2 Hour Headboard

Pottery Barn's Natural Linen Headboard

Two Hour Headboard

Finished Headboard




Do you have a spare 2 hours?  And about a $150 dollars? That's all it takes to build this beautiful, Pottery Barn-like headboard.....



Yes, sometimes it is easier to buy a piece of furniture...but in this case, it was just as easy to build it.  AND, you get to pick the exact fabric you want!!!  I have to confess that this is the 2nd HB we have built-the first was for the master bedroom and used a toile fabric.

What do you need: a saw ( a skill saw works great), a 2 x 4 piece of wood, a piece of plywood the width and heigth you want, poly batting, fabric to upholster with, an electric staple gun is nice, but a manual 1 is okay too, bolts to hook the HB to the bed. 

If you are not sure of the size, just check out a website that sells headboards; consider the size of the bed, room and any heigth restrictions because of windows or daylight basement foundation walls.

We needed a queen size HB, so we made the headboard 61 1/2" W x 46" H with about 30" of that heigth for the headboard itself.  (The rest is legs or ~ 16")  I found instructions online-just google "How to make a headboard" and you will find lots of help. The square shape of mine is only 1 option, you can draw any shape, like an arch or victorian arch as well.

"Wrapping"

It literally took 2 hours to complete, including installing the nailheads.  I purchased these through a local upholstery shop. The 100% linen was extra wide and purchased at a local Jo-Ann store for $9.99 per yard and sprayed it with a protectant.  


Just adding the Nailheads

Nailheads at corners



Spacing of the nailheads was pretty easy- we used 1 of those fabric pens that the ink disappears after a certain amount of time.  We chose to space them with a width of the nailhead between them.  So the nailheads were 5/8" wide, we put our marks at 2 times this or 1 1/4" apart. 

Fun project- not too much money  spent- I saved over $650 by making it myself.  (Yes, the Pottery Barn HB cost $799 plus postage)  So-o-o-o, happy building and stapling!   Send me pictures if you do get the itch to make your own headboard at v.v.design@msn.com