DIY, But Once Was Enough For Me

 This past summer I had the time of my life studying abroad, in the most beautiful city in the world, Prague, Czech Republic.  Because summer seminars abroad aren’t as long as a regular term at Drexel I had a little over three weeks of summer vacation once I retuned from Europe.  This was a big deal because I hadn’t had more than a consecutive week off of school since winter break of my sophomore year! Needing to find something to occupy my time, in addition to spending days on the beach, I decided to tackle a DIY project.

Ever since I moved into my apartment I wanted a headboard for my bed.  But as the saying goes “I have champaign tastes on a beer budget”.  I wanted a tufted, winged, upholstered headboard.  To purchase one can cost upwards of $600, which naturally did not fit into my college girl budget, so I started researching how to make my own. 

I came across Danielle Oakey Interiors blog.  (http://danielleoakeyinteriors.blogspot.com/2012/05/diy-tufted-headboard-with-wings-and.html) On her website I found a diagram, with measurements for a queen size bed, with a materials list and how to instructions. I started gathering all of the materials.  I picked up a sheet of 62 ½ “ X 48 ½ “ plywood for the back piece, a few 1 X 4s for back support, and two 1X6s and 2X6s to nail together to make 3X6s for the side arms, from Home Depot, where they were nice enough to cut all the wood to size for me.  From my local fabric store I bought 4 yards of fabric, 28 buttons to be covered, a two inch thick piece of foam cut to the same measurements as my plywood, and batting to cover the whole front of the headboard and side arms.  I ordered nail-head trim, about 8 yards worth, from Amazon and then I was ready to go.      

Once my plywood was cut to size I measured out and marked the spacing for the buttons and drilled the holes I would later use for tufting.  Then I took the 1X4s and screwed them into place, to create a full border, on the backside of the plywood for support.  Next I used spray adhesive to secure the 2” piece of foam to the front side of the plywood.  I then covered the wood and foam with batting, and used a staple gun to hold it in place on the reverse side.  After the batting, came the fabric. I used the same method as I did for the batting and stapled it in place on the back of the plywood. 

After the base of the headboard was complete I started to assemble to arms.  I nailed the 1X6s and 2X6s together to make two arms that were both 3X6”.  I then wrapped the arms with batting and stapled it in place along the back, and did the same with fabric over top of the batting.  Folding the fabric just right on the top of the arms was much more difficult than I had anticipated.  When I was happy with the way the fabric was laying I attached the nail-head trim on the front panel of each arm.  There are two rows of trim down the front of each arm.  Thankfully the nail-heads I bought were already attached to one another so I only had to hammer every 8^th nail into the arm.

The next task was to cover the 28 buttons with fabric. I used a button covering kit to make it a little easier, but after covering so many buttons I thought my fingers were going to fall off.  I saved the absolute hardest task for the end, the tufting.  I recruited my mom to help me with this, and it was absolutely a team effort.  We worked from the back of the headboard and threaded an extra long heavy-duty needle through the hole in the plywood, the 2” thick foam, batting, and fabric.  Once we got the needle out to the other side, we attached a covered button, and sent the needle back blindly.  It was so difficult to get the needle through all the material and into the small hole that was drilled in the plywood.  Because the hole was covered we had to do it all by feel.  It took many, many, many tries.  When we finally succeeded I would push the button from the front and my mom would pull the string from the back tight and secure it to create the tufted affect.   We repeated this process 27 plus more times as several buttons popped themselves loose along the way. 

 The final step was to attach the arms to the base of the headboard, which I let my dad do all the work for this part.  He used L brackets to secure the arms to the base, and my headboard was complete.  I am so proud and happy with the way my headboard came out.  It’s a really great feeling to be able to say, “Hey, I made that”.  I had fun making it, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of my parents.  It was much more work that I originally thought it would be and a lot harder.  I feel accomplished that I completed this DIY project, but doing it once was enough for me.  I don’t think I’ll be making any more headboards in the near future.