A few weeks ago, someone asked here on BYEB how I created the brown and white canopy that hangs in our guest bedroom/office, so I thought I’d show you how I did it. It sure isn’t anything fancy at all!

Growing up, I had twin canopy beds. Apparently, the beds came out of a nunnery in the 50′s when my grandparents got them for my mother’s bedroom. They’re white iron and had the most fabulous canopy and drapery hanging from them. I always thought they were so magical, and I loved that they looked like the beautiful princess beds in books and movies! So needless to say, I’ve always loved canopy beds in every shape and style.

When I first graduated from college and began planning my move to Birmingham, Alabama, my mother and I spent the summer scavenging thrift stores and attics and antique stores trying to come up with furniture. We knew that a bed would have eaten my entire apartment budget, so we wanted to come up with a fun and inexpensive alternative to a headboard or bed frame. The brown canopy was our solution!

We used an old piece of molding that my mom had in the attic as our jumping off point. I bought several yards of fabric at the fabric store (enough to ensure that the fabric would puddle on the floor. Also, because I used enough fabric for it to puddle, it has worked in every space I’ve used it, even though I’ve had 8 ft,9 ft, and 10 ft ceilings! It’s a bit more versatile that way.

The fabric was essentially the only cost, so I splurged on the lovely brown linen with graphic detail and saved on the inexpensive gauzy white. I think it cost about $60 in fabric, total.

My mom and I attached the fabric to the molding in a very meticulous and scientific way, as you can tell No, we actually didn’t have a staple gun, so we just used some upholstery nails to nail it to the wood, folding it to create pleats while we attached it. I didn’t do a bit of sewing — just the raw fabric stapled to the wood. Probably not the best method, but I’ve never had any problem with it!

Then, to hang the wood molding on the wall, I just attached a simple hanger to the wood, and I hang that on a picture hanger on the wall, right up next to the molding. The whole piece doesn’t weigh very much, so I don’t use anything heavy duty. I’ve never had a problem with it falling.

So there you go, Natalie. Pretty simple, huh?