DIY Upholstered Headboard

Looking for a headboard to buy? If you have little time and little money , you can very well make a quality headboard on your own. A king size headboard with fabric finish costs about more than 300$ to buy from stores. why buy at store when you can make yourself a better one with the fabric you like in less than 100$.(excluding tool cost-staple gun,staples & power drill).

There are lots of even more cheaper DIY headboards options out there, which looks tremendous and easy to do. Its always about what type of looks do you prefer for your own. so first you have to figure out what do you like. I wanted to have a velvet fabric wrapped headboard that fells comfy to my back when sitting. Hence I dived into making one!

If I can do it, then you can do it too! lets get into action.

Materials used:

OSB board cut to required size – bought from home depot -10$
Spray Adhesive – 5$
Batting sheet – I got for 12.59$
Upholstery foam – 4″ thick ( I cut and re-purposed an extra foam mattress that we had)
Buttons – find link here for the DIY – 5$
Needle and thick upholstery nylon tread – 8.99$ +5$
Mounting kit – 25.99$
Fabric from Joan ( I got it during the sale) – 20$
Staple gun
Power drill

Design:

Shape: There are so many different shapes that you can do. If you have right tools to cut the board to desired shape, then go for it. I dint have any at that time, and I only wanted a rectangle shape.

Size: you can find the standard sizes online or measure the width of your bed frame. Here I did a king size headboard that fits on wall between two windows on either sides.

Material : You can use vinyl or any kind of fabric that you like. I preferred to go for velvet fabric for its soft texture and green color to brighten up the room. When I bought the fabric, I dint realize the its nature. First problem that I faced was that it was hard to make DIY button out of the thick fabric. However I found a way through it. You can check it out here. Second thing is the unique texture of the velvet. Only if you hand comb the fabric in the right thread direction, it looks smooth . Otherwise, it looks messed up or seems like it has some stains. So,the fabric needs time to time attention to look good. I guess dark colors will not have or have less of this problem.

Tufted or not?

You can build without the tufting as well. Its definitely your choice. But I personally recommend tufting for following reason.A mattress or cushion wrapped with fabric is put with lot of pressure in course of time according to our usage. Wrinkles start to show up as the fabric’s thread loosens or foam losses its density. I have seen those personally in lots of my interior design projects. Tufting a cushion will make it more rigid for these applications.

STEP -1 – Mark and visualize

Lay down the backing board on floor and mark the exact locations of your buttons on the rear side of your board. You will also get a rough idea of your design. If you want to change the distance between the buttons, now is the right time. I would say, placing between 9″ to 1ft distance will look better. Work it out as it visually pleases you.

STEP-2 – Layering

Use the spray adhesive to stick the foam over the board. Start from one side by spraying approx. 2ft at a time and lay the foam by working your way towards the other side.

Then place the batting sheet over the foam. the batting sheet should be atleast 6″ more than the size of the board so that you can wrap it around the board to staple it together. Staple at every 1ft and make sure that you fold the corners properly. If required, cut the batting sheet in corners like we do for wrapping presents.

STEP-3 – Upholstering

Now, lay your fabric on floor facing the front down. Place the layered board over the fabric and wrap the fabric same as you did for batting sheet. Carefully staple it by holding the fabric without any wrinkles. Its better if you have an extra help.

STEP-4 – Tufting

This part is little tricky. There are two types of tufting looks. One is the way I have done, which has no fabric fold lines diagonally to the button. Only the naturally formed recessed diagonal lines will be seen around the button. To do this, you have to staple the fabric on all the four sides without any wrinkles and then do the tufting with buttons.

The other type will look as in the image. You can see the fabric fold that is created for each button to get that look. To do this, you have to first staple the fabric only on the longer side(top) , finish all the tufting work one by one and then secure the remaining three sides of fabric to the board.

Here, I will be only showing you the first option. Ask someone to hold the board vertically for you if you can.Now drill holes on OSB from behind where you will have your buttons. Pass the needle with thread from rear side into the drilled hole and once it comes out, slip in the button and re insert the needle through the same hole. You can secure the thread behind by stapling it like in the image below. Repeat for all the buttons.

Tada!! headboard is ready to be mounted.

STEP – 5 – Mounting

I mounted the headboard directly on the drywall using a mounting kit (2nos) that I purchased from amazon. You just need to locate the mounting points in such a way that atleast one screw sits on the wall stud. You can use a stud finder to locate your studs. Sorry, I dint take any pictures of it. Just follow the instructions in the kit. I even added some led strip light behind the board for some ambient lighting.

We totally loved the outcome!