DIY Upholstered Headboard Tutorial

Welllllllllll, baby O is being stubborn which means a post before his introduction. We recently swapped the queen bed in our guest room for a king so last weekend the doc made a new headboard for it. I LOVE IT. I am naming the fact that I was seriously anticipating labor to start as the reason I didn't take photos of the building process. Hence, you get my lovely illustrations instead to try and depict the tutorial steps the doc wrote up for everybody who asked for a tutorial :) 

 

DIY Upholstered Headboard (printable materials list and instructions below)

Materials (for king size headboard)

1. Board (this can be a piece of plywood, MDF, etc) measuring 48” x 78”
2. Button assembly kit x 2 (can be purchased at Hobby Lobby, Joann’s) - we used 27 buttons total
3. Fabric (any type of fabric will work, though you want to make sure it’s not see-through and that it is durable).  If the fabric is too thick, the button kit may not work…as discussed below.  We used a piece that was about 54” wide and 2.5 yards long.  I wouldn’t recommend anything smaller.  
4. 2x6 board - enough to span the length (78”) and two sides (48” - width minus 6” across top = 42”).  Also nice to have a few small spare pieces…see below
5. Staple gun and plenty of staples
6. Saw - I used a miter saw but a skill saw will work.  Also Lowe’s and Home Depot will cut the boards for you if you purchase your wood there 
7. Foam - we used a queen mattress topper (egg crate) that was 4” thick.  The thickness can be whatever you chose, we just like thick and found the mattress topper to be much cheaper than other/craft foam
8. Long needle 
9. Embroidery floss 
10. Drill with large drill bit 
11. 1.5” wood screws 
12. Wall mounting material (we used four hooks that screw into the back of the headboard)
13. Drywall anchors with screws 

Instructions 

Step 1:

Frame the backside of the plywood board with your 2x6” pieces of wood.  One piece across the top and two along the side.  You can also frame the bottom if you’d like, but to save money I didn’t.  

Optional: I screwed a small piece of spare 2x6” piece on the bottom that would be in contact with the wall after hanging.  This ensured that the entire headboard didn’t bow in the middle. 

Step 2: 

Depending on how heavy you think your finished product will be, you may want to add two small pieces of 2x6” somewhere along the back of the headboard where you plan to put mounting brackets.  We used 4 total mounting brackets (2 along the edges and one on each of the two pieces I screwed in during this step)

Step 3: 

Now you need to pre-drill holes where you want buttons.  We did 5 rows.  5 across the top, then 6, then 5, then 6, then 5.  We actually should’ve done another row of 6, but because the pillows cover that row and it would have required an additional button kit (about $10) we decided against it.  For ours, the rows were spaced 7” apart from top to bottom.  Each button was 13” apart from side to side with the rows staggering.  The 2nd and 4th rows started 6.5” from the side as opposed to 13” like the others.  To do this, I took a long board (anything long and straight will work) and mapped out a grid on the front side of the plywood with a marker.  I placed an “X” where a button should go and pre-drilled all holes with a fairly large drill bit (the larger the hole, the easier it is to fish the needle through later).  

Step 4:

The foam is assembled face down (egg crate down towards the wood).  The queen foam topper we had was exactly 78” in length.  Begin on one side and staple using a staple gun each side and across the top, making sure to staple right along the FRONT edge of the wood.  Do NOT staple the foam to the side or wrap around the back as this will leave lumps along the straight edge of the side when you upholster the headboard.  The bottom will likely require some trimming.  Once trimmed, staple along the bottom edge.  

Step 5: 

Iron your fabric and ensure all wrinkles are out.  Place the fabric facedown and center your plywood with attached foam facedown (foam side down) centered over the fabric.  Make sure there were no wrinkles that developed during this process.  Begin on one side and staple fabric to the 2x6” boards on the back.  Make sure to pull tight.  On the corners, I folded the fabric to ensure a nice seam developed.  

Step 6:

Use spare fabric (can cut prior to upholstering headboard or after) to create your buttons.  Follow instructions on button assembly kits.  We made 27.  Our fabric was too thick, so we created the buttons as best we could leaving some of the fabric sticking out.  That extra fabric was wrapped behind the button prior to pulling tight against the foam in order to hide the extra.  

Step 7:

Using the embroidery floss (or any strong, thicker thread), tie a knot around the back of the button and secure well.  We doubled up the floss several times over to ensure strength and to help secure on the back.  Take your thread that is attached to the button and thread through a needle.  Next, puncture the front of the headboard (side with fabric) and thread through to back towards pre-drilled hole.  Once through hole, place a few staples over the thread/floss and wrap around as many times as you desire.  Take a hammer and hammer the staples down to prevent slipping of the thread.  You may want to have someone hold pressure on the button from the front to whatever depth you desire within the fabric prior to hammering down thread.  If you used thick fabric like we did and your buttons have wings, prior to pulling tight and holding pressure, make sure fabric is tucked behind the buttons.  

Step 8:

Attach whatever mounting brackets you feel would be best and drill screws in the walls (we did 4 drywall anchors).  We used a bracket with two screws and a little “U” shaped piece that would hang on the screws that were placed in the wall.  

Note: This headboard does not have legs and is simply mounted on the wall behind the bed.  Ours goes about 4-6” below the top of the mattress.  

Let us know if you build your own -- we'd love to see how it turns out! 

PRINTABLE INSTRUCTIONS