A place to rest your head

You might have noticed a headboard in some after pictures of a previous blog about some not so sassy lamps? This just so happens to be a project I completed the same day I painted the lamps. Yes it was a very busy day. Since a lot of people like the look of a fabric covered headboard, but don’t really know where to start I thought I would give a step-by-step guide so you can make your own. Trust me, it’s easy peasy!

Step 1 – Pick out your fabric

   I knew for a while that I wanted our guest bedroom to have a grey and yellow “theme” so whenever I went to a fabric store I kept that in mind. One day while I was in Hancock Fabrics I found this interesting print. It is a little busy, but had all the colors I wanted to use in the room! It was about $10 a yard and I knew for a full size bed I only needed about two yards. Twenty dollars for fabric!

Step 2 – Build your frame

   Since I have champagne dreams on a water budget, I set out to find a cheap but sturdy option for the frame. Some headboards I’ve seen have used a plywood or MDF board as the back drop. I would say that would be the best option for a bed that you use on a daily basis. For me however, the guest bedroom is only used every so often, so I thought an open frame would work fine. Again, you could have gone with 1x2 boards or something like that, but while I was shopping at Hobby Lobby I found these square dowel rods for CHEAP.

Just purchases some “L” brackets and straight brackets to attach everything together. In hindsight I probably would have sprung for the 1x2 boards and just had 4 boards to put together instead of 6, but you live and you learn. This I would say would be the hardest/longest part of the whole project. Either way you choose, make sure you measure twice, cut once! I left mine just a ½ inch longer than the bed to account for a comforter to fill in the space.

Step 3 – Attach your batting and fabric

  After you have a frame or board cut to size, your next step is to attach the batting and fabric. I ironed my fabric first to get out the creases and to keep a nice smooth surface. Once that was done I put the fabric on the floor followed by batting. It’s a lot of personal preference for your thickness in batting but one tip, if you’re going to use a lot, cut a few layers to the exact size of your frame and just one a little longer to wrap over the frame, that way you’re not having to staple through a lot of fabric and batting.

Once I had the batting and fabric down, I put my frame on top. Using a staple gun, I began stapling the batting to frame, and then the fabric. TIP: start in the middle of one side, the go to the opposite side and vice versa. Be sure to keep the fabric tight enough to not cause wrinkles or ripples.

   Keep stapling all the sides leaving the corners for last (it’s easier that way). Once you have the corners, pull and tuck till you get a neat looking corner. It’s a lot like wrapping a gift, and folding the corners of the packages.

Here's what it looks like when I finished covering the frame.

Step 4 – Hang on the wall

   After you have finished wrapping and stapling your fabric to the board, you’re ready to hang it to the wall.  Since mine was a very lightweight headboard, I just used a few nails into the wall and hung the headboard like I would a picture frame. If it was a heavier headboard, I would suggest either using heavy duty picture hanging hardware or attaching it to some sort of leg and standing it up behind the bed. Once you’ve hung your headboard, you’re ready to dress your bed and enjoy your new piece of bed jewelry.

   Here are some "after pictures."

   The room is coming together nicely, I think I just need to change the paint color again, it looks a little blue and not so grey. Other things to add include: curtains, a cheap dresser, artwork and some seating. For now it's a nice start!

   More than likely I will be doing this again to my other bed! I mean for less than $50 I have a pretty good looking headboard. Many I’ve been searching for on the internet have been upwards of $300 dollars. Way to go me for being cheap frugal!!