Hello friends! This project has been a long time coming and I am anxious to share with you! We have just moved into a new home that is about 2 times the size of our previous apartment. That being said, we are having a difficult time furnishing it affordably and stylishly. I am the type of person that comes up with an idea for a room and wants to completely finish it within a week, but I know on our budget that isn’t possible. So I am randomly finishing projects that I think will help tie the rooms together until I can find the time & money to completely finish the whole house.
I am a big believer in making guests feel comfortable in my home, especially overnight guests. I want them to feel like they are in a 5-star hotel! I was starting to feel horrible for not even having a headboard for the guest room…until I remembered that I had some extra foam insulation from a previous project just sitting in my garage. I had all of the materials sitting around waiting for me to make a light-weight upholstered headboard! Read on to find out how to make your own.
Tools & Equipment:
Square-edge foam insulation
Canvas drop-cloth
Low-loft batting
Glue gun & sticks
Ribbon
Pins or tacks
1. Cut the foam board to size. Depending on the size of your drop cloth, you could make it any size that is approximately 6″ smaller than your drop cloth {on each side}. For the purposes of this tutorial, my foam was cut to 48×32″. Mark the board with a straight edge and a marker on the side with the Lowe’s logo. Cut the foam before removing the protective plastic…trust me on this it is worlds easier if you don’t remove the plastic first! I used a utility knife to cut with.
2. Trim your batting to at least 52×37″ {giving you 2″ on each side to wrap it}. Then cut the corners as below to help keep down bulk on the finished headboard.
3. Wrap the batting as tightly as possible around the foam, and hot glue it into place.
4. Cut the drop cloth to 56×41″ {at least}. You really want to give yourself enough space to tighten the fabric and wrap it around the foam. You will be trimming the cloth later, so don’t worry about it being too large . Trim small notches in the corners of the drop cloth to cut down on bulk.
5. Tighten the drop cloth fabric as much as you can around the foam…this isn’t easy to do by yourself so I would recommend getting a helper. Hot glue the fabric in place. Trim the excess fabric from the back.
*Tip: You might want to use some straight pins to help hold the fabric in place while the glue is setting.
6. To create a hanger, cut your ribbon to an appropriate size {mine was approximately 24″}. Use your tacks to punch holes on the back of the headboard, then hot glue inside the holes. Quickly push the tacks through the ribbon ends and into the pre-punched holes. Do not hang the headboard until the glue is dry!
I absolutely love the way the headboard turned out, but in our white room it just wasn’t standing out enough for me. Originally, I wanted to purchase some nailhead trim and make a border around the headboard, but I have had no luck finding any in my local stores. Then I thought I could just use some thick ribbon to make a border and hot glue it onto the drop cloth fabric; but I know sometimes hot glue and satin ribbon don’t work together so well and I opted to not ruin my headboard trying it. Finally, the idea came to me! I decided to paint a few swashes and a fleur de lis on the fabric using templates I made on my Silhouette Cameo.
7. Create your design in Silhouette Studio and cut it onto vinyl. {If you don’t have a Silhouette or vinyl, print out your design onto cardstock and cut it out by hand}. Take your template and place on the fabric. I found that the vinyl didn’t stick well to the fabric {but it turned out fine, the paint won’t bleed if you apply it properly}.
8. I used my beloved Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Aubusson Blue to fill in my templates. You definitely could use fabric paint, but I didn’t see a need since this fabric isn’t going to get washed, or have much wear & tear. Coat the tip of a foam brush with your paint and lightly dab onto the fabric. This is the best way to prevent bleeding.
9. When your paint has dried, steam the fabric to get rid of wrinkles {ignore the wrinkles in mine because my steamer is currently on the fritz}, and go hang up your masterpiece headboard!
Please send pictures of your Easy Fabric Headboards in…I can’t wait to see some of your creative ideas!
HG says
WOW! Too cute. I hope you link up to Wild West Thursday. Hope to see you there.
http://www.thegirlinthewildwest.com/
Sam says
Thank you so much for the invitation – I linked up!
Dina says
What a great idea!