Heat from an electric pad or blanket contacting an egg crate mattress pad can be safe if you take appropriate precautions. Always follow the manufacturer's rules for safety and never leave the blanket on all night while you're asleep. It's impossible to stop a potential burn from turning into a fire while you're unconscious. Properly Functioning Electric Pad A properly functioning electric mattress pad shouldn't pose any threat to your egg crate pad. According to The Electric Blanket Institute, keeping your electric padding flat and uniform over your mattress helps distribute heat evenly. This keeps the blanket from bunching, which can concentrate heat in spots on your mattress. Concentrated heat from an electric pad can potentially cause damage to your egg crate and surrounding blankets if the heat remains on a high setting for long periods of time. A tangled blanket cord can develop kinks that can wear away its protective outer coating. This exposes the inner wiring of the electric blanket to any fabric or surface coming in contact with the cord.
During operation, heat generated through the cord can damage sheets or other mattress pads, including egg crates. Inspecting the power to ensure no worn spots exists can help prevent this from occurring. Avoid winding or looping the cord tightly during storage to help limit the wear and tear on its protective coating. An electric mattress pad includes a thin layer of insulation inside the padding to protect surfaces from direct exposure to heat generated during operation. Allowing pets to walk on the blanket or keeping sharp objects on your bed can potentially cause punctures in the protective insulation. This can lead to hot spots in the mattress pad, which could prove to be a fire hazard if you use an egg crate pad on top of your mattress. Malfunctions or shorts in an electric mattress pad's wiring are impossible to predict under normal circumstances. Small brown spots on your mattress or blankets could be a sign of a potential electrical problem with your electric pad's wiring.
Continuing to use the pad could present a fire risk. According to Boston College's website, an egg crate foam mattress pad could be particularly vulnerable to fire damage when an electric blanket is running and a malfunction occurs. Direct heat contact with an old or thin egg crate pad isn't advisable due to the flammable nature of the material.I’m here today to talk about a long overdue project I completed over the weekend: a headboard for our bed! I took my time figuring out exactly what I wanted for this one (over a year, to be exact), and I think it’s a perfect fit for our room. I found a handful of tutorials such as this, this, this, and this, began to gather my supplies. First thing to get was a large piece of MDF from Lowe’s (around $20, they cut it to size for me). We have a King size bed, so the measurements were around 78×35 for ours (I actually could have made it a few inches narrower though) Next, I stopped by Walmart to pick up a few foam mattress toppers (the tutorials said it was much cheaper than 2″ or 3″ foam, and worked just as well).
I wanted it extra thick, so I grabbed three for $10 each, and then headed to the fabric section just for kicks. And then, I saw it: It was beyond perfect. Not only was it $2.50/yard, it was the perfect mix of grey and tan and woven texturedness I had dreamed of. I knew I wanted something natural and woven, and not the typical orangey-yellow burlap, but more of a soft gray. I seriously lucked out with this one. And look, it matches our couch! I bought 2.5 yards, along with a roll of batting and the three mattress covers. The total came to around $50, but luckily I still have some Christmas gift cards leftover… so my total: free. Next I headed to Joann’s and picked up the rest of my supplies: A button cover kit, decorators needle and upholstery thread. It was around $13 (after a coupon) for these. Once home, I laid out my fabric and ironed it out as best as I could (this is an important step that people tend to forget): Once it was nice and smooth, I began drawing my template for the headboard shape.
I used a large piece of cardboard, measured to the center of my headboard, and made the cardboard exactly half the width it. I then freehanded the curved shape I wanted: Once I was happy with it, I used an Xacto knife and traced over the line, then traced the shape onto my board: Then I lined it back up to the middle, flipped it over, and repeated: The next morning I woke up to find Brad in the garage, cutting the shape with our wireless jigsaw. Unfortunately, wireless power tools are worthless, and it only got this far before the battery died: So he borrowed our neighbor’s jigsaw to finish the job. The edges weren’t perfect…. which isn’t a huge deal, but I took my hand sander out and smoothed out a couple small areas just to be safe. Next it was time to measure for the buttons. I decided to go with two rows: 3 on top, 4 on the bottom, in an alternating pattern. I already had my center line marked out, so it was an easy process from there.
I placed them 15″ apart from each other, made my marks, and drilled holes all the way through. Here’s a visual of the intended placement: Next came the hardest part of this entire project… trying to ar range the foam and cut them all perfectly to size. But there was a problem. I didn’t pay attention to the length when I bought them… oops. So I had to revert to plan B: using just two layers, and cutting a small section to fill in the gap from the third. Luckily, the width was the exact height of the headboard… I lucked out here. The problem with these things though is that they are flimsy, don’t lie completely flat, and the factory edges are not straight at all. Also, I don’t think I had the right tools to cut these… I was using a steak knife. Here is a tip: apply pressure to the foam when you are cutting. The flatter and more condensed it is, the easier it will be to slice through. After a good 30 minutes though, I finally had everything as smooth as I could get it, and it was time to wrap it all up with batting.
I lined everything back up as best as I could, set the batting down, trimmed the excess off around the edges, and stapled it up. And it was starting to come together! I repeated the batting process with the fabric, and then it was ready for tufting: I went inside to figure out this button covering process, which was actually really simple… After all 7 were completed, I headed back into the garage and got to work. I don’t have any in-progress shots of this because Brad wasn’t home, but here is the basic process: thread the needle, attach a washer to the end, push it through the hole and through the button, come back through the same hole, pull it tight, use a staple gun to hold the thread down, and wrap back around through the washer and around the staple to secure. After breaking the threads a couple times from pulling too hard, I double threaded my needle (so there was 4 strands). Make sure to push the needle through as straight as possible, so your buttons stay level.
Finally, I attached a french cleat (my favorite method of hanging large objects… super easy!) I measured and attached the other half to the wall: And we had ourselves a headboard! After this pic was taken, we ended up spraying some of the areas down with wrinkle releaser, which smoothed everything out perfectly. And now, for the first time ever, this bedroom has a headboard! Now for the cost breakdown (these are rough estimates, since I suck at keeping receipts) MDF board – $20Fabric, batting, foam: $55Buttons – $13total: $88-$55 gift card: $33 $33 for an upholstered tufted King size headboard… Now, I was also planning on hanging some artwork to complete this bed wall project. Remember the mockup I drew last week? Well, I changed my mind. The headboard is actually a bit more massive than this picture, and the frames would almost touch the ceiling. I think it would just be too much, and I need something a bit more delicate to fill the space.
After much deliberation, I decided a nice simple piece of driftwood would be the perfect touch… a la Holly of Life in the Fun Lane: I hear these things are plentiful at our beaches… now I just have to go find one!I present to you, our next project:We haven’t done a single thing to it since we signed the papers on this house… except throw all of our unused furniture and a cat in there. It’s currently being used as my photo studio, the cat’s litterbox/playground, a storage facility for my surplus shipping materials, and a passthrough to the backyard. It needs some serious help. Remember how we road tripped to Ikea last weekend to get frames? We didn’t get just frames. I came up with this brilliant seating configuration for this room that would not only allow for plenty of seating, but it would create room for four guests to sleep. We bought two of these Brimnes Daybeds, which I’ll arrange into an L shape: And turn into beds when guests come:
The Ikea delivery truck is scheduled to arrive one week from tomorrow, so we’ll be anxious to get these set up. We also decided on a new flooring solution because that carpet had to go. In my beach house dream I’d have white plank wood floors, but because of the humidity and temperature changes in the room, hardwood was not an option. What’s the next best thing? Tile that looks like wood! We stopped by the tile shop and I pretty much knew immediately that this was “the one” when I saw it: I think this picture lies though, because the tile is not that gray. It actually has a lot of warm beige tones mixed in, but we’ll see. I think it will look amazing either way. We would need around 190 square feet, and the total (after our 50% discount for using their installer) comes to $756. We were quoted another $400 or so for installation, plus grout. That means it will be around $1200, but worth it I think. This poor room deserves it for looking this pitiful for so long.