Saturday, April 12, 2014

Head on over -- stay awhile

I have wanted to do this for SO long. And, you'll find no shortage of DIY headboards out there, but I'm throwing mine in with the rest. This came at a low price, and paid out high in pride.

I went from this (it's the guest bed, so basically our junk room as we remodel):

 
To this (can't wait to host family and friends!):


Deets to follow.

So, I gathered the following supplies:
  • An old shower curtain -- still beautiful, but no longer fit our bathroom
  • Heavy duty stapler and staples (available for $10 at Hobby Lobby, before 40% discount coupon). 
    • Buy extra staples. The ones with the device are too short, and few in number
  • Fabric Button kit, also from HL. $3.49, but was half off the day I got it. 
  • 1/2 inch plywood panel (Home Depot made the cuts -- I asked for 55 in. x 22 in.) Was about $15.
  • French Cleats. Home Depot calls them "mirror, picture & canvas hanger." Get the 18 inch one. It holds up to 200 pounds, and can straddle two studs for extra support. ($15)
  • 1 inch Foam. Ridic cheap at HL.
  • Batting. Same as above. 
Let's begin. I chose to start the whole process with the wall mounted part of the cleat. Since I knew the studs in the wall weren't centered with the bed, I wanted my measurements to start with a fixed point.

awful pic, but you get the idea
Then, I screwed the other half onto the paneling. The really sharp reader will perhaps notice I favored the wrong side of the panel. I had to go back, remove the top cleat, and move it over several inches. This is caused by my inability to spacially reason.


Next, and this is critical, pause to notice what else is happening on the porch:


Time to do some math. I pre-drilled the holes for my buttons. My brain nearly exploded when I realized I don't remember how to do long division. Seriously. Jason may be scouting "homes" for me already.

Squinting to figure out 55 divided by 3
I used a pretty fat drill bit here (I cannot believe I wielded power tools like I knew what I was doing today!) so the hooks on the back of the buttons would fit more flush against the wood. You'll see the result later on.

Now -- foam, batting, cloth!

Decided to bring foam flush with board
Found fabric adhesive pretty helpful in holding foam
FYI scissors = 1000x better than box cutters here
I loosely stapled the batting before heading to cloth

Staples. LOTS of staples.

Pause. I started by pulling the fabric taut and stapling the center of each side. I just kept working around, lifting the panel to see the front. I added a level of difficulty by selecting fabric with such an obvious horizontal line. You might choose more wisely.

Remove excess fabric

Yikes. I swear the other side is prettier.
Make buttons out of extra cloth.


We used washers to secure to the back of the panel. I sewed embroidery floss from back to front, through button loop, and back again. See?



The washer is covering the drilled hole.


FWIW: the shower curtain pre-headboard
One last after shot. The sconce here was picked up at an estate, and will likely go through some transformation. I rewired it today (!!), but wanna experiment with paint, when I find the right colors.





No comments:

Post a Comment