Life with the Beverly's: DIY: Upholstered Headboard

Monday, October 8, 2012

DIY: Upholstered Headboard

I'm happy to say we're finally finished with our upholstered headboard for our master bedroom! I have been coveting many beautiful upholstered headboards on Pinterest for months. I slowly started purchasing all of my materials either on sale or with coupons over a few months span. An in home photo session at our house this past weekend made me jump into gear to get this project completed!

Material's we used for our queen sized bed,

- Plywood from Home Depot (we had them cut it to size for us)

- MDF board that we cut for the edges of the headboard, so stapling and nailhead trim would be easier to go into

- Quilt batting from Jo-Ann Fabric (we just used 1 layer to cover the entire front of the headboard, but a lot of the tutorials I saw used 2 layers)

- Full size foam mattress topper from Target

- 1 window panel from Target (washed and added a lot of fabric softner, dryed and ironed)

- Elmer's spray adhesive (which we already had)

- Nailhead Trim in French Natural from Beacon Fabrics Online

- Rubber Mallet from Home Depot

- Stape Gun w/ extra heavy duty nails from Joann Fabrics

- Jigsaw (to cut the belgrave shape) - A friend let us use theirs

via Pinterest

- French Cleat (to hang on wall) from Hobby Lobby

These are the tutorials I followed for our headboard if this is of any interest to you!

Some advice:

One of the many challenges I had was finding the right neutral fabric for it. I envisioned something neutral and inexpensive. I went back and forth between using canvas drop cloth and Robert Allen Home Cameo Circles fabric at Jo-Ann's. I had seen so many tutorials using canvas drop cloths, I loved the idea and thought that was our final decision. I went to Home Depot and bought it for $10 and was so excited to use it for our headboard. It was the exact color I wanted (a light neutral). However, after washing the drop cloth, drying it and ironing it I noticed a lot of imperfections that I was not happy with. Some small, different colored threads, etc. I'm all for the natural, burlap/linen look but the imperfections were just bugging me!

I didn't want to settle, so I kept searching. As a last resort I went to Target and looked at their window panels. I'm not sure what led me to that aisle, I just had an epiphany! I found one I thought would work well. It looked like linen, had a nice soft, yet sturdy feel to it, when layed flat it fit our queen size headboard perfectly. Best part? It was only $16.99!

Color: Farrah Cream

Another cheap route I took was with the foam. Some tutorials say foam is an absolute must, some say you don't need it if you have a couple layers of batting. I thought two layers of batting alone would be thick enough for the look I was going for, but it wasn't. I knew I wanted the extra plush look and feel that I could only really achieve with foam.

via Target

I saw somewhere online that you could flip over some cheap mattress padding and get the same effect as foam. I bought a full size mattress padding from Target which was under $20 and it fit our queen sized headboard perfectly! You could probably find this cheaper at Walmart or somewhere else but I live closer to a Target, so it was more convenient for me to go there. This mattress pad is 1.5" thick, which was just the right amount of thickness for our liking. We actually didn't need the extra layer of batting, but I've seen many tutorials where people use 1.5"- 2" foam and 2 layers of batting. Just use whatever you like. We sprayed Elmer's spray adhesive to the plywood before laying down our foam. We flipped the foam over, so the bumpy part of it was against the plywood. After that staple on your batting, fabric and hammer in your nail head trim! We didn't make "feet" for our headboard, because we chose to hang it on the wall with a french cleat. It's not going anywhere! :)
*just a side note, I went to Walmart after the fact, and their cheap full size mattress padding is $11! So worth it to go there instead of paying $20 at Target! :)

There are some minor imperfections, but overall we are very happy with it! You really can't beat a pretty, upholstered headboard that costs under $100!

Sorry for the ammature pictures, these were all taken with my iPhone! I'll upload better pics another time with our camera...

Hubby's side of the bed

My side of the bed

In the evening

I saved all the excess batting, foam and nail head trim for future projects. I'm planning to make a storage bench for our family room and two x-ottomans for our living room/sitting room like these,

via Pinterest

Also, I want to use the canvas drop cloth I didn't end up using for our headboard for a cork board! I think it will look so pretty in our home office!