by Erich Rosenberger M.D.

Created on: December 30, 2008

When you look at your bedroom, is the first thought that enters your mind "Blah"? Does your bedroom still have somewhat of a college dorm feel? One of the easiest and cheapest ways to give your bedroom an upgraded look is to add a headboard to your bed. Rather than buying a pricey headboard (or a cheap, but hideous headboard), you can make an extremely inexpensive one that looks professional and only takes minutes to put together. After doing so, you'll be thrilled with how good it looks and you'll realize how bad your bedroom looked before!

When building a headboard, you can make it is as complicated or as simple as you want. Interestingly, "simple" headboards often turn out looking just as good (or better than) the more complicated headboards. To make a simple headboard, you'll need the following items:

- Cheap wood: You can buy a big sheet of particle board at your local hardware store. Many hardware stores, such as Home Depot, will cut the wood for you free of charge (up to two cuts). Save the leftover pieces to use later for the base of the headboard. I recommend buying a sheet that is between 3/8" and 1/2" thickness of particle board, also referred to as medium density fiberboard (this cost me about $12) and having it cut into a rectangle. Work out the dimensions you want in advance. In general, you want the main portion of the headboard to go from the bottom of the mattress to at least a few inches higher than any pillows you'll have propped up on the bed. The width should be a few inches wider than the mattes. For my Queen sized headboard (pictured here), my dimensions were 32" tall and 64" wide.

- Fabric: Select a fabric that fits in with the color theme of your room. For a long-lasting headboard, choose a fabric neutral in color. This way, if you change your bedding or paint your bedroom at some point in the future, you won't have to update your headboard as well. To determine how much fabric you'll need, add about twelve inches to the width and length of your desired headboard size. Using my dimension above for my Queen bed, the fabric was cut 44" tall and 76" wide. This allows for six inches extra fabric on each of the four sides. I purchased my fabric on clearance from an online store. For about $15 (plus $4.99 shipping), I bought high-end woven microfiber suede upholstery fabric. I actually bought six yards, which was far more than I needed, so I used the extra to make pillows.

- Batting: Batting can be purchased from any sewing store. Target, WalMart,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>