Tufted Headboard: Teamwork & Assembly Required

Usually with DIY projects, I tend to wing it... just scroll through a tutorial not bothering to read the directions carefully and instead opting to glance at pictures...then off we go! Sometimes it works out. Other times the situation quickly spirals out of control and I'm left with a pile of crafting-gone-wrong and days worth of self-loathing. My approach to this project was no different, luckily it all worked out.

1. Buy a piece of wood. Father and I ventured to Loew's to find the cheapest piece of wood wide enough for a queen size headboard (60 inches). This particle board met our specifications for only $8- WINNER. Next, he used a trash can lid and a 5 gallon bucket to trace the three curves. We used an 8 inch piece of wood we cut off the bottom to be our giant ruler and drew grid lines on the back. 

2. Find some fabric. Easier said than done. After roaming around Joann for a few hours, mom and I picked our favorites. Since we couldn't agree, we decided to go with something unlike either of our choices, naturally. We settled on a champagne taffeta. It was on red tag sale for $6 a yard so that helped.

3. We marked the spots for our tufting buttons and drilled two holes, one of each side of the mark. Kudos to mom for this idea.

4. Next, we found a full size mattress pad at Walmart for $11. Sprayed some glue on the wood, placed the foam on top, and used our professional method to make sure the foam glued to the wood sturdy and smooth-like. Steamroller time.

5. We cut the foam flush with the wood cutout and put a layer of batting on top of that.

6. Now for the fun part... after struggling to get our fabric around that pesky little corners at the end of each curve, we decided to haphazardly staple it to the back as tight as we could and start tufting... we'll come back to this part later. I will say, if you're not up for a challenge, I recommend a rectangle headboard or something with smooth curves. 

We made our buttons with this kit from Joann ($10 for 18 buttons). We threaded some heavy duty fishing line (my dad uses it to catch snakehead fish) on a long needle from the back through one hole, grabbed the button, and came back through the front into the other hole. Dad pushed the button into the board from the front while I pulled the strings and tied them together from the back.

7. We put off tucking the fabric nice and neat as long as we could. It was the only thing left to do so we jumped in. We struggled but in the end dad decided a pleat would be our best bet for the top corners. 

It is complete! Hallelujah.

Wood: $8

Fabric: $12 (2 yards)

Foam: $11

Button kit: $6 (40% coupon from $10)

Total: just under $40

Is it perfect? Probably not. Would I rather spend $800 on this one from Pottery Barn? Most definitely not. I like mine better anyway and we got some mildly-frustration-filled bonding time over this project so boom Pottery Barn, in your face.