Have headboard, will travel

Actually, the headboard only traveled upstairs.  I need YOU to travel to my house to use it.

Ta da!  Here is my very home-made head board that cost me nearly nothing.

Thanks to Jamie & Kristina of Toolbelts & Party Pants and Youg House Love for the inspiration and helpful hints.

Let me tell you folks, I made this bad boy on the cheap! Here is the break down of my costs.

• Wood firing strips from Lowes (they even cut them to size for you) $5.37
• Muslin fabric backing from Pacific Fabrics $3.29
• Poly Batting from Pacific Fabrics $13.27
• Fabric from Curtain (left over) $0
• Staple gun & staples borrowed from Casa De Nelson (aka my parents) $0
• Hanging brackets from Lowes $2.98
• Fabric buttons made from extra fabric at Pacific Fabrics $8.35
• Grand Total of roughly $34- Booyah!

I went the more difficult DIY route when making this since I made my own frame instead of buying one, which saved me at least $60-90.  If you have the extra cash handy, buying a pre-made frame with stretched canvas at a craft store will run you about $99 for a 60x48" frame (unless you have a great coupon).  This saves you from having to staple the wood together and cover it with muslin. For me, the savings completely outweighs the time I would have saved (I spent less than $9 on the wood & muslin).  Plus I really liked using the staple gun.

Here is how you too can make a fabulous, super cheap headboard.

Step 1: Staple the wood pieces together at each corner.  Then flip it over and staple on the other side so it's secure.  I then added diagonal cross bars and stapled those on both sides.  This took me about 15 minutes, but really most of that time was me figuring out the learning curve on the staple gun (you have to put a lot of pressure on them).

Step 2: Cover it with muslin, as a backing for your batting and fabric.  Staple the fabric to the top of wood beams. Cut off any excess.

Step 3: Cover muslin with batting.  I bought a "queen size" batting in a bag and then folded it in half to cover my frame.  That way, it is a bit thicker and cush-ier.

Step 4: Cover the batting with fabric.  This is the time when you need to be precise and careful.  Any flaws in the earlier steps are covered up in this step.  This is what everyone will see, so be patient and deliberate in your stapling.  Make sure to pull the fabric tight when stapling.  I did the top and bottom first, then did the sides last.  Also make sure you are stapling to the back of the headboard, where no one will see the staples.  If you have any extra fabric, either cut it off or fold it over and staple it in.

Lastly, I attached these little guys to the back of the ehadboard and to the walls, so that I could hang it securely.  

Once I got it all finished it looked like this:

Finished front

I was running around the living room all excited, and Chris was applauding my good work, then I decided it wasn't really done.  I realized it looked a bit plain.  Don't you worry, I knew just what to do to snaz it up.  I headed to Pacfic Fabrics in Northgate and had them make me some fabric buttons for me (a buck a button, what a deal!).  Then I got to work making a diamond pattern in buttons on the front to snaz-it-up.

Adorable right?

Voila, you have a headboard for less than a steak dinner. Whats even better?  Everytime I decide to change the theme of the room, I can just recover this in a different color fabric!

Guests... get your butts over here!