DIY Headboard

For our new house, I wanted to spice up our room a little bit. Of course, new house means new everything, right? If only my wallet would allow for that. Well I love do it yourself projects, so I figured I could find a pattern and make my own head board. I had been searching for fabric all over online, but it was happen stance that I came across one that I loved. And as you will see, this is where my blog header came from. :o) I purchased enough for both a head board and some throw pillows that will be made soon.

The one thing that I didn't think about was the direction of the pattern. I wanted originally to just do one single board covered with fabric, but once I took it home, I realized that wasn't possible while keeping the pattern vertical instead of horizontal. So I debated using 2 boards or having the fabric pattern the other way. I finally decided that using 3 boards would look best.

When my brother and I made the head board, we first spread out the batting on the floor and placed the largest plywood board onto the batting.

This will give you a "fluffy" look, and if you want more, you can use foam as well. I just wanted a slight puffy look, so we just used batting. We made sure there was about 5 inches of extra on each side of the board. I used a staple gun to secure the batting once folded over the edge of the board. I suggest cutting off some of the extra on the corner so you can fold it easier, and this makes it the same size all the way around. Once I put enough staples into the batting and it is secure, I took a hammer and make sure they were all flush to the board.

Once I got the batting on all the pieces of the boards, I then repeated this with the fabric. Once thing to note when you are dealing with the fabric is the pattern. It had slipped my mind that with my fabric, the rows should line up on each board. Not only that, but also since I was doing 3 boards, that they all should line up. However, some of these mistakes make for the best results. Make sure that you look at the fabric and all is in place before hammering down the screws. I actually had to take some of my staples out and readjust my fabric because the pulling had adjusted the pattern.

The most difficult thing for me was finding flush mounts to secure the boards onto the walls. You'd think places like Lowe's and Home Depot would have them... I was wrong. I did find them at Target and was so excited to finally get it hung today. To put them up, we first took a level and drew a straight line on the back of the board. You want to make sure (depending on how many you want to use) they are both even. Then take the drill and make holes into the board. Make sure you do not go through the batting or fabric. We used the screws that came with the flush mounts since they were only a little bit longer than the board we used. We then had to find the center of where I wanted my bed to be. We again measured out a straight line with the level and drew onto the wall. We adjusted the line to match where the mounts were.

The boards I used were actually pretty heavy. We decided to use wall anchors for the top 4 screws on the large board. Once we got all the screws in the wall for the main board, we went ahead and placed the board on the wall. I was not sure exactly the distance I wanted the side boards, so we played with the distances a bit. We ended up placing them about 1.5 inches from the larger board and 6 inches down from the top to add some drama. We then attached the mounts to the other 2 boards. Because they were much lighter, we only used 1 per board. Once we drew them out on the wall, we were ready to place the boards on. Here is the final product, minus some fabulous pillows that will be added soon.