Saturday, October 19, 2013

31 Days, Day 20 - DIY: Burlap Headboard


Once a upon a time, my little brother lived in the room....can we just say EW...because that's the only way to describe what the room looked like at that time. I'll let you imagine that for a second....

Ok, done? Now that he's all moved out, we have a legit guest room...only problem was that we had nothing except the mattress and bed frame left in the room. We're slowly but surely making headway towards a crisp and clean, inviting room for our guests, but the bedding was the most important first step.

Today I'd like to share the headboard with ya'll. It's really made a huge difference in setting the tone for the room and making the bed look like it actually belongs on the wall. So let's begin by breaking down the tools and materials needed:

1x2 boards cut to desired length (more on that below)
"L" brackets - 4 of these bad boys
screw driver (you can use a drill if you feel so inclined)
staple gun
staples
batting
burlap
upholstery tacks 

1. Measure your bed - this is a full size bed, and I wanted the headboard to stick out a little bit so I added a few inches to my measurement for a width of 60". Then I eyeballed approximately how high I wanted the headboard to be and came up with 40". The headboard doesn't go all the way to the floor, the bottom of it comes to about the bottom of the mattress, just above the box spring. But again, it's really up to you and the size of your bed.

2. Take those measurements to The Home Depot, or wherever you will pick up your 1x2's. I chose this size because it's cheap ($.75 for a 6' length) and it's light which makes hanging easy. Have the nice man at The Home Depot cut your wood to length - I had 2 pieces 60" long, and 2 pieces 38" long - so the final dimensions of the rectangle you'll make in the next step ends up being 40x60"...make sense?

  
3. Lay out your pieces and if you feel inclined, use a right angle to be sure you have a strong 90 degrees in each corner....I did not do this, and it's fine. (Sorry for the spelling error above...*brackets)


4. Put your "L" brackets in place and screw them in. I did 2 screws on each corner before going back to the the next 2.


5. Lay out your first layer of batting (I did two layers to ensure a soft edge). Turn your frame that you jsut created over so that the "L" brackets are facing the ground, make sure to have enough batting around the edges to begin stapling. 

6. Use your staple gun to secure two opposite sides of your batting - this step doesn't have to be perfect, just be sure there are no saggy wrinkly spots in the center of your frame - pull it fairly tight. 


7. Do the other set of sides - you should have 4 staples total at this point - just to hold everything in place. 


8. Continue stapling until the batting is tight around all edges. Then, repeat steps 5-8 with your second layer of batting.


9. Trim the extra batting, and get ready for the fun part!

10. Depending on big you want your weave pattern to be will determine how many strips of burlap you'll need to cut. I chose to do my 5" wide which meant I needed 12 strips one direction and 8 for the other. I cut the strips about 4" longer than necessary to ensure I had enough to staple over the back. So that's 12 strips 48" long, and 8 strips 68" long. I also cut 2 extras of each length just in case.

11. At this point I was getting excited about the finished product and forgot to take pictures, but you'll want to take your short strips (my 12 strips that are 48" long) and staple them along the long side of yor frame. Make sure to leave enough to staple both edges.

12. Once the those are secure, begin weaving your long strips over/under until you end up with something like the photos below.



13. Once you've woven your heart out, you'll want to start stapling again. Starting with your long piece closest to the stapled short pieces, staple on side then tighten up your weave by pulling everything tight as you move across  the headboard, when you get to the other side, staple it tight. And move on to the next strip. 

14. When you get to the final strip, pull everything as tight as you can and staple all the end pieces around all four edges until the entire headboard is clean and tight. 

15. This is the final step, and it's not mandatory, but I think it adds a great finished look. Mark around the perimeter of the headboard, about 3/4" away from the edge, every 1" with a pen. Hammer in your upholstery tacks and admire your work!

Lastly, there are mutliple methods that can be used to hang your new masterpiece, I had my hubby remove two tacks and drill the headboard right into the wall where I wanted it, then I replaced the tacks to cover the screws. Easy peasy.

Here is how we started the room, and where we are now:








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