DIY Headboard!

Over the weekend I managed to add an important feature to the guest bedroom. A headboard! To refresh, here's a shot of how it looked pre-headboard.

To start, I had to put on my thinking cap and decide how big I wanted it to be. I knew I liked oversized headboards and that I wanted to make it as easy as possible on myself. With those facts in mind, and the knowledge that plywood comes in 48" widths, I decided that my headboard would be 48" tall. Then, I decided that it would be 62" wide (a couple inches wider than my 60" wide queen size bed). I had all of my wood cut for free at Home Depot.

Then I started laying it out.

Most of the work was done from the back of the headboard so that's what you see here. I framed the board with 1x2 peices of wood (62" lengths across the top, 45" peices along the sides). Then I started placing my buttons to figure out where I wanted to use them to make the headboard tufted. I went with 3 rows of buttons - 5 on the top row, 4 on the second, 5 on the bottom.

When I knew where all of my buttons were going to go, I drilled a hole in each spot so I could pull a needle through from back to front.

I flipped the whole thing over and used a spray adhesive to attach a 1/2" layer of foam to the front. Over that, I used my handy staple gun to attach a layer of batting and then over that, I finally stapled my fabric down. In this picture you can see the hole for the button and the stapled down batting and fabric.

I decided to hang my headboard using two 1x2's - one mounted to the wall with pegs and then another mounted to the back of the headboard with corresponding holes (so the headboard would drop down on the pegs and stay hooked to the wall). I didn't take a picture of that but here is my artist's rendering.

When that was all done, the back looked like this.





And when we stuck it up on the wall it looked like this! Viola!

The whole project cost about $75 (for plywood, 1x3s, foam, spray adhesive, buttons, fabric, screws, mounting screws, and a small dowel for the pegs). I still have a few things to add to the room (pillows, lamps) so I can't call this one done yet, but it's thisclose!  Yay!

I'm linking this project up to the DIY Show Off and Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday.