Upholstered Headboard

First, I wanted to let you know that you are formally invited to participate in a linky party I’ll be hosting this Thursday, April 22nd where we each share the story of how we met our house. You don’t have to own your house, you can live in an apartment, and you don’t even have to like your house. I thought it would be kind of fun and interesting to hear everyone’s stories, though, so get ready to participate this Thursday!

So, remember a little while back when I shared my bed woes with you? The bed frame was horribly squeaky, and my $30 Craigslist headboard banged against the wall every time I moved. Not exactly the recipe for a relaxing night’s sleep.

You all gave me some fantastic ideas, and after some thought (and a hard look at the budget) I decided to buy a new metal bed frame and make an upholstered headboard.

There are approximately a zillion tutorials out in Internet-land on how to make an upholstered headboard, but I’ll go ahead and show you what I did.

I invested $9.99 of cold hard cash in a drop cloth from Home Depot to use as the fabric. Oh yeah, I’m a BIG spender. It was the perfect color, though, and very durable (and the right price) – so I went with it.

I then had a piece of 3/4 inch plywood cut to the width of my bed and a height of 33 inches.

When I got the plywood home, I pulled out my trusty jigsaw and cut a gentle curve into the top of the plywood (This step is totally optional).

I then cut 1 inch thick foam to the shape of the plywood and then covered it with a layer of batting (which I stapled to the back with a staple gun). And then laid everything over the drop cloth fabric (which I’d already ironed smooth).

I then (um, I realize “I then” is the phrase of the day here) pulled the fabric taught (but not overly tight) and stapled it in two places on each of the 4 sides, before stapling the fabric all the way around. I made sure I checked the front side of the headboard as I went, to be sure the fabric was smooth. (Probably should have taken a picture of this part, huh?)

Once I was finished attaching the fabric, I turned the headboard over and nailed a strip of silver upholstery tacks along each side. I couldn’t find upholstery tacks in strips in silver anywhere in my fair city, so I ordered them from this shop on Ebay. I HIGHLY recommend working with the strips instead of individual tacks. I’ll explain more in my “blooper reel” tomorrow, but in a nutshell, the strips are fantastic because you only have to nail a tack in once every third “tack” (a big time saver), and since it’s a strip it’s really hard NOT to create a straight line.

Once the headboard was finished, I screwed two large D ring hanger’s to the back of the headboard and hung the headboard from two screws I had screwed directly into studs.

I can’t tell you what a relief it is to finally have a bed that is sturdy and relaxing. And the best part is that it was CHEAP! I paid $65 for the new metal bed frame, and about to make $50 the headboard. Not to shabby…