Be My Guest

Today I have a guest post from my friend Eva who is a seriously crafty lady!  I tell her weekly that she needs to start her own blog!  She always amazes me with her projects and this was no exception!  Here is her tutorial for this GORGEOUS headboard her and her husband tackled together.  I LOVE IT! 

Here's the tutorial!

Making an upholstered headboard is a lot easier than it looks! Our master bedroom needed some serious TLC, and this project was bound to make an impact in our boring room. I had been eyeing many tutorials, and totally fell in love with this one by Kate at Centsational Girl http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2010/07/master-bedroom-mini-makeover/.

My supply list included: plywood, batting, staple gun, LOTS of staples, fabric of choice, and large D-rings. You also will need access to a jigsaw if you want any artistic touch, like the curve we chose. We bought our 1/2 in. thick plywood at Lowes and had trimmed on site to the exact measurement of the width of our mattress. The height remained at its original 48 inches to allow for a curve.

At home I took a sharpie and sketched 1/2 of the design I wanted on the plywood. (Kate suggested doing so, then cutting that 1/2 of the design, and flipping it to trace the other 1/2 for consistency - great tip!) My hubby had access to a jigsaw and took care of the cutting, the most difficult part of the project.

I unrolled my 1 in. thick batting out on the floor, smoothed it out, and put the cut plywood on top. Pulling firmly, but not too much to tear the batting, I stapled this first layer to the backside of the plywood. I only used one layer of batting, and skipped out on foam altogether. You could certainly use more batting or foam to get more poof. With the batting in place, I lifted the whole thing up again to check for wrinkles, and repeated the same steps with the fabric. I actually used our old duvet, a simple white matalasse, for its elegance and durability. There was a slight sag when I lifted it this time, so I pulled the fabric a little tighter I restapled the bottom edge.

 The corners were a little tricky, and I played with them quite a bit before stapling. (An important thing to remember with corners is that you want your material as flat as possible in the back to ensure a flush mount of your headboard to the wall.) I trimmed the excess fabric and my hubby measured for studs and attached the D-rings to the back of the headboard accordingly. He also mounted a couple small pieces of wood to the wall directly under the bottom edge of the headboard for a little extra support.

Super successful project completed in about 2 hours of actual labor and about $40, not including my "free" fabric and the staple gun I already had.

Can you believe it only cost her $40!!!  Eva, I LOVE IT and need you to come over and make me one!