diy otomi headboard complete!

Hello abode lovers and happy Monday. I am completely under the weather today... ugh, I'm all hopped up on Zicam, Mucinex, Ibuprofen and 2 varieties of cough drops, thanks to Mister Husband. Although I am not doing so well, or looking so hot, I am so excited to share this diy with you today, so here I am! Anyone remember Landon & Kelli's living room redesign? Or their Master Bedroom? They are some of my favorite friends and clients and it's always a pleasure to work with them! Anyway, this time, we are tackling a new space In their lovely abode... one of their guest bedrooms! We've discussed an otomi headboard for a while, but otomi fabric can be a bit pricey... so we went to plan B. Cheap paint.

Here was the process...

I designed an otomi print that I was happy with based off of lots of patterns I had come across online. I made a 60"x60" square document and scaled my otomi pattern to fit. I then tiled the document so that I could print it out full scale-- I then spent far too long piecing together the document with tape. I have to tell you, that process was a bit tedious! I then placed the pattern on top of the headboard that Landon and Kelli had cut out of MDF. We decided how we wanted the pattern to be seen on the headboard, taped it to the front of the headboard and then flipped it over....

Here I am trimming off the access pattern... 

Now we have the paper printout to fit the headboard exactly, it was time to cut out all of the otomi shapes so that we could trace them onto the MDF.

We placed cardboard under the pattern so that we could cut out the shapes without damaging the mdf. 

Kelli and I pretty much hated this process. It was SO hard. I don't know why... I spent many hours in college cutting with xacto knives, but for some reason... this project about killed us. We decided to only cut out the shapes that were absolutely necessary-- and that I would draw the remainder of the pieces freehand.  

So, here is what we ended up cutting out. It took FOREVER. I was at that point coming down with my nasty cold too, and Kelli wasn't feeling too hot, so we felt like we were pretty pathetic. There was a lot of moaning and groaning while we were bent over this stupid thing cutting it out... we were SO glad when it was done!

Once we had it cut out, we traced around each shape with a pencil... 

Done! That step didn't take long AT ALL. Thank goodness, after cutting all that blasted paper, we were ready for an easy step!

And now it was time for paint... (Kelli and Landon had already painted the headboard background in Benjamin Moore's Grant Beige) We came in with white paint and painted in each little otomi shape.

After one coat, we decided we definitely needed another coat... we also wanted to add eyes and dots to the pattern like we had seen in most other otomi patterns.  

DONE! So, what do you think? After a little over 5 hours we were DONE and completely exhausted-- and now, sick as well! "Was it worth it?" you ask? Yes, I tell you. Yes!

After this photo was taken, we pigged out on chinese and then Mister Husband and I went home. I then climbed into bed with a heating pad and called it a night. It was 10pm, and I slept until around 11 the next morning. I am now nursing one hell of a cold, but I am SO proud of what we accomplished this weekend!

I hope all of you abode lovers have a wonderfully productive Monday, I will not, here's hoping for feeling better Tuesday!