A D.I.Y Sunday: Operation Headboard!

My husband and I have been searching for the “perfect” bedroom suit for what seems like an eternity!! I gave him the honors of picking out the furniture for our master suite. I wasn’t worried because I know I can pretty much decorate anything and make it look nice (or at the least presentable). We have searched high and low for this “perfect” bedroom furniture and yet we ( ahem HE) has not found it! I think its buried under a rock somewhere! So anyway after waiting many months and only having a bed frame and mattress set I decided that enough was enough! I wanted a headboard! I was tired of having my pillows fall on the floor in the middle of the night and I didn’t want to worry about damaging the wall in this rental property.  SO I decided to build us a custom headboard to use until we unearth this fantastic bedroom furniture that is apparently on in our dreams!  About 2 weeks ago I went to Hancock Fabrics and Lowe’s and collected all my materials. Yesterday during a rain storm I finally took the time to put it together!

I will give you all an outline for how I went about this process.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional! I am a very creative and thrifty person who has read one too many blogs and watched a few too many YouTube videos LOL and I am not afraid to improvise 🙂

Supplies Needed

A piece of plywood: I had it cut to 80 inches for our king size bed.

Step 1: First I attached the foam to the plywood. You can use either the spray adhesive or the staple gun for this process. I initially started with the  spray adhesive but due to the fact I used 2 twin egg crate mattress foams instead of regular foam it would not stay in place. So I ended up stapling the foam to the plywood instead (this is also why you will see me using blue gloves in the photos. I did not want to get adhesive on my hands).  Also I had to piece together the foam to cover the plywood. I didn’t really care whether it looked pretty under there because I knew that I would be covered by the batting and fabric. If you want the foam to be even across I suggest you purchase the regular foam. Being the thrifty person I am, I chose the more cost effective route. Regular foam was 14 dollars a yard at my local fabric store!  I got the egg crates on sale at Target for 10.99. TIP: If you do a king size bed go with the XL Twin foam instead of regular twin.

 Step #2: Then I covered the foam and plywood with the batting. I used a king size batting. It covers a very large surface area. I was able to fold it in half to cover the wood and still have excess to trim. I just attached it using my staple gun and pulling the batting taut. After stapling in place, I trimmed the excess.

Step #3 After that I ironed the fabric. You can decide whether you need or want to do this step. It was required as I was working with a linen material and it was very wrinkled. I didn’t think that pulling the material taut would get the wrinkles out and I wanted my headboard to look smooth.

Step #4: I attached fabric to headboard using the electric stapler. I found that using an electric stapler was much easier than a manual stapler for this process because you have to go through multiple layers to get to the wood. You may also need assistance during this step to ensure that your fabric stays aligned while you staple it onto the board. I had my hubby help during this process. It was kind of fun to have him be my helper while I used the power tool for change 🙂

Step #5. I attached D- Rings to the back of the headboard. I used 3 and drilled them into the ends and center of frame (well the husband did :).  Then I used a tape measure to measure from the ceiling to the point where I wanted my headboard to begin. I marked the spot on wall. I used the Hercules hook to hang the headboard but you can use hooks or nails or screws to create hanging area on wall. After that I just hang the headboard on the wall like the piece of art it is ;).

It took me about 3 hours to complete this project. It was fairly easy and I am glad I had the chance to do it. As you can tell I am not afraid of attempting new DIY projects. I realize that some will go well and some maybe …not so much. Either way, it was a fun way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon!  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Until next post,

Brittany

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