DIY Fabric Covered Headboard

One of the very first DIY projects I ever attempted was my toile-covered headboard. I get weekly requests for a tutorial on the headboard, but because I made it before I even started this blog, I’ve been pretty lazy about getting around to it.

For all of you who have emailed and commented to me throughout the last year that you wanted a tutorial, today is your lucky day!

Since I made it in my pre-blogging days, I did not photograph the project in a step-by-step process. I’ve taken some pictures of the completed headboard that will hopefully aid you in visualizing what I am talking about in the instructions, but I apologize in advance about the lack to photos. Just pretend like this was written about 10 years ago when there weren’t such fancy things as digital cameras in every home.

Supplies
-Hollow interior core door
-Quilt batting
-Fabric
-Molding
-Paint
-Scrap wood
-Nail gun
-Staple gun
-Bolts

1. Purchase (or find?) a core door that’s length is roughly as long as the width of your bed. A core door is simply an interior door, like the ones you have in your home. You can get one at a home improvement store for around $40, and they come in different lengths and widths. I wanted my headboard to be tall, so I bought a door that was as wide as I could find (you’ll be turning it on it’s side, so the door’s width becomes your headboard’s height). It’s also probably best to use a door that is flat (no panels).

2. Begin by covering the door with a quilt batting. The batting is sold in craft stores and comes in sizes like Twin, Full, Queen, and King. I think I had to buy a Full size so that it’ would wrap around the front of my door. Just buy the cheapest you can find.

Lay the batting on the floor and lay your door on top if it. Pull the batting tight (you don’t want it loosey-goosey) to the back of the door and staple in place with a staple gun. Cut off the excess batting on the back.

3. Next, you are going to cover the batting with a fabric of your choice. If you are me, you’ll chose a fabric with an intricate pattern (toile!) that isn’t wide enough for your headboard. You’ll then spend more time sewing together several widths of fabric and trying your best to match patterns than you’ll spend making the rest of your door.

If you are a normal person, you’ll choose a solid color or a pattern that doesn’t just go one way and be done with it.

Just as you did with the batting, lay the fabric on the floor and put you door on top of it (batting side down). Pull the fabric tight (no ripples!) to the back of the door and staple in place with a staple gun. Cut off the excess fabric.

4. Here’s the part where you will think I’m crazy: cover the fabric with Saran Wrap. Staple it on the back, just as you did with the fabric and batting. You’ll have to do several rows of the Saran Wrap across the door, so make sure you overlap it pretty well so none of the fabric is exposed. You’ll thank me later.

5. Now, it’s time for your molding. I bought crown molding and then we “built it up” (i.e. wood glued a smaller piece onto it for more detail). We have a miter saw that I love to use, but if you don’t want to miter your edges (make them meet at a 45-degree angle), you could always use the wooden molding blocks (like this) sold in home improvement stores. They come in a variety of designs.

Once you have your molding cut to the lengths you need it for the 3 sides of your headboard (top and both sides), it’s time to paint it. As I said before, this was one of my very first DIY projects. Here, I learned that tinted primer is really a better option than trying to paint something dark, navy blue that you had primed white. It literally took me 5 or 6 coats and it’s still not perfect. Live and learn, right?

6. When the paint is dry, it’s time to attach it to the headboard. You’ll want to put it on the front of the door instead of on the edges (once you are doing it, you’ll totally understand what I mean here). Attach the molding to the headboard on top of the Saran Wrap with a nail gun. We nailed the heck out of the molding so that it would stay attached and not fall off on our heads in the middle of the night. It’s the little things, you know.

Don’t have a nail gun? Ask your friends and neighbors. I promise that someone you know has one. Once you try it, you’ll want to run out and buy one because it is the funniest tool ever.

Once your molding is attached, you may have some gaps where the edges of the molding don’t quite meet up. No biggie! Use some paintable wood putty to fill in the gaps.

7. Now is time to touch up the paint job on the molding – cover the nail holes, paint the putty, and fix any scratches that may have occurred. Because you covered your fabric with Saran Wrap, you won’t need to worry about getting paint drips on your fabric if you need to paint the inside edges! This was my husband’s idea, so he’s the evil genius behind this madness. When the paint is dry, just rip off the Saran Wrap.

8. The last step is attaching the “legs” to the back of your headboard. We just used some scrap wood that’s probably an inch thick and 4 inches wide or so. I wanted the bottom of my headboard to hit about half-way below the top of my mattress, so we made the legs that length (the legs to from the top back of the headboard down to the floor). We bolted the bottom of the legs to the generic bedframe and then just slid the headboard/bed against the wall.

This headboard is extremely easy to put together. Except for all of the painting, it honestly only took an afternoon to put it together. You can do it, too!

What do you think? Did the tutorial live up to the hype? Ha!

If you have any questions, please post them in the comments and I’ll respond in the comments (and via your email if you have one associated with your Blogger account). I’m sure there’s some detail that I must have left out!

P.S. I’ve added this tutorial to Kimba’s DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land.

Tagged as: headboard, tutorial