For the Home: DIY Headboard

Today’s post comes from our DIY contributor, Ashley, who blogs at Attempts at Domestication! She writes about her adventures in cooking, DIYing, decorating, and everything in between!

A few months ago my husband came to me and said “I feel like our bedroom looks like a dorm. It’s so incomplete. We really need to get a headboard.” Then the clouds parted and the angels broke out in a hallelujah chorus, or maybe that was just me. Either way I was ecstatic because he was right, it was very blah in there.
At first I wanted to do something shabby chic with shutters, but my husband vetoed anything “shabby $h*t.” Instead he wanted something “classy” like “one of those fabric headboards”, and I graciously said yes, you can build me one of those. 😉 And it came out pretty darn good. Just look at these beautiful, sexy curves. Yes, I used the word sexy to describe a piece of furniture but if anything should be sexy it should be the bed, right? 😉
It wasn’t really that hard to put together either. It just involved some cutting.Several hours of stapling.And 2 hours of hammering nailhead trim on your hands and knees.
The whole thing was a weekend project and the best news is it cost us less than $100! Woohoo! I used a few tutorials I found on Pinterest, but the one from Running From the Law was my favorite. Of course the first step of any DIY project is a trip to Lowe’s and the craft store, in this case Joann Fabric, to buy our supplies. The piece of plywood we used was 4×8 and 23/32 thick and ran us about $26. Hubs cut it down so it was 65″ wide and 48″ high, which is perfect for a queen bed. To figure out the corners, we played a bit of a guessing game. I had my husband measure about 3 different lengths, and then he used a compass to make them perfectly round. We decided to go with the middle one, go figure. Isn’t that the way life always works out? So Hubs got to work with his jigsaw. Mmmm… I love a man with power tools.After all the cuts were made it was my turn. I used a foam mattress pad that I stole off the guest bed for my padding. Cutting the foam was really easy and I did it with a pair of scissors. I attached the foam to the plywood using a lot, and I mean a lot, of spray adhesive. The best way to get this to work is by spraying a generous amount of adhesive on both the plywood and the foam. For this project I used Loctite spray adhesive and was pretty pleased with how it held up. It’s best to use the adhesive in a well ventilated area, it gets pretty smelly. After everything was try we moved the party inside to keep from getting dirt, sawdust and other general garage dirtiness in the headboard itself.The first thing that needs to be stapled down is some quilt batting. I set the headboard face down on top of the batting and started by stapling up the bottom. Once the bottom has been secure we stood the headboard up on it’s side and stapled that down, then flip it over, pull the batting tight, and staple some more. It’s important to make sure the batting is tight and smooth, but dont pull too tight, this stuff rips really easily. After all your batting is secure, cut off the excess, lay down your fabric, set the headboard on top of it and start stapling again.

The fabric we used is actually just a 6×9 canvas drop cloth that we picked up at Lowe’s with the plywood. It was only $11, you definitely cannot get any other fabric for that price. I washed it twice and stuck it in the dryer before we actually used it, it was kinda stinky to start with. Haha. You staple down the fabric using the same method as the batting. Staple the bottom up first, then flip it and start on the sides. The trickiest part here is definitely stapling down the curves on the top. What really helped is to cut the fabric into strips. I didn’t make my strips too deep, just in case something went wrong. I had my husband pulling the fabric tight and whenever it would bunch up or wrinkle on the sides or in front I’d just make the cut a little deeper and pull to get the wonky spots out. Then you staple the hell out of the fabric so it stays put. The most important part of this project is to make sure that your fabric is super tight and smooth. Therefore staples are super important. Use them. They are your best friend.Once the fabric is all tight and secure, it’s time to add the nailhead trim! I picked mine up at Joann Fabric for $20. This stuff looks great, but it is a pain. It took me two hours to hammer it all in. Yep, two hours on my hands and knees, hammering.I measured and kept everything an inch and half away from the edge, almost right up against the foam. You’ll also notice there was a sock on the hammer, that’s to keep it from scratching the finish off the trim. But I think it was worth it. Definitely.Now for the final step, hanging the darn thing on the wall. Yep, I said hang. We opted for hanging instead of adding legs. Now it’s more like those fancy hotel headboards. 😉 I picked up this kit at Lowe’s, it can hold up to 200 lbs. which is WAY more than our plywood headboard, but better safe than sorry. The kit comes with screws for what you’re hanging, plus screws and anchors for the wall. The piece for the headboard goes on facing down, and the piece for the wall goes in facing up. (Pardon the terrible picture please.)After everything is all screwed in and level you simply pick up the headboard and place the back piece inside the piece on the wall. And everything was all set and squared away. This headboard has made such a huge difference in the bedroom already. We both love it! And we love how much it adds to the room, plus it was less than $100!

Plywood – $26.37
Canvas Drop Cloth – $10.98
Quilt Batting – $7.97
Spray Adhesive – $5.88
Hanging System – $10.88
Staples – $2.78
Total Cost = $64.86
Joy of having a brand new headboard = PRICELESS! (Is that joke too old?)

Have you ever built your own headboard? Or any piece of furniture? If so I’d love to hear about it and see pictures! I’m looking for inspiration for a headboard for our guest room!