DIY Upholstered Headboard

A few weekends ago I made an upholstered headboard with the help of my husband, of course. With the baby on the way we decided to make our former guest bedroom the nursery and make one of our other spare rooms into the guest bedroom, and since the furniture we had in the guest bedroom was Jairus’ bedroom set from high school I decided it was time for a change; Plus I have been wanting to make an upholstered headboard for a year now and this gave me a reason to make my own DIY Upholstered headboard.

This was an easy project, it literally only took my husband an I an hour to make it, so if you have been wanting to make your own Upholstered headboard but have procrastinating because you thought it would be a long and overwhelming project, then this tutorial is for you!

Here is what you need:

• Plywood – I purchased my piece of wood from the clearance section at Lowes for $4.75)
• 2 1×4’s – I purchased them at Lowes (they are less than $2 each)
• 2 rolls of Batting – I used twin size batting that I purchased as Hancock Fabric
• Fabric – I purchased 2 yards of fabric that was on clearance at Hancock fabric for $10 a yard
• Staple Gun
• Nail Gun

First you need to Determine Your Measurements.

Step 1: Unroll the first package of batting and fold it in half (this will give you more cushion on your headboard)

Step 2: Place the plywood in the center of the batting

Step 3: Fold the batting over the back of the plywood and staple (make sure you pull the batting so that it’s tight when you staple).

Step 4: Unroll the 2nd  package of batting, fold it in half just like you did the first roll of batting. Lay the board with the first layer of batting on top of the second layer of batting. Fold the batting over, pull tight and staple

Step 5: Lay out your fabric so that it’s face down then iron out all of the wrinkles

Step 6: Place the board on top of the fabric then fold the fabric across the back and staple (just as you did with the batting)

Step 7: With the headboard laying face down in a horizontal direction place a 1×4 on the left side of the board 5 inches down and 5 inches  over and nail 1″ nails into the 1×4 using a nail gun.

Repeat the same step above to attach the 1×4 to the right side of the headboard

Step 8: Install headboard. Since the headboard I made is for our guest room and it’s not used very often we decided not to nail the legs (1×4’s) into the wall, instead we just pushed the bed rail up against the legs and it stays in place perfectly; however if this is for a bed that you use frequently I would use a nail gun with 2″ nails and secure the legs into the wall.