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, and Michael's also usually carry it. I bought a bag of polyester batting from WalMart for around $8.
- Staple gun: If you don't own a staple gun, you can purchase one for $10 - $20 from your local hardware store or from Amazon.com. I borrowed one from my mom. Ask around, I bet you know someone who has one.
After gathering all of these items together, there's actually very little to do. To construct your headboard, follow these four simple steps (for pictures, see HERE:
- Cut the fabric and batting to correct size. An easy way to do this is to lie them out on top of the headboard and cut them so that they extend about six inches beyond each side of the wood.
- Attach the fabric and batting to the headboard. To do so, first place the fabric face down on the floor, then place the batting on top of it. Finally, place the wood over the fabric and batting. Wrap the headboard just as you would wrap a present, making sure to keep both the material and the batting taut (so that you don't receive an unwelcome surprise of gathered material when you flip the headboard back over). Work one side at a time, using the staple gun to secure the fabric and batting to the headboard. Place a staple about every inch along the entire perimeter.
- Use the extra wood that you saved to make a "foot" for the headboard. The foot, which is screwed into the back of the fabric-covered headboard, will be the part that rests on the floor. The foot does not need fabric, as it rests entirely behind the bed and can never be seen. To attach the foot to the headboard, lay the headboard face down on the floor. Take the foot piece, which should be a few inches narrower, and rest it on top. Place the foot so that the foot-headboard combination measures your desired height. Screw the foot onto the headboard using about eight wood screws. Particle board is soft, so you can do this without a power drill - a simple screwdriver is all you need. Be sure the wood screws you use are the right length, not too long, not too short.
- Place the entire foot-headboard combination behind the bed and push the mattress up tightly against it. In most cases, this will hold it well against the wall. If it is not stable enough, use drywall screws to bolt the headboard to the wall behind the bed. If you do this, do not put screws through the fabric, but rather through the foot piece that is hidden behind the mattress. Beware that using drywall screws can put large holes in the drywall, and cannot be easily moved or removed. This step turned out to not be necessary for me, so I saved the damage to my wall by simply using the weight of the bed to hold the entire piece in place.
Voila your room has a new feel! For an even more elegant look, buy a set of four bed raisers to elevate your bed from the floor (but make sure you take this into account when determining the height of your headboard). This not only makes your bed have a higher end appearance, but it gives you storage space underneath.