A Custom DIY IKEA Kura Bed with PANYL

I’m so excited to share a fun guest post from a great and talented friend of mine, Lucy Schaeffer, a stunning photographer! Please go check out her work! Well, with the “new” old house in my life now, I’m definitely in a renovating, fixing up kind of mindset and Lucy’s project has me seriously inspired.

Pregnant with her second child, Lucy needed to make room for a crib in her daughter, Georgia’s, room. There’s nothing like trying to explain a new arrival to an only child. I’m wishing Lucy luck on that one. In the meantime, I think she’s doing a fabulous job of getting prepared!

Lucy’s idea was make Georgia a special NEW place in her room and, most importantly, have Georgia help create it. Lucy and her husband, Mike, customized the IKEA Kura Bed with a great new product called PANYL. I love this stuff. You can use it to customize almost anything. It works sort of like a sticker or contact paper, and it has a great designer finish. Here is Lucy’s post:

What motivated you to customize the bed?
With a new baby on the way we needed to revamp our daughter, Georgia’s bedroom to make room for a crib but also keep some play space for her. We wanted Georgia to feel like she was getting a special upgrade rather than losing space and getting kicked out of her old bed. IKEA’s Kura bed fit the bill space-wise but their blue finish didn’t match anything in Georgia’s room and felt plain. We decided to involve her in the process of customizing in the hopes that she’d get excited about it rather than resistant to the big changes.

Was the PANYL hard to work with or easy?
Applying the PANYL was easier than I expected. A couple times I laid down the longer pieces not quite aligned and found it no problem to pull off again and stick again with a second attempt.

What kind of a look you were going for?
Georgia loves collecting leaves and identifying trees in the neighborhood so we decided that would be the theme for the bed. We ordered samples of 3 colors that went well with the room and then let Georgia pick which one she wanted as the base color (Kelly Green!). I then chose Stone Linen to be the second tone for the inside of the bed and the leaf details. Overall we wanted fun but not too kidsy, something that none of us would get tired of quickly.

Overall we’re so proud of our custom new bed–and most importantly, Georgia loves it! It’s the first thing she proudly shows off to any new visitors and she’s been sleeping soundly in it for over a week now. Thanks PANYL!

Make sure to check out PANYL’s website and blog for other awesome hacks! You can bet I’m checking it out as I imagine redoing this old house of mine. I’m thinking basement entertainment center or an art table for the kids. Look how cute this IKEA Latt Table is in hot pink!

OR this side table in neon yellow – HELLO!

Or, use it just for highlighting something fun–think of big monograms or other big shapes dinosaurs, cars, whales, birds or flowers–the possibilities are endless!