Headboard Making 101

This summer I had multiple projects going for my impending move to an apartment. I painted 7 (yes, 7) pieces of furniture and made some pretty adorable canvases for the living room. One of the many projects was a fabric covered headboard. It was overall pretty simple (especially since my craft wizard of a mother had already made one) and only took a few hours once we got all the supplies we needed. 

You'll need 

• Fabric (I got 3 yards, enough for the headboard, plus some to tie the fabric in elsewhere in the room) 
• Plywood
• Craft paper
• Skil saw
• Sandpaper 
• Batting
• Staple gun

I picked out this kelly green, fleur-de-lis fabric. If you're interested in making a headboard, definitely go with a larger print. 

We measured the width of my bed (about 54 inches) and cut the fabric accordingly, leaving about 6 inches on either side for ample fabric to staple to the headboard. 

Next, we measured craft paper the size we wanted the headboard to be and cut it. 

Watch out, this step is super precise and scientific... err, except not. After we cut the craft paper, we took the rug from our foyer and used it as a template for the curvature of the headboard.

We traced the shape of the rug...

Then, I free-handed what I wanted the edges of the headboard to look like.

We found the center of the craft paper and folded the paper in half. 

With the paper folded, we cut along our outline, making a craft paper version of what became the headboard.

We taped it to a piece of plywood and made sure it was level and even and whatnot. Then, we traced the outline onto the plywood.

Using a Skil saw, we cut the headboard out of plywood.

Here it is! Just a little rough around the edges.

Hence, the sanding.

Next, we took sheets of batting and wrapped them around the plywood, one at a time.

We used this type of batting. One sheet of it was big enough to go over the entire piece of plywood. 

After stapling a lot of batting around the headboard, we stapled our fabric to it, making sure it was pulled tight.

And here's the finished product! I really love the pattern and shape - its not too busy, but not too plain, its just right.

The great thing about fabric headboards is you can hang them as high or as low above the bed as you'd like, making it the focal point of the room or leaving space for artwork.