Upholstering a Fabric Headboard

Yesterday I decided to hunt down some fabric to make a headboard for our new king sized mattress.  I went to two fabric stores nearby and couldn't find anything that really jumped out at me, so I headed to Target for inspiration.  While at Target I stumbled across a fabric tablecloth for $19.99 that was 60" x 84" and had dark chocolate brown and a blue-ish teal pattern on it.  At this point Jace was over his limit of shopping for the day so I grabbed it, hoping for the best, and headed to Lowe's to pick up some wood for the frame.  I decided I would blog about how to make a fabric headboard just in case anyone was interested in making one themselves (Alli!).  Upholstering a headboard can be an extremely inexpensive and easy way to make a mattress look finished.  This same method can also be used for creating a piece of wall art or as a base for a ribbon board.

1. Head to Lowe's or Home Depot and find the furring strips of wood.  I used 1"x2"s.  The cost at Lowe's was 98 cents per 8 ft of furring strip.  They will cut the strips for you free of charge if you ask.  I asked the guy to cut two strips at 76" (width of king sized bed) and two strips at 35" (how high I wanted the headboard to be once I took into consideration that it would be hung several inches below the top of the mattress.)  I used 4 strips of wood, so had alot of left over wood that I made sure to tell him that I wanted to take with me for a future project.  For all that wood I spent $4.

2. Lay the wood down on the floor in a square and determine if you want the 2" portion flat against the wall or sticking out from the wall.  I decided I wanted to the headboard to be 2" thick instead of 1" thick so that's how I laid mine... but it's all personal preference.

3.  Now use an electric drill to secure the frame with long screws.  I put one screw in each of the four corners, screwing through the horizontal board into the vertical board. 

Keep in mind, this seems like a pretty simple step, but it will require some muscle to drill into the wood while keeping it straight.  So unless you have drill experience, you may want to find your favorite man-friend with the muscles to help you with this step.  While he's helping you he may also start "lending his opinion" and say that you should put a support beam down the middle since 76" without any support may not be that durable.

If you have a king, or even a queen, this support beam is a good idea.  So at that point we cut one of the scrap pieces of wood to 35" and drilled that into the middle.  The frame instantly felt more secure.  Now send your man-friend out of the room before he starts offering any more helpful suggestions.  ;)



**The toys on the floor in this step are optional.  :)

4.  This next step will also help with the support and durability of your headboard.  You can use quilters batting, found at any local craft or sewing shop, but because I'm cheap I used a fleece blanket we had laying around that we never use.  I think we originally purchased this blanket for $5 on clearance at Target.

Lay your blanket or batting down evenly on the floor and set your frame on top.  Now take a staple gun and secure the blanket in three evenly spaced spots (middle, and each side) on one side.  Then pull the blanket tight on the opposite side and secure in three evenly space spots on that side.  Repeat on each of the short sides.  Now lift up the board and make sure that there are no bubbles or uneven stretching going on in front.  If all looks good staple every 3-4 inches around the entire frame to make sure the blanket is completely secured.  Use care around the corners to make sure they lay flat.  It helps to try to wrap them like you would a present.

Then trim the excess off with a scissors.  The end of this step should look like this:

5. Make sure your fabric piece is wrinkle-free, iron if possible.  Now lay your fabric face down on the ground and place the frame over it.  If you have a pattern it's important to make sure your frame is centered on the pattern the way you want it to appear.

** At this point it's also important to make sure you're not running low on staples for your staple gun, or you may be frantically driving to Lowe's at ten minutes to closing time for more... "I've heard" that isn't fun.  ;-)

Once you're sure your fabric is placed evenly, staple in three places on each side just like you did with the blanket or batting.  Flip the frame over and make sure you like the way it looks and there are no spots that are stretching or loose.  If it doesn't look good you can easily remove the staples and start over.  If you like the way it looks secure the fabric every 1-2 inches around the entire frame.

Now cut off any extra fabric to make throw pillows.  :)

6. The fun part!  Place your headboard at the head of your bed and determine what height you want showing.  It's helpful to have your headboard at least 6 inches below your mattress in terms of keeping it secure, thanks to the mattress and the wall "sandwiching" it in place.  Set a level on top of the headboard and adjust until it's perfectly even.  Then add a few nails and hang.  Then push your bed securely against the bottom and you have a super secure headboard.  If you're putting up a headboard on a kid's bed and concerned about it falling off the wall if they're rough housing you can always screw right through the bottom of the frame into the wall, since the mattress covers the bottom it will be kept out of sight.

We haven't nailed our headboard to the wall yet, because I'm still playing with heights determining how much of the headboard I want to show.  We slept with it last night only being secured in place because of the mattress pressure and it didn't move an inch, so it's definitely stronger than I thought it would be.

The headboard looks way more retro in pictures than in real life.  In pictures it looks like a throw back to the 70s, but in person it looks cute and modern.  I'm excited now to finish the look with decorative pillows and some wall art! 

This project was super easy, and if it hadn't been for my last minute trip to Lowe's for more staples it would have only taken me about an hour to complete.  Since the tablecloth I used cost $20 and the wood cost $4 and I already owned the blanket, that brings my total for this headboard to $24.  But since I got extra fabric and wood, that $24 also stretches into making some decorative pillows with leftover fabric and wall art with leftover wood.  :)