When it comes to beautifying my home, I like to keep both the work and cost to a minimum. We're not a wealthy family by any means, so I try to do as much as I can with less money.
You see, my bedroom is on the small side, so to save space, I keep my bed in the corner of the room. This, to be perfectly honest, looks rather awkward. To make it less awkward, I decided that I would make a corner headboard to make it look as though the bed belongs there. And, that's exactly what I did. And the result was fantastic!
You can create this beautiful headboard with several materials, many of which you may already have in your home.
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Start with the corner, and then measure outward on one wall. Make note of where you want one side of the headboard to end, and write down the measurement. Next, measure for the height of the headboard. Please consider how far you want it to go behind the mattress. Again, write down your measurements, and then do the same for the opposite side.
Note: To keep things simple, I measured how big I wanted the headboard at the "top" of the bed, and simply made the other side the same size. I like symmetry.
After taking your measurements, go ahead and cut your cardboard to size. For cardboard, I used the box that my bed frame came in, as it was tall and wide, and used a box cutter to cut the cardboard.
After your cardboard is cut, go ahead and gather the rest of your materials. All of the materials needed can be purchased on Amazon with free Prime shipping. If you are a regular Amazon shopper and do not have Amazon Prime, I highly recommend the investment. It's $119 per year and you get free two-day shipping on millions of items. You'll save so much money on shipping! To learn more about Amazon Prime, see the end of this post, or get Amazon Prime free for thirty days. After the free trial, Prime is just $119 per year.
You will need:
- Cardboard, cut to size (two pieces)
- Permanent glue sticks (I used six Scotch Brand Permanent Glue Sticks)
- Poly fiber fill (I used a little over 20 ounces of Fairfield Poly-fil)
- Low loft quilt batting
- Scissors
- Duct tape
- Fabric of your choice (I used a black fabric from Amazon—the amount depends on the measurements you took earlier)
Note: When choosing your fabric, keep in mind that the headboard will be spot-clean only, unless you want to reupholster it every time it gets dirty. You could, however, just attach the fabric using safety pins instead of tape/glue so that you can remove it to wash and then easily reattach.
How To Build a Simple, Cheap Headboard
Place one piece of cardboard on a hard, flat, stable surface. Using a permanent glue stick, attach the fiber fill to the front of the cardboard, being sure to cover the entire thing.
Work in small sections so that the glue doesn't dry before you're able to attach the fiber fill.
This does take quite some time, so patience is a must. Just put on your favorite show, sit in your living room floor, and get to work.
When both pieces of cardboard are covered, they should look something like this.
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| Fluffiness! |
Once you've covered the cardboard with fiber fill, take a look at it and fill in any spaces with extra fiber fill, paying close attention to the edges.
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| You don't want many spaces like this. |
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| The edges shouldn't look like this. They should be completely covered with fiber fill. |
Once you've ensured that most of the spaces are filled, place your batting on the floor or a hard surface. Next, place your board, fiber fill side down, onto the batting. Trim the batting along the edges as needed, leaving at least 4 inches of overhang (for securing in the next step).
Fold the batting over along the edges of the board, keeping it as taut as possible without tearing.
Secure the batting in place using duct tape. Then, repeat on each side to hold the batting in place.
Note: You may try to use a glue gun for this, but I highly recommend duct tape. I find that it holds up better than a glue gun, as it doesn't allow the batting to tear away from the cardboard.
Once you've completely covered both of your pieces of cardboard, they should look something like this.
To cover the headboards with fabric, you will repeat the procedure that you followed with the batting.
IMPORTANT: Please iron your fabric prior to using, so that there are no wrinkles present. I skipped this step and wish I hadn't.
Place the fabric on the floor, and place your cardboard (batting side down) onto the fabric. Trim the fabric as needed, then fold it over the edges (while keeping it taut), and secure with duct tape or a glue gun. Again, I prefer duct tape.
Once you've covered both pieces of cardboard with fabric, they should look something like this.
Please note that the wrinkles are from me not ironing the fabric before covering the cardboard. I wish I had ironed it prior, but I did not, so that was my mistake. Also, I did have some issues keeping the fabric tight, which accounts for some of the looseness of the fabric. I recommend having a second pair of hands to help you with this. Live and learn!
There are several ways that you can attach the headboards. You may attach it directly to the wall (which is what I did) using heavy-duty double-sided tape, tacks, or even mount the headboards to a wooden base and just stand it up behind your bed frame. This part is entirely up to you.
I attached mine directly to the wall (and window frame) at each of the four corners of the headboard using nails. It works and it looks great!
This is the final result!
I love it! It looks 100 times better than it did when I had absolutely no headboard. Not to mention, it was virtually free and incredibly easy. Try it for yourself, and let me know what you think!
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This is such a great idea!I would've never thought about doing something like this.Thank you for the share!
ReplyDelete:) You're very welcome! Thank you for stopping by!
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