Tufted Headboard

Hi Everyone,

Today I am going to go over how I made my own tufted headboard. I have wanted one of these forever, and drool over the beds from Ballard Designs and the price tag was just too much for me! I looked around the web for a long time looking at tutorials and inspiration and finally turned to guidance from Jenny at Little Green Notebook for a process to follow. My take was slightly different, I had help from both my parents (thank you!) and was able to make it start to finish in a few hours. Great project and I am very excited to get into bed and go to sleep at night now.

The fabric I used was one I purchased at Pacific Fabrics in the SODO district. I chose a mushroom brown velvet type of fabric. I wanted something that looked rich and would match whatever decor comes my way in the future, like in a guest room or something. I purchased 2.5 yards of the material to cover a headboard that is 64 x 30 inches.

The next step was acquiring the foam for the inside and batting to wrap it in. Foam is not cheap people. I got the foam for the headboard from Jo-Ann Fabrics and had a 40% off coupon and the price still made me choke a little. It was by far the most expensive part of this project. I bought 64 x 60 inches of foam, which was more than I needed, but now I have left over foam to play around with on something I will dream up soon. The batting was on sale for $3 a yard, I got 2 yards of that too.

Jo-Ann fabrics uses an electric turkey knife to cut the foam, it was  a clean cut too! 

The next stop was at Lowe's for a piece of pegboard. I had the guy cut the pegboard into a piece that was 64 inches long by 30 inches wide. At this point my mom and I were pretty giddy with the smell of sawdust, doing projects are totally addicting, and I get it from her haha. 

Measure twice, cut once!

We were excited about the giant saw


 

After this we headed home to get started. The first step was to measure the board and figure out how to make the curve on the top corners. My mom helped me use the trash can lid to draw a half circle on the corners and then I cut it out using a jig saw, it was really quick and easy and adds a lot of character. 

Here is the line to follow with the saw, I went for the larger of the 2 options. 

Quick cutting on both corners

Here is the board ready for the next step.

After the corners were cut I laid the foam pieces on top and traced the curve and then cut the foam to be same size. Unfortunately for me my parents do not own an electric turkey knife so I used a regular knife instead. The cut was not quite as clean, but it did the job without a problem. 

Then I mapped out where I wanted to space the holes. The pegboard make this pretty easy because you can just count the holes and follow a pattern, no drilling required which is nice and less math that way. 

Mapped out on the board

Mapped out the foam

After I drew the dots on the foam I used a knife to cut holes through the foam on the holes so it could be accessed through the back of the pegboard easily.

After I had cut holes in the foam I used a spray adhesive to stick it to the pegboard, I did this step because the tutorial I read recommended this, and it could probably be skipped if you are careful and keep the holes lined up. Mine were not all lined up very well despite trying. Once the foam was attached to the board I wrapped it in batting and stapled it to the back of the board. 

 

This is where things got much more exciting but also a lot more stressful. Doing the tufting was not hard, but it was long and took patience. Luckily I had both my parents helping and we were able to get it done pretty quickly (I think, how long does it take other people to tuft things?). The technique we used was pretty unique and made it go a lot faster. 

My dad was on the backside of the headboard and I was on the front. We started at the top and in the middle. He would thread the upholstery need through to me and slide a straw from a WD-40 can along side the needle. I would thread the button on the front and arrange the fabric and then would pinch the WD-40 straw between my thumb and forefinger, and stick the needle into the straw and it would go right back out the same hole it came through. He would then take the ends of the thread and knot it around a button on the backside and would pull it tight. 

View of threading the needle and straw (red thing) through  the backside. 

Threading the button and arranging the fabric before sending the needle back  through

Pinch the straw in between thumb and forefinger

Put needle into the straw and push it back through the same peghole  in the back

Now, repeat this step around 36 times and you're done! Good thing my parents really like me to help me, it got done pretty quickly. But I did fix a tuft before I hung it on the wall by myself and used the straw technique and it took me about a minute to do it by myself, it really goes much faster that way. Maybe other people are just pro at sending the needle through the foam, I am not so a little guidance really helped. 

My assistants who helped even when they thought my creative vision was fuzzy

Luckily my mom has a HUGE collection of buttons and I was able to find enough that were the same, the right size and was able to spray paint them to match the fabric. I considered making my own buttons for about 10 seconds, but at ~$1 a button that thought was fleeting. If my mom didn't have a large collection I would have shelled out for it though. 

After all the tufts were done we put the headboard down face first and pulled the extra fabric tight and stapled it to the back. Pretty basic on this step, just watch out for the holes in the pegboard and staple around those. The extra material was cut off and then I ran a strip of brown packing tape over the edge of the fabric just to help it lay very flat. 

To hang the headboard I used D-Hooks and wire and then 2 screws in the wall. The headboard is not very heavy, just an awkward shape. I screwed the D-hooks into the pegboard (easy to measure thanks to the holes in the back). I ran a piece of wire through the D part and tied it off.  I quick measuring on the wall and used a level to  make the marks even and then put screws in the wall. And voila! 

View of tufts

Now I have a bald wall above my bed, I took down my beloved mirror, it was too much bulk on the wall. Don't worry, I have some ideas for the wall.

I think that is all on this project that is important. I would absolutely do this project again for another bed in the future, it worked beautifully and was pretty fun too. Sweet dreams :)

Until next time,

Kerri