As I mentioned earlier, we are currently re-doing our master bedroom. We did not have a headboard and since we currently can't afford our dream four poster bedroom set, we decided to make a tufted upholstered headboard during the interim. It was quite a bit of work, but so worth it! I love the headboard and it saved us lots of money. You can get one at
Urban outfitters for about $350, or pay lots more at many other places.
I got the directions for making the headboard from
Addicted 2 Decorating's blog. She had an amazing step by step guide that we followed. I first gathered all of the supplies, which was harder than expected. I really wanted a satiny or silky charcoal gray fabric, but I had a really hard time finding one locally. So instead of ordering the fabric online and waiting, I got a slightly satiny charcoal gray fabric from Joann's. Then I assembled all of the supplies.
You'll also need:
- a Sharpie marker;
- 1/2 MDF board (most stores will cut it to size for you)
- a pencil
- scissors
- a tape measure;
- a yard stick or other long straight edge for marking lines;
- staple gun and staples;
- your choice of fabric, large enough to cover the headboard size, plus about 18 inches on each side;
- 2" foam, large enough to cover the MDF (this can be pieced together, if necessary);
- hi-loft polyester batting, enough for at least two layers to cover the MDF;
- adhesive for the foam (I prefer spray adhesive, although the fumes are quite noxious, so it has to be used outside, or you need to wear a protective mask);
- hall ball buttons- enough for your headboard. It's a pain, but just go ahead and prepare these in advance, according to the instructions on the package.)
- one package of thin nylon or polyester upholstery/roman shade cord (can be found in the upholstery section at JoAnn Fabrics or other fabric stores);
- a large-eye upholstery or embroidery needle; and
- an electric drill with 3/8" drill bit.
- piece of pipe
John and I went into the bedroom and held the MDF in place and decided on the height and width we wanted. John cut the MDF to size for me and once we had the board cut to size we calculated the number of buttons we'd need and their spacing. John figured we would need 22 buttons for three rows. He made "saw horses" with our folding chairs. This is important you will want to have access to the bottom of the board.
While he was measuring and marking, I covered the half ball buttons with the gray fabric.
The package for the half ball buttons had great directions. They give you a template circle of fabric that you need to cut to cover the button. I went ahead and cut 22 circles out. I made sure that when I purchased the fabric I added in some length to account for the buttons. They don't take much, maybe half a yard.
Once you have the circle of fabric cut place the button on the center of it, upside down like below:
Then start folding the ends over the button hooking them on the little teeth. This was a bit challenging, I had to really pull the fabric taunt for it to work and push the fabric into the teeth. However after a bit of work I got the button to look like this:
Then you just put the button back on the button and snap it into place.
Once you are done the button looks like this and perfectly matches your head board fabric!
Then John and I cut the foam so that it would cover the MDF. I used scissors instead of a meat carving knife, but you have to be careful and make sure the cut is even. Then we used spray adhesive to attach the foam to the MDF. Once the foam was attached John made his button marks on there with the sharpie marker.
Once the foam was attached John made his button marks on there with the sharpie marker.
Then John drilled through each button mark. You need to go fast with the drill because the material will fray otherwise. It gets messy and you will need to remove any small bits of foam.
While John was hard at work, I had the job of attaching the roman shade cord to the buttons.
I cut a 12-inch length of drapery cord for each button.
Addicted 2 Decorating had an amazing tutorial. Thread the cord through the eye on back of the button, and tie a double knot in the end (A). Tie a single knot around the eye of the button (B & C). Thread the other end of the drapery cord through the needle (D).
I had a really hard time with this at first. First tie a double knot around the button, then take the short end of the string and tie a knot with that and that should make your double knot one big giant triple knot.But after some mess up's I eventually ended up with this
Once John had drilled through the foam and MDF he was ready to use pipe to make even bigger holes in the foam only.
you can use a smaller pipe, that's just what we had at the house. Once all the holes were in, we covered the foam with the batting and the fabric but let it hang over the sides and didn't secure it. Then we threaded the buttons and began tufting. We quickly learned that you need to stick something (we used a pencil) in the bottom of the button holes to see where to place the needle. We pressed the needle into the pencil lead and pushed the pencil down until the needle came out of the hole on the bottom. Once the needle was through John pulled it tight and I pushed the button down into the foam, until it was exactly like I wanted it. Then John secured it with a staple.
He stapled each button 5 times in this zig zag pattern to ensure maximum strength. We started in the middle of the board and kept moving horizontally until the center row was done. Then we repeated the same steps for the other two rows. After a while, it started looking really good:
Once all of the buttons were tufted, it was time to secure the fabric. Start in the center and gather the fabric to make a crease down to the bottom of the headboard, then staple that section to secure. Repeat this for all of the other buttons. We had a diagonal crease for the corners. Also make sure that all of the corners are stapled and that the corners are rounded properly. This is how it came out!
Yes that's John showing off his mad staple gun skills. I trimmed the fabric around the edges and it was perfect! To attach it to the bed, John bought two 2 x 4's and I covered them in leftover gray fabric (thank goodness I had enough leftover). He screwed the 2x4s into the metal frame of our bed and then screwed the headboard to those 2x4s from the back. He made sure to measure the 2x4s so that they would be covered by the head board and not be sticking out like horns behind it.
This is what it looks like assembled in our bedroom
Recognize that gold sunburst mirror! Yep that's one of the one's I DIY-ed before making the headboard. I envisioned the sunburst mirror hanging beautifully above the headboard like this photo
But I guess my spacial concepts were a little off. We make the headboard pretty tall and we have a picture rail in order bedroom, which makes the walls shorter. As you can see above it is mostly covered by the headboard. I am going to see if the smaller one fits there and if not I'll find another spot for it in our house!
