DIY Tufted Headboard


Projects / Sunday, August 18th, 2019

I have to be honest, my bedroom is the last thing I think about when I feel like I want to do some decorating. It has become a dumping ground for hand-me-down furniture I’ve collected since college. The day finally came when my husband and I bought a new bed, and with that I decided it was finally time for a proper headboard. When I started searching around at headboards I liked, the prices were a little more than I thought I should spend. I wanted a luxurious look with a soft feel (because hubby likes to prop himself up and watch TV at night), and that is when the idea was born to create a DIY tufted headboard.

Here’s what I came up with:

I got on Pinterest and found some others who had made DIY tufted headboards. I mashed their ideas together and came up with a plan of my own.

The first thing I did was take an inventory of the things I would need that I had on hand. I had a pile of stuffing from various things, like an old couch that I ripped the cushions out of (rest in peace ugly faux leather/vinyl couch) and a memory foam mattress pad that I had stored away. I wanted a neutral colored headboard, so going down to wal-mart to buy a canvas drop cloth seemed like the right thing to do. I also needed plywood, some button covers and some heavy duty upholstery staples.

I went to Home Depot to get a piece of plywood. I didn’t get fancy because this baby was getting covered, so I just went for cheap and sturdy. I bought a 4×8 sheet of OSB (about $8) and had them cut it to the size I wanted my headboard to be. I almost got home and cut the top into a curvy wave but ultimately decided that I didn’t want to wrestle that much with the fabric. I’m sure it can be done – my concern was that I would get to the point where the fabric might start to pucker in ways I didn’t want it to.

So I just laid it all out in the middle of the living room, because that’s how I roll.

I applied some spray adhesive to the plywood and carefully cut the memory foam mattress topper to fit. I say carefully because I was totally not careful. I just wanted to leave enough extra material so I would be able to wrap it around the plywood and staple it in place. I did the same with some quilt batting.

Next, I draped the drop cloth over the foam and batting and straightened it the best I could. I didn’t get crazy with pulling it tight, but I did my best to get most of the wrinkles out.

I chose not to trim the drop cloth at all until I had the entire border secured. I went around the perimeter, folding the foam and drop cloth together over the edge of the plywood before stapling through all of the layers on to the back side. Be sure to start in the middle so you don’t get any weird pulls in your fabric.

After it was stapled all the way around and I was confident nothing was going to give out, I went around and trimmed the excess fabric and added more staples JUST to be sure.

I mean, yeah. You could say that’s overkill. I don’t care. I feel good about it.

Next, I flipped it back over and came up with a pattern for my buttons. I measured carefully and did a little eyeballing to figure out where I wanted them to go. Instead of poking a bunch of staples into the fabric, I put sewing pins in each of the spots where I thought buttons needed to go. I’m a visual kind of person, so the little yellow needles helped me immensely.

Once I figured out where each of them needed to go, I got the stapler back out and started stapling the fabric down in an X pattern where I would later add the buttons.

This is what I ended up with once all of the button positions were stapled down:

I bought a button cover kit and used the scrap fabric from the main headboard to make buttons to go over the staples. Instead of sewing them on, I just bought some heavy duty fabric glue and secured them in place with sewing pins while it dried.

I let it dry for a few hours before I allowed any touching. I have a 5 year-old. These things – like no touching – need to be made clear.

After it was finished, I didn’t think it looked finished. I wanted it to have legs! So I measured and cut a pair of 2×6’s and covered with foam, batting, and drop cloth in the same way I did the headboard. I secured the legs with a couple of L-brackets and stood it up.

Please excuse the bunny. Mr. Butters is a very… all-up-in-my-business type of bunny. Yes, we have an indoor bunny. Yes, his name is Mr. Butters. And we don’t tell our 5 year old, but yes, we are familiar with South Park. Haha.

I’m almost certain that the most difficult part of this project was getting it into the bedroom. My husband works night shift and well, I just cant wait until morning for him to help. So, I wrestled it in there all by myself. viola!

I’m not very Instagrammy (is that a word?) about the way I make my bed. So that’s something else I will file away as something I need to work on. But, aside from that, I love the way my DIY tufted headboard turned out. I haven’t had any issues with the staples coming out or buttons falling off so I’m very happy with that. The legs definitely added some visual comfort, and hubs is super happy to watch TV up against it. I think I’ll chalk it up as a win!