This last fall I was looking for some design inspiration and found it with (surprise) fabric! I scored a great price on some Waverly fabric at my local JoAnn store. The fabric itself was 50% off and I had a coupon for another 20% off your purchase, so it was a steal! I had been looking to do a headboard for quite some time and of course, wanted to do it myself, so here I went.
All you need is:
Fabric - Preferable home decor fabric and enough to wrap around the back side of the wood by 3" on each side
Staple Gun with staples
Scissors
One sheet of Plywood/OSB - Measure your bed and know what you need before heading to the store.
Batting
Spray Adhesive
I believe that Home Depot or Lowes will make straight cuts for you at the store for free, but please don't take my word for it. If you don't own a saw and the hardware store won't do it for you, make sure to ask that hottie neighbor of yours to cut it for you or head on down to the local firehouse, where there is sure to be a hot firefighter that would LOVE to get his saw for you and cut your wood.
I did a rectangle as that's what I was wanting for my space, but if you have skilled saw cutting abilities, you could do round or some other funky shape. Just remember that you can't re-do a cut, so measure twice and mark your board well before cutting.
I do want to mention that if you are hanging this on your wall or standing this on stilts, etc...make sure to attach everything to the back of the board before you cover it in fabric.
I dusted off my board and cleared a big space in my living room. Here are the steps one by one:
1. Unroll the batting and lay it on your board ; smooth out the wrinkles. Cut off excess, leaving about 3" extra on each side.
2. Take the batting off and spray the adhesive onto the board. Apply batting. If your board is large, you might want to do this in half or quarter sections.
3. Let the adhesive set for a minute or two and then flip your board to batting side down.
4. Staple the batting every 9 inches or so to secure. Pull taught, but not too much.
5. Stand the board up and lean against a wall or table out of the way. You may need help with this. If you haven't ironed your fabric yet, do so. Please do not skip this step. Lay the fabric right side down in the area that your board was just laying. Take a look at the pattern and mentally note where you want the board to go. Smooth out your fabric flat and get help laying the board, batting down on top of the fabric. Do this slowly as you don't want to shift your fabric. Feel free to give the fabric a little tug every 12" or so to make sure it's wrinkle free.
6. Be picky. Be very picky about exactly how the board is laying on the fabric, where the pattern placement is, etc. You don't get to re-do this part.
7. Take your staple gun and securely staple each side in the middle. Top center, bottom center, right center, left center. Make sure you are pulling taught with each time you staple. However, you don't want to pull so tight you mess up your pattern. When stapling, fold under the raw edge of the fabric so it isn't showing.
8. Move to the end of each side and fasten in the same way you did before. Top, bottom, left, right. The goal is to secure the identical spot on each adjacent side. It's like tightening a drum head. You just can't start in one spot and move around from there, you have to do it in a fashion that is evenly distributed. I have noted a little bit of what I'm talking about with numbers here:
9. For the corners, fold those like tucking in the sheet corners on your bed. Nice and neat folds, tucking under those raw edges. You don't want a big wad of fabric at the corners, either, so trim away fabric as needed.
10. Eventually you have stapled all around the headboard and should have a staple about every 3 inches or so. Now you can pick up one side and see the wonderfulness!!!
I hope you had fun! Play around with patterns and colors. Be bold! You can even drill little holes in the wood before this process and then add buttons after it is all done for a tufted look. Feel free to add decorative brads or whatever else your creativity seeks.
Happy Crafting!
Jayna