Upholstered Headboard

Along with fall comes my insatiable desire to get some projects completed around here.  You wouldn't know it by looking at my house right now...with stuff strewn everywhere because I'm "rearranging".   I'm trying to take it a room at a time so it all seems more doable.  Any other scatter-brainers out there?

This upholstered headboard project has been on my radar screen ever since the beginning of the year when we purchased our california King-sized bed.  

Have you all priced King-sized upholstered headboards lately?  They ain't cheap.

So, when Steven asked me if making the headboard for me was a good anniversary gift, I was just giddy.  Good?  That's a perfect idea!

I had found one at the Pottery Barn outlet that I fell in love with before we moved for $350...

$350's still pricey, but it's priced at $599 on their website!

I picked out the shape I wanted, based off of the pictures I had seen on Darby's blog of their PB headboard in their master bedroom renovation...

 

They found theirs for $20 at Goodwill.  

Now, that is a steal!

And then I got my West Elm magazine in the mail that featured this nailhead trimmed headboard...

So me and the hubs began to collaborate.

We wanted ours to be thicker and more substantial than all the typical DIY upholstered headboards you see floating around on blog land.  We also didn't want to just attach it to the wall behind our bed.  So Steven basically created a faux thick wood out of 2 pieces of plywood and some thick wood sandwiched in between along the edges.   You women get my visual words here, right?  This upped our cost, but the result?  A thick and substantial looking headboard without being super heavy.  It was worth it for us.

I'm not sure exactly how we came up with this shape.  Trial and error, a few pieces of unconventional equipment and a sharpie is the best way I know how to tell you..  You can see we definitely played around before we decided on the final shape...

We purchased 2 big rolls of the thickest foam they carry at Hobby Lobby 

{printable 40% off coupons are great for these expensive boogers}.  

I also had some quilt batting already that we used to wrap the edges, giving it a smoother transition.

 Steven did this shave thing along the edges of the foam before stapling it into the wood.  In hindsight, we wouldn't have chosen the type of plywood we did.  It was really really hard wood and made stapling with our staple gun a pain in the neck!  The project would have gone a lot faster otherwise.  

You live and learn. :-)

Then, he began to wrap the sides with the quilt batting...no stapling necessary...

Next, we got our upholstery fabric out and kind of laid it out to see where we wanted to place it.

Ironed the fabric, laid it out smooth on the floor, and placed the headboard - right side down - where we wanted it.  Then stapled the fabric, pulling as taught as the 2 of us could muster, to the back of the headboard.  Again, took way longer than necessary because of our wood choice. :-(

Next, came the nailhead trim.  Steven started out measuring each position precisely, but quickly learned the trim had a mind of its' own.  It didn't matter where you placed it, it always seemed to go its' own way.  

We'll blame it on the wood choice again! 

So, he scratched the measuring quickly and just eyeballed it.  This led to some stray nailhead trim that we'll fine tune later.  Just squint your eyes when you look at the final picture and it'll make the trim blend together nicely in your brain. 

Using my West Elm magazine as a guide for the trim.

The mostly finished product!

 

I absolutely love it!  

Thank you, Steven, for giving me the perfect anniversary gift!

Rough estimates of the materials:

fabric = $21

nailhead trim = $19

foam = $40

wood = $40 

Total = $120!

If you want to make one yourself, these awesome tutorials will walk you through the process step by step.  They are cheaper to make than ours was, with a thinner structure.  Be sure to let me know if you try it!

Centsational Girl

Isabella and Max Rooms

This one is not cheaper if you make it as large as she did, but you could easily make to size.

And because I like to laugh, I figure you might want to as well...

This is underneath of our bed and yes, those would be stacks of books "raising" the height of our bed.  

Can I just say, one of my favorite things about Steven is his ingenuity. :-)