Chasing Davies: DIY Headboard

September 30, 2010

DIY Headboard

I've alluded to the DIY Headboard I was meaning to get around to doing for the last few months, and this past weekend I finally did it!!  It was just as easy as I've heard, but it does take 2 people, a bit of thinking (and planning it out) and a couple of hours.

I think it adds so much to our room!  Here's before and after, and then the process I took to do it.


Here is the step-by-step process I took:

1. Measure your bed.  Mine is a queen, and I wanted the headboard to be a few inches wider.  I then used painters tape to visualize the measurement and make sure I would like the size:


2.  I mapped out all the measurements and figured out exactly how much batting and fabric I'd need.  For the batting and fabric, you want to add 3 inches onto the headboard measurements all around.

My Road Map:

3. I got all my materials:
-Quilting batting from a hobby store, mine from Hobby Lobby
-Cushioning foam - got a twin size bedding foam from Walmart and trimmed to size
-Ply-wood - cut the base to size at Lowe's and used the extra pieces for the legs on the headboard

Tools needed:
-Staple gun & staples
-Circular saw (to cut the legs to size - you could have the hardware store do that instead)
-Nuts and bolts to adhere the the legs to the base & headboard legs to the bed frame

4. Start assembling.  Take the base of the headboard (the cut to size ply wood):


and find a working space.  We used two saw horses for our workstation.

5.  Attach the legs to the base.

6. Use the Staple gun to fix the twin-bed sized foam to the ply wood (we stapled it right on top since we were covering this up with batting and fabric) & trim off the extra foam:


7. Wrap the batting around the base.  This is where 2 people come in hand.  Pulling the batting tight, staple it on the backside (wall facing) of the headboard. 


8. Now, the same thing for the fabric.  If you have a patterned fabric, like we did.  We got it in place by doing a few staples with the front side up, so we could make sure we were keep the fabric in place.  Though, using the stable gun this way, is not super safe. You should probably wear goggles/face protecting gear if doing this.


9. After getting the fabric in place, we flipped it over to secure the rest by stapling the fabric to the back side.


10. Dealing with the legs.  We did the base first, and around the legs, cut slits to corner off.  I took extra fabric and batting and added it to the legs.  I overlapped the fabric from the base with the added fabric to the legs and we stapled it to the back side of the legs.

End result:


Now with the addition of the lime green patterned headboard (and the 2nd newly refurbished nightstand), I'm thinking the yellow FLOR rug option - what do you think?