Headboard Retrofit

Annnnnd we’re back with the last step in the making of our new, luxe headboard.  Get all the details on the tufting here and see how we made the arms here.  Pretend that it hasn’t taken me weeks to pound all these out for you and we’ll be well on our way to a harmonious and constructive blogger/reader relationship based on mutual trust and understanding.  ;)

Right after we got hitched, we made our way down the road from our new house to our favorite thrift store in Steubenville, Ohio where we found and purchased a new-to-us bedroom set.  We paid $100 for the solid wood four-post bed, long dresser, and tall dresser.  It wasn’t exactly the style I would’ve picked up new at the store but we needed something and our teeny, newlywed budget loved this set.

I know it’s hard to see the entire thing with all those pillows in the way but here’s what the bed used to look like and what it looks like now after we retrofit the new headboard right over the old:

“How?”, you might ask.  Well, let me tell you.  Quick though because all the kids are apt to wake up in the next half hour.

The posts on the bed simply screw on and off so, off they came. 

Next we had to remove those two pieces of trim at the top of the headboard.  If they hadn’t been as bulky and thick as they were, we probably could’ve left them there but, alas, they had to go or the new headboard wouldn’t have fit in between the mattress and old headboard.  I thought it’d be as easy as removing the three screws holding them in…

…but once the screws were out, I still couldn’t get them off because they were also glued on.  In came Anthony and his hammer to the rescue with a few solid taps and that brought us to the new blank slate.

Pan to the new headboard…

Before attaching it to the old headboard, we attached the arms.  Along the back of the plywood we used to make the headboard, we had to place a few boards – two 1 x 4s on the top 1/3 of each side, a 1 x 4 close to the bottom, and a 1 x 4 plus a 2 x 4 along the entire top. 
Those boards needed to be there, not only for extra support for the plywood but also so that the screws that would attach the arms had a place to sink into.
The top of the headboard had to be extra thick so that it sat flush at the back with the arms, which were extra deep in order to completely cover the existing bed posts.

In order to attach the new we had to construct it so that it, in a sense, slid right over the old headboard.  Screws would be placed through the arms into the side posts of the old headboard and from the back of the old headboard into the 1 x 4 along the back of the new.  
And then we realized shortly before we went to install it that we (ok, I) mismeasured and that the 1 x 4 across the middle-back needed to be moved down so that it was between the old and new headboards.  My.  Bad.  #pregnancybrain

Then it was up and at ‘em as Anthony and a friend slipped the new over the old.  It sounds super easy but really, we didn’t realize how heavy the entire headboard was being that it was solid wood and so when I write they “slipped” the headboard on, what I really mean it that they heaved it on.  They pulled the entire bed out from the wall and one held the tufted back while the other attached the arms.

Here it is on but unsecured; just standing on it’s own between the mattress and old headboard:

To give you an idea of how it slipped over the old headboard, here’s the old just prior…

…and here’s a mock-up of how the new fits on:

Three screws were placed into the back of the old headboard straight into that 1 x 4 spanning the lower back of the new headboard and then Anthony put a couple of screws through the side of the legs into the posts of the old bed frame.

Here is the view from the back:
See how the arms extend back past the plywood in order to cover the posts?  That might help explain why we needed to add the 2 x 4 along the top of the new headboard – so that the back of the arms would be flush with the top back of the headboard.

I think McGyver would be proud, don’t you?

The entire headboard cost us around $100 to make from start to finish.  That’s not including the tools we used (drill, a friend’s jigsaw to make the curves at the top of the arms, and a measuring tape) nor does it include the foam since that was given to us.  I could be a tad biased but the quality of this headboard would probably make it over $1000 retail so I’m throwing confetti over what we did (and didn’t) spend.  Oh what a little vision and elbow grease can achieve, no?

(Sources:  the sheets and duvet are both originally from Target but found at Dirt Cheap ($28 altogether), the lamps are updated thrift store finds, the euro pillows are down-filled, West Elm scores from a local resale group ($12 for both) and their covers I recently made along with the matching shades, the square decorative pillows actually belong in the living room, the small lumbar pillow was a thrift store find but originally from Target, and the faux bamboo mirror was a resale group find.)

I’ve conked out at the nursing wheel a bajillion times during these midnight feedings and I blame it all on the softness of what’s behind my head these days in our new headboard.  Also, it’s funny how much a luxe headboard will do to a room – it makes even the messiest moments look incredible.  Our bed is the home of the contents of the laundry basket waiting to be folded and with the headboard in the background, the piles of clothes look just fab.

Anyway, this is the last you’ll hear of the headboard but probably not the last you’ll see of it.  I still love it so much I take trips to our bedroom door just so I can peek in on it.  I can’t wait to gussy up those nightstands and figure out some wall decor to compliment it but something tells me I’ll have to wait until we’re well out of the newborn stage.

So, retrofitting.  It’s an awesome way to take what you already have and turn it into something else.  What have you retrofit?  I know there are some of you who have genius ideas that need to be unleashed!  Go ahead!  The comment section is open!  :)   

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We are skimming right past summer and into fall and, for us, that means back into a routine of sorts and hopefully more consistent blogging.  This summer was crazy busy with Anthony being gone a lot for youth group trips and then a week-long family vacation with my extended family and, oh yeah, we added another human to the fam bam.  So I guess I should rephrase and say it’s been busy with a capital B.  But, that’s how I like it.  It’s better than boredom.  Am I right?  ;)

Arms Up

Man guys.  Remember in my last post, when I said Gianna might be the easiest baby we’ve had so far?  Unfortunately, I’m eating my words.  Sweet girl has been a little fussy while she’s awake during the past couple of weeks and that’s why it’s taken me so long to get this post up…and any post at all.  No complaining though and I’m not apologizing because it’s family over blogging but I will say that, while these days are fleeting and I’m trying to soak them up as much as possible, when those days when a routine becomes the norm again come, they will not be unwelcome.

Anyway…  

Our DIY, tufted headboard headboard is finito and we are loving it.  We have upped the comfort anty 1000% over our previous headboard:

Now it’s behind with the old and in front with the new.

In case you missed it, the tutorial for the tufted back of the headboard can be found here. 

The inspiration for the arms of our new headboard was taken from those on this headboard, made by Sarah at Sarah M. Dorsey Designs.  I fell in love with the curves at the top of the arms at first sight.  She gave instructions on how to make them for the most part, which you can read about in her post about them, and in this post I go into more detail showing how we made them.

Sarah used a 2 x 8 and a 1 x 8 for each arm.  We needed a 2 x 10 and a 1 x 10, a tad wider than those Sarah used since we were retrofitting the headboard to our existing headboard.  So, instead of getting two boards and screwing them together, we cut costs by using three.  (It saved us about $10 to do it this way and the look is no different.)

We used:
1 - 2 x 10 (cut in half lenthwise to make them each about 60 inches long)
1 – 1 x 6 (also cut in half)
1 – 1 x 4 (also cut in half)  The wood shown in the above picture is everything needed for one arm.  Like I mentioned above, the boards we bought we had cut in half in-store as they were each 10 feet long and we needed them to be 5 feet long as each arm needed to be 5 feet tall.

We placed the wood together like so to create two, wide arms.

Anthony used wood screws* that were almost as long as the boards were wide to screw everything together.  The screws needed to be long enough that they’d securely hold the boards together but not too long that the points came out the other side. 

In screwing the boards together, we had to be careful not to place the screws where we’d be cutting the design out of the top of each arm.  If you’re only interested in making two rectangular arms, you won’t need to worry about screw placement.

Once the boards were all one big piece, I labeled each side of the arm – back, front, and top.  I did this because the 2 x 10 was slightly deeper than the other two boards put together (you can kind of see it in the above picture) so one side of the arm was flush (front) and the other wasn’t (back).   Also, I wanted the 1 x 6 board to be at the front, inside of the arm.  In case you would be able to see where the two one-inch boards met through the fabric later, by placing the 1 x 6 board in front, the seam would likely be covered up by the tufted padding of the back of the headboard later.  (Turns out that the seam between boards is not noticeable under the fabric at all.)

Next up was creating the curved design at the top of each arm.  First, I drew the design on a piece of thick paper and then I traced it onto the wood.

Like Sarah did, I used the lid of a jar to create the rounded parts and then drew a straight horizontal line to connect them.  The top rounded part is five inches wide (wider than Sarah’s since we had to accomodate for retrofitting) and the straight line and curve at the front are each 2.5 inches wide.

A good friend of ours cut the design out for me using his jigsaw (thanks Matt!)  Anthony has a rotozip he was going to use but the blade wasn’t long enough to cut through both boards.  Once the design was cut out, Anthony pre-drilled three holes at back of each arm where they would be attached to the back of the headboard.  More on that later.

The next step was wrapping fabric around the inside of each arm so that the arms could be attached to the back of the headboard and then finished.  I cut out two rectangular panels of the same gray fabric used on the tufted back – each panel was wide enough to be stapled at the back and wrapped around the entire arm to be stapled at the opposite back and was also long enough that it extended an inch past the ends of each arm on the top and bottom.  I used two yards of fabric to finish both arms bringing the grand total in fabric to five yards for the entire headboard. 

To start, Anthony laid the fabric on the ground and then placed the wood arm we were working on on top of it, placing it close enough to one edge that there was enough fabric left to be pulled around and stapled.  Then he pulled the fabric taught and up and over the other side of the fabric. 
(Note:  At this point, the insides of the arms needed to be stapled at the back so we had to pay close attention to which side of the wood we were laying on the ground and which side we were stapling.)

Then he stapled the fabric to the back of the inside of the arm. 
(Note:  You’ll want to make sure the grain of the fabric is straight while it’s wrapped around the arm for a professional look.  It should be running horizontally across the side of the arm and/or vertically up and down.  As long as you initially cut the fabric panels along the grain, this should be easy to accomplish.)

Here’s what an arm (in this case, the left arm if you’re looking at the headboard) will look like once the inside is stapled:The fabric will hang loose but will be attached at the back the entire length of the arm.

So that the fabric stayed put while attaching the arm to the headboard, Anthony grabbed a small scissors and stuck the pointed ends into the holes he pre-drilled earlier (the holes that would hold screws that attach the arms to the headboard).

We also realized last minute that we should get the fabric at the bottom of the arms situated before attaching them since we’d be attaching them standing up.  To do this, we stapled the fabric at the bottom of each arm to the outside back about six inches up the arm.  Then Anthony whipped out his present wrapping skills, folding the fabric like so on the bottom of each arm and stapling it:

I’ll have another post coming later that shows how we attached the new headboard to our existing headboard but at this point in the project, we had the help of another friend (thanks Dan!) to get the arms onto the back.  (We didn’t realize how heavy the headboard was going to be so, being postpartum a couple of weeks, I couldn’t help like I normally would.) Basically, Dan held the back of the headboard in place while Anthony held the arms, one-by-one, onto each side of the headboard and screwed them on.  Once both arms were attached, they looked like this:

You can see here how the arms and back were held together; where the screws were placed:

Next, we finished wrapping the fabric around the front and outside of each arm, stapling at the back.

Now it gets a little tricky with the design at the top.  To polish off this part, Ifirst folded down the excess fabric at the top of each arm and stapled it to the back.

The arms now looked like this:

Then, I trimmed away the fabric around the design, making sure there was an inch of excess above and beyond the top of the design.

The fabric had to be wrapped onto the design but because of the curves, I had to cut notches around each curve and corner so it could be folded nicely.  So, I basically cut triangles with the points almost touching the wood of the arm around each curve and into each corner.  I made sure I cut the triangle points deep enough that they’d allow the fabric to be folded without being pulled but not too deep that they went into the side of the arm, exposing the wood beneath.

Next, Anthony helped me staple each flap around the curves down – I held them down tightly and he stapled.  (Tip:  If a staple doesn’t go in perfectly; if it sticks out a little, just grab a hammer and hammer it flat.)

The last thing I needed to do to finish off the arms was to make a strip of fabric to cover the front of each.  To make these strips, I cut out two long, narrow rectangles out of what was left of the fabric we used to wrap the arms in.  The front of each arm measured 2.5 inches wide so I cut the rectangles to be 4.5 inches wide so that I could have a finished, one-inch hem on each side.  Length-wise, I cut them so that I had plenty of fabric left to be able to fold it over and under the tops and bottoms of each arm.  That made them about 70 inches long.

Using my quilting square* was super helpful in making sure I was measuring and cutting straight edges.  I drew four lines onto what would be my strips of fabric – two the width of the entire strip pre-hem to show where to cut them out of the fabric remnant and two where I’d fold to make the hem.

To finish the strips, I used no-sew, iron-on hem tape*.  I placed the hem tape on the inside of the fold line on one side, ironed it, and did the same to the other side.   

To get the strip on its arm, I first cut a small piece of hem tape a little shorter than the width of the front of the arm, placed it at the top of the arm, and ironed on the strip of fabric so that it was secured by the hem tape.

I wanted to glue most of the strip on because I wasn’t sure I had enough hem tape to iron it on so by placing that small piece of iron-on tape at the top, the strip was held in place and allowed the glue I used to dry without moving.  I did the same thing with a small piece of iron-on tape to the flat part between the two curves of the design at the top of each arm and also placed one right below the second curve; right on the front, flat part of the arm.

To glue the strips on, I ran two small lines of glue down the middle sides of each side of the front of the arm like so:(I used this fabric glue but any craft glue and even hot glue will work.  Hot glue just requires a lot of careful gluing so it doesn’t get on the fabric where it’d be tough to remove.)

I did it this way all the way down.  There was extra fabric at the bottom of the arms that we just folded under the arm – I folded under while Anthony held the headboard off the ground.  One day, when we move and have to take the bed apart, we’ll staple them down but until then, no one will ever know they’re not secured underneath so shhhhh…

Ta-daaaaa!  That is IT!

It cost us a little under $100 to make this headboard and if we’d have had to buy the foam for it, it would still only have rung in at around $130.  Not too shabby, eh?  Not too shabby at all.  :D   

Right after we finished it, I got really excited and quickly cranked out two new pillow covers for the euro pillows on the bed plus some matching faux roman shades that you might’ve noticed.  I stole the smaller square pillows from the living room to add some more color but really I’m still sulking over the fact that the fabric I wanted to make covers out of for those costs $230 PER YARD.  No way Hosea.  It’s this orangerie floral by Designers Guild…
…and if I ever find a remnant that is majorly, and I mean majorly discounted, I will pounce.  Until then, I’ll forever (but hopefully not) be on the look-out for a similar print and pattern.

So, the headboard is done but what about the footboard?  Well, eventually I’d love to sand and restain it and I’m toying with the idea of upholstering and tufting the flat part in between the two posts but for now, there are bigger project fish to fry in this casa but don’t be suprised if that post pops up one day in the future.  

There are still a lot of things I want to get done in our room before we call it “done” – painting and adding legs to the nightstands, painting the dressers, painting or restaining our desk and bookshelf, hanging stuff on the walls, making a West Elm chandelier knock-off that I’ve had on the agenda for over a year now, blah, blah, blah…  Basically, the room will see it’s final state in a few years at the rate we move.  So it goes and so it is. 

But, now that I have a plush surface to sink my spine into when stress strikes, I don’t care how long it takes.  Slow and steady wins the home decor race…or maybe that’s just an excuse for decoristas with kids.  ;)

Stay tuned for a quick post on how we attached this headboard to our existing, thrifted bed frame.

Adios.  :)

*Affiliate link to product we purchased or something similar to what we purchased to make this headboard.  If you click and buy, we will get a small commission.  Thank you for helping us keep the lights on around here!  :)

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DIY Tufted Headboard: Part I

(The above pic in an ‘in process’ one – the tufts weren’t smoothed yet nor were the buttons on but I had to give it a trial run and whoa, doesn’t it look gooood even half done?!)

Oh man, I can’t wait to share this tutorial with you guys.  Let me preface this whole project tutorial with this though – it might seem super overwhelming and intimidating.  The thought of making a tufted headboard from scratch seemed really far-fetched for me even.  When you look at your inspiration pictures and then you take a gander at some tutorials, it can get to be too much and the idea can easily seem like one for the go-getter DIYers who have every tool imaginable.  But, let me shove this into your brain - you can do this.  Anyone can do this.  Take it step by step and don’t think about the final product until you’re almost done.  Yes, this is something you can do with a whole day’s time.  But it’s also something that you can do over a period of a couple of weeks, like us, by doing a step per day and then all of a sudden, you’ve built yourself a headboard that you didn’t even think you could.  Easy does it.

First, find your inspiration.  Figure out what you want.  Pinterest is a great place to start.  I started a pin board for our master bedroom, the room where this headboard is going, so all my headboard dreams are tucked away there.

After I pinned inspiration pictures, I then hunted down tutorials on how to get what I wanted.  This tutorial by Kristi at Addicted 2 Decorating on how to diamond tuft is, by far, the best I could find.  Even though her tutorial is for an ottoman, you use the same steps as you would a headboard.  Her pictures and instructions are so thorough and, when you have no clue how to build a headboard from scratch like me, detailed instructions are so appreciated.  I’ll be linking back to her a few times during the tutorial just because it’s so great.

So, armed with inspiration and instructions,  we got started.  (Note:  This post is all about the tufted back of our headboard.  We’re in the process of adding arms to each side of the back and then retrofitting it to our current bed but those will each be detailed in separate posts.  You can whip up a headboard just like the one I’m about to write about and call it done in the end, sans arms and retrofitting, because it can definitely hold it’s own.)

As with any project, first we figured out what we needed to get ‘er done; you know, the supplies.  From start to finish, all we used were a slab of foam, a piece of plywood, a few pieces of wood boards, a sharpie pen, scissors, a drill (a screwdriver would work too; it’d just be a little more work), fabric, batting, screws, washers, upholstery buttons, glue, staples, and a staple gun.  It’s a good amount of stuff but I bet you have half of it at home and the other half is easily (and cheaply) attainable.

Let’s break down those supplies a tad though first.
Plywood.  We bought ours from Lowe’s and guess what?  They cut it for free (Home Depot does too!)  Yep.  That means you don’t need a saw of any sort.  Go in, grab a piece of 1/2 plywood, give them your measurements, and let them cut it.  We got ours cut 61 5/8” by 32”.  Our bed is a queen-size and a standard queen-sized bed is 60” wide but since we’re retrofitting the headboard to our existing bed frame, which is a tad wider than the mattress, we added a few inches.  When you’re measuring, make sure you account for the size of your bed frame instead of the size of your mattress.  Or instead of using plywood, you could scour your local thrift stores and/or resale sites to find a simple queen headboard that you could easily reupholster.  I saw this one advertised at a local thrift store here last week:
 
Foam. 
My Aunt had this three-inch thick eggshell mattress topper laying around that she wasn’t using so she let us have it to use for this project, saving us a good chunk of the project cost.  If you don’t have an Aunt with a spare piece of foam, Home Depot sells this multi-purpose foam pad that’s a lot more affordable than the foam you’ll find at fabric stores.  However, it’s only 24” wide (or tall if we’re talking headboards) so if you want something taller, you might need two (and then you’ll have a bunch leftover for another project).  

Wood Supports.  For added stability and to make your edges look a little beefier, you’ll want to frame out the back of your plywood with a few pieces of 1 x 4.  So, you’ll need to get four pieces cut (remember to get them cut at the store) that can be screwed along the perimeter of the back edges like Sarah at Sarah M. Dorsey Designs did to the back of her DIY headboard here.  Once again, we lucked out because some good friends of ours were tossing some wood out that we salvaged for the supports on the back of ours (thank you Alford’s!)

Fabric.  Kristi (Addicted 2 Decorating) recommends using a woven fabric so that it doesn’t twist while you’re screwing in your tufts.  I agree that using a woven fabric would probably keeping the twisting to a minimum, but I couldn’t find a woven fabric in my under $10/yard budget.  I did find this linen blend fabric on sale at JoAnn fabrics though that was exactly the color we were going for and it worked great!  I used about three yards of it for the back of the headboard.  We did toy with using a jewel green fabric that I have in my stash but, after hanging it on the wall behind our bed for a day to see if it jived, we decided we really just wanted a neutral that would work with any color decor we went with in the future.  Maybe we’ll use the green to make the girls’ a headboard someday.  :)  To soften the linen fabric up a tad, I tossed it in the wash quick with a little bit of detergent and some fabric softener and it came out just right. 

Batting.  In my opinion, batting is optional.  It does give a little bit more fluff, smooths everything out (if need be), and helps protect the fabric from ripping when it’s pulled over the corners.  But, if you sand down the corners to make them less pointed, that would help the fabric stay intact.  For our headboard, I did use batting though I’m not sure if I will next time.  I bought this full-sized package of batting (with a coupon) to use for this and a couple of other upholstering projects we have on our to-do list.
 
Buttons.
We used these size 30 cover buttons for this project (purchased at JoAnn’s with a 50% coupon) and they are 3/4” in diameter, the perfect size to fit right over the… 

Screws and Washers.
Instead of going the typical threaded button route, we used screws and washers to get our tufts, using Kristi’s genius tutorial.  For our headboard we needed 30 #8 screws and the same amount of #10 washers.  If you’re going with larger buttons, you’ll just have to make sure you use larger washers; small enough that they won’t peep out from under your buttons but large enough that they’ll allow the button to slide down into your tuft and sit upon them.

Drill or Screwdriver.  If you’re going to have any tool on hand, I’d say a drill should be it.  We have the older model of this one* and it’s been our trusty go-to tool for going on ten years.  You can use a screwdriver to get those tufts if you don’t have a drill though, but it will definitely be a little more time-consuming.

Glue.  Gorilla Glue*, Liquid Nails* (we used this on our ottoman buttons), E6000*  – any of those would work to glue the buttons onto the screws and washers.  Hot glue would work, though if you accidentally get it anywhere that you don’t want it, it’s difficult to remove so I’d say stay away from it.  I actually used Aleene’s OK To Wash-It glue* because I had it laying around and it’s stuck good so far.  We’ll see what time says though.  In addition to glue for the buttons, you’ll also want some to attach the foam to the plywood while you work.  A spray adhesive like this one I’ve used in the past would work well (or Elmer’s if you’re lazy like me).

Staple Gun and Staples.  To attach the fabric to the back of your headboard you’ll need to use a staple gun.  We have and used this one* along with 5/16 staples.

Onto the process…
First, I cut the foam to the size of the plywood.  I wanted the eggshell side of my foam to be against the plywood and the smooth side closest to the fabric but to cut the foam, it was easiest to slice it with the smooth side up.  So, lining up one corner and making sure both sides out from that corner were in near perfect alignment…
I traced around the other two edges with a sharpie.

I also marked which was was up on the foam and on the plywood just in case the plywood wasn’t cut into an exact rectangle.  It probably wouldn’t matter too much if things got flipped though.

Then I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut out the foam along the sharpied line.  A serrated knife or an electric knife would also work to cut out the foam.

Next, I marked out where the buttons would go by just measuring and placing +’s over each spot.

The marking was easy.  Figuring out how spaced I wanted the buttons was the hardest thing about this whole headboard.  Seriously, it took me three days of naptime brainstorming to get to the end decision.  I blame it all on the fact that I couldn’t think with this lack of pregnant energy for the life of me and maybe, just maybe, I was overthinking it all to begin with.

It wasn’t just the measuring that was hard, it was deciding on the amount of buttons I needed to achieve the look I was going for.  I didn’t want a ton of buttons like this headboard from Target:

But I didn’t want too few like this one from West Elm:

Both of those headboards are beautiful but just not what I had in mind for our tufted beaut.

The tufting pattern I had in my head was a series of equilateral triangles at the points of which would be the buttons.  I wanted the distance from each button to be the same – across and diagonally.  That meant I had to go back to middle school to figure out the height of the triangle in order to figure out how much space would be between rows.  I know, too much thinking.  Told ya.  In the end, I came up with a design where each button is 7.5” apart horizontally and each row of buttons is 7” apart (it measured a little under 7” but I rounded up for simplicities sake.)  That meant that, on our queen-sized board, I had two rows with seven buttons across and two rows with eight.  It was helpful to use a piece of rectangular paper cut to scale to figure this all out before I started marking up the foam.  After the plan was made on paper, it was time to hit up the foam.  To mark out the buttons, I started at the top of the foam and marked the first row 7.5” from the top - I made a small mark 7.5” down on each side of the foam and then, using a tape measure as a straight edge, connected my two dots to give me that entire row.  Then I found the center of the foam (the entire width or 61 5/8 divided by 2), marked that, and that gave me the halfway point between the two middle buttons on the first row.  Once I got those marked out, I just made marks every 7.5” each way and then measured out the second line the same way except that the buttons this time were staggered so that the middle mark I made was where a button would go.  I hope that makes a whole lot of sense to you all!  It might be more helpful to draw out a grid on your foam – the columns and rows – and then place your button marks on the intersecting lines.

Once I was done marking out the buttons, I put the whole slab up on the bed to quell the fear that I had too few or too many buttons.  Color me a paranoid perfectionist, I guess.     

Next up was cutting out holes in the foam where each button would go to help them sink down into the foam with the fabric, giving that deep-tufted look.  To do this I just stabbed the points of a small pair of scissors into the foam and cut out a square that was about an inch wide on each side; just wide enough for my 3/4” buttons to slide right in.

At this point, the foam was ready.  Before it could be attached to the plywood though, we needed to frame out the back of the plywood with those pieces of 1 x 4.  Since we are retrofitting our headboard to our current bed frame, ours looks a little different on the back than if you’re just going to attach your headboard to the wall behind your bed.  You could also make this headboard to attach to a metal bed frame as well by the addition of some wood legs that extend from the bottom of the headboard down to the frame itself.  Cover those legs with fabric before you attach and call it good.  I’ll have a retrofitting tutorial up here hopefully in the next few weeks.

If you’re going to attach yours to the wall, frame it out like this…
…where the red rectangles represent the 1 x 4’s.  Just screw them in with some 1” – 1 1/4” screws; three or four in each board should do.  Then you can either buy a french cleat (this one* has great reviews on amazon.com) or make one to get it up on the wall securely.

Once framed, it was time to glue the foam to the plywood.  Gluing it to the plywood ensured that it didn’t move around while I laid the fabric on top or started on the tufting.  If you have the energy, the best way to do this would be to carry the foam and plywood outside and use some spray adhesive to get a good stick between the two.  I was at this stage of the headboard game when Anthony was at work one day though, so there was no carrying all this outside for mwah.  Instead, I went down Lazy Lane by swirling and then spreading with my fingers some Elmer’s glue I had lodged in the desk five feet away. I let the glue dry and it worked like a charm…and amazingly, I didn’t get any on our duvet cover.  (In case you’re wondering, I did this in our bedroom because anywhere else in the house is deemed unsafe from toddler hands and potential destruction.)
The next thing I did was cut shallow slits in the foam between each button.  I read about this trick on Little Green Notebook.  It’s a great idea, the point being that the fabric in between each button will just sink right down into the slit, making nice folds.
But I realized after that, since I was going to be placing batting over the foam it really wasn’t necessary and really, a waste of time.  If you’re going the no-batting route though, I’d definitely make those slits!

It was time now to get this thing covered, starting with the batting.  I laid my entire roll of batting over the top of the foam and cut it so that it would be able to be wrapped around a few inches and stapled on the back.  Then I just used my finger to poke holes in it over each button hole.
And now, the fabric.  To make sure I only used what I needed and so that I didn’t run out, I started at one end and corner of the headboard, placing the first tuft so that there was just enough fabric left on the outside edge to be wrapped around and stapled.

Down the first row I went, pairing a screw and washer and sinking it into each hole with the drill.

I didn’t drill pilot holes (holes made with a drill bit slightly smaller than the width of the threaded screw) into the plywood first and I kind of wished that I would have.  Since the tufts are so deep, you really can’t tell if one screw is a smidge higher or lower than it’s next door neighbor but some of them are a tad off (I mean, we’re talking like 1/8 of an inch).   Having a pre-drilled hole to place the tip of the screw in would’ve been helpful to keep everything nice and straight.


The key with using a linen fabric like I did is not drilling too much.  Drill until the screw isn’t super tight up against the foam and plywood; there should be enough space to easily stick your fingernail between the fabric and washer.  The tighter you screw into the plywood, the more likely your fabric is to twist, which you definitely don’t want.

Before I sunk each screw/washer, I pulled the fabric I needed for the tuft I was on from the loose fabric in the direction I was working; not from the button I had just planted.  Thank you again Kristi for the tip!  However, I was so concerned with not pulling fabric from the previous drilled button that I didn’t stop to make sure the fabric between buttons was smooth before I started on another screw.  So, a few of the spans between buttons is a little looser than I would have liked.  You live and learn, I guess.  Thankfully, I could tuck a good amount of excess fabric into the folds at the end but still, I made the mental note for next time.

Also before I sunk each screw/washer, I poked all of the fabric that would go into that tuft into the hole for it so that the screw wasn’t pulling fabric in while it was going in; all it was doing was securing what was already there.  In the picture below, all of the holes have screws in them except for the one on the bottom right.  The fabric is just sitting in that hole, waiting to be screwed in.

Once I had the top row done, I skipped a row and worked on the row with the tufts directly in line with the row I had just finished.  Then I went back and did the row in between and the bottom row.

Kristi really does the best job explaining the whole screwing and tufting process so I highly recommend heading over to her post for all the details on this part.

After all of the screws were in but before we stapled the fabric onto the back, I cut off all of the edges of the foam to get a diagonal edge vs. a sharp corner. This helps get a more rounded corner without having to really pull the fabric super tight.  Since I was using batting, I wasn’t concerned about cutting that edge so it was perfectly smooth so I just grabbed a scissors and went snipping away on each edge.


Now it all comes together by stapling the fabric to the back!  Can I just send you over to Kristi for detailed instructions one more time?  Her pictures are just so good.

The key is to make sure you’re keeping an eye on the weave of the fabric while you’re pulling the fabric to the back; making sure it’s all continuous before you staple.  There should be a fold going from each screw around to the back of the headboard.  The weave of the fabric on each side of the fold should meet and continue along the same line.  Here’s what the top of our headboard looks like stapled:The bottom and sides should look the same; a straight lines of folds leading from screw to the back.

Here’s what the back of our headboard looked like after all of the fabric was stapled:

And this is after I trimmed off all the extra fabric, which I saved to make the buttons with:

Then I did the test run because my middle name is Impatient.

So far, so good.  (That green trellis fabric I laid on the bed is going to be made into faux roman shades and will be perched over each window with the existing white curtains flanking the sides.  I’ll probably whip up a pillow cover or two with it as well just to tie everything together.  The other pillows are also getting new fabric and the nightstands are going white down the road.)

We’re almost done with this tutorial!  Hang in there! 

Onto the folds.  Basically, you want one, clean fold leading from button to button, not a jumble of them.  To get that one fold, all you have to do is make it by tucking all the fabric into one fold like so:

Can you see the difference in this before and after?
I feel like my fabric wrinkled a tad during the time between screwing in the tufts to making the folds (there were a couple of days in between those two steps) so I’d recommend fixing those folds right after you screw the tufts in.  I’ll probably end up going over the whole headboard with a quick ironing once we’re completely done to see if I can smooth those wrinkles out.

Now, the buttons!  Like I said above, I used the excess fabric I trimmed off after stapling to cover my buttons.  The button kit has great instructions on how to cover the buttons but basically you just use the included template to cut out as many circles as you’ll need for as many buttons as you’ll need to make.

Then you use the included tool to stack the fabric, button top, and back to easily get those professional looking buttons.  Since you’ll be gluing your buttons on, you’ll use the plain backs vs. the shank backs.  My only problem here (the same problem I had with our ottoman buttons the second time around) was that my fabric was too thick to get the backs pressed on with the tool.  So, while the fabric and button top are stacked like they should be in the tool, I placed a dab of glue onto the back of the button top and used a screwdriver to press on the back.  I pressed one end of the back and then, while holding my finger on that end, I used the screwdriver to press the opposite end until the back clicked on and then just worked my way around the rest of the back.

To glue the buttons to the screws, I put a dab of glue on the backs of all of the buttons and one-by-one, stuck each down into a tuft and onto a screw. 

And that’s it!  Onto making the arms, preferably before this baby gets here which means we better hop to that considering we might have mere hours left!  If you’re calling it done at this point in the headboard game, attach it with a cleat to the wall or add some legs and get it screwed onto your existing frame and then take advantage of the comfort that will follow.  My back and head cannot wait to rest upon the pillowy goodness.

.           .           . 

Stay tuned for tutorials on the arms and retrofitting…and a possible baby announcement! 

Update:  The headboard is done!  Check out the whole tutorial on how to make the arms here.

*Some of the products links in this post are affiliate links.  All of these things are products we purchased with our own cash but that we’ll get a small commission on if you purchase via my links.  Thank you for supporting us!