After lots or searching and ending with no promising leads at a reasonable price I decided to make my own headboard for our master bedroom. I knew that I wanted it to be contemporary with clean lines and simple elegance and definitely oversized. I have seen several blog posts on how to DIY a headboard. They all look so simple and I knew that I could pull it off. I of course had to call in my mom for some help. I found the fabric at JoAnns for a great price plus I got to use 2 coupons-steal! I bought 3 yards and had just enough to complete the project. I later decided that I want to have the headboard stand a little wider than the bed frame so I need legs and they would have to be wrapped as well. I went back and bought another yard; I could have gotten away with buying just half a yard. I also bought the batting at JoAnns. I bought the cheapest one they had, nothing special to it-I justice sure it was large enough. The foam also came from JoAnns. I bought one inch foam that came in a roll. I had to buy two rolls. My parents had lots of leftover wood at their house that they told me to use. I planned on building it out of plywood but this was free and already at my parents house we here we built the headboard-perfect! This made for a heavy headboard but it turned out amazing!
First: measure to see what size headboard you want and need. I basically measured my existing king size mattress and frame to determine the height I would need to start the bottom of the headboard at. Then I measured the width of my mattress and built a frame to fit approx 3 inches wider on each side of the bed. My mom is seriously so handy. She whipped out a saw and got to cutting. My dad happened to come home at that time and we ended up delagating the rest of the cutting to him-thanks dad! So we cut the boards to build the frame then nailed and glued the cross boards to make the frame solid. Then I built the legs and secured them.
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| shiplap wood |
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| you could stop at this point, paint or stain and it wood give a rustic/shabby chic look |
Now that the frame is built it was time to apply the foam. We laid the headboard on two sawhorse to making the labor less intense. We started by laying the foam out leaving enough room to wrap the foam around the side of the frame and secured it to the back with a staple gun. We originally planned to also secure it using spray adhesive but it really wasn't doing anything so we scratched that idea. We covered the entire headboard with foam using staples. Too easy.
Third, apply batting. We laid the batting over the foam-this just made it a little more seamless where the two pieces of foam meet up. I don't think this step is necessary if you have only one piece of foam. It was also secured to the back of the headboard using a staple gun.
Last step is to upholster the headboard. This was extremely easy but we were very careful doing so. I am somewhat a perfectionist so I wanted no wrinkles at all and for the corners to look professionally done. We managed to do just that. First we started on the legs. I wrapped them making the seam come up to the base of the headboard on each leg. Then we wrapped the headboard with the same fabric. I used a pearl leather. It has a lot of texture to the leather which I loved! I carefully tucked and pulled at each corner ensuring to create wrinkle free sides. My mom is so good at everything she does. She was a huge help and has creative ideas each time I wanted to give up on a tuck. We eventually got it exactly how I wanted it. The back of this headboard is not exactly professional. It would be really easy to make it that way but since I made this for myself I wasn't worried about covering the flaws like a furniture company would.
The headboard ended up being approximately 76" tall and 80" wide. This is definitely larger than the average headboard but it's exactly what I wanted.
Thanks, Mom for all of your help and tools!
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| this is in the master bedroom that is not yet decorated |
The headboard stood flush against the wall after pushing the bed frame up against the legs. It feels very secure so I didn't attach the legs to the frame at all. If your headboard if wobbly simply use the right size screws to attach your legs to the frame. You can also use a wall mount to attach the headboard to the studs and sheet-rock if you chose to not use legs. I will post a follow up on the headboard when my bedding arrives (supposed to be here July 15th) and I have a little more details added to the room.
