by her mom.

Lucy approved.

Needless to say, we’ll be doing more of these. If you’re interested in owning a wholly unique, one-of-a-kind headboard for your home, please contact me or Kelley. We’ll be happy to talk design ideas with you and see what sort of inspiration we can draw from for your own headboard.

Kris & Kelley {aka: Hemlock & Heather}