Guest Bedroom Queen Headboard with Nailheads {home decor}

With our roommate moved out (Ryan we miss you!!) and two of our best friends coming to visit, the guest room needed some tlc!  We decided not to use our Ikea Malm queen bed anymore since it was from Paul's bachelor days and not really our style anymore.  So of course I searched for DIY solutions and came across this great option that inspired me:  http://tenthavenuesouth.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-drop-cloth-headboard.html

It looks just like this one from Potterybarn but costs MUCH less:

So here's our journey trying to recreate this and what we learned along the way....

We used some old foam core board that we had around the house and I hand-drew the pattern that we wanted.  We made the bed about 5'-4" wide, so that pattern was half that width and we just flipped it over so the sides would match.

We traced the pattern on the 3/4" MDF we bought from Home Depot.

Here I am using a circular saw (for the first time!!) to cut the board to the correct width.  Paul decided this was an acceptable project to allow me to learn to use the saws :)

We doubled the thickness at the top and sides.

We used an 1-1/4" brad nailer and wood glue to attach the second pieces of MDF.   (Another first... Paul taught me to use the brad nailer with the compressor!)

Here is what it looked like prior to cutting the top curved piece.

We used a jigsaw in order to cut the curved pattern at the top of the headboard.  Can't lie, I wasn't the best at this saw and I was pretty slow with it.

This shows the cut I made with the jigsaw (prior to Paul cleaning it up)...

Paul used a sander to soften and even out the cut that I made.  Thanks hubby!

I bought 1" foam from Joann's Fabric, which was 50% off, and used spray adhesive to attach it to the MDF.

We bought these legs at Home Depot and I stained them with some Minwax Wood Finish stain that I had left over from another project.

Here's the adhesive I used for the foam.

I used a manual staple gun to wrap the foam around the edges and attach it.

The batting the I bought from Joann's as well.  I bought the queen size and it allowed me to cover it with two layers of batt.

The batt complete and wrapped in two layers.  Quite the workout on the hands and arms using the stapler...

We bought a dropcloth from Home Depot and wrapped it around the batt and again stapled it in place.

Front view of the drop cloth covering.

I was unsuccessful at finding the nailheads locally, so I ordered them online here: http://www.diyupholsterysupply.com/ZN52.html

Paul ended up placing the nail heads since he was more detail-oriented about it and he ended up using a nail and some thread to make sure the line was straight (a beer helped him along the way because this process drove him nuts!)

He did a GREAT job getting them straight!  We placed them 1.5" apart.

We drilled holes in the bottom for the legs.  By wrapping the fabric around the bottom which we agreed was needed, it also hurt the structural integrity of the legs (oops!).  But the look was more important so we figured a way to resolve the issue.

We used wood glue to attach the legs (on the first try...)

 It looked great until it COLLAPSED!

I came up with the idea of adding the board at the bottom that you see to take the majority of the weight rather than the legs.  We also added the horizontal wood to attach the bed to the wall as additional support.

The headboard attached to the wall.

The legs held up! ... with the support of the board.

Luckily the board will never be seen once the bedskirt is in place.

Here is a view with the headboar and the bed in place.

Current status picture of the guest room... still working on setting it up and still deciding on the lamps which I think will work better for the boys room than this one, but we'll see!

Paul's first project

I almost forgot this project which probably was our very first DIY project and the one in which I learned about Paul's carpentry skills.  Again I had basically no budget but wanted a gorgeous headboard for the king size bed.  In the process of searching for an old door to use for this project, we discovered my FAVORITE antique store I have been in to date... Old Lucketts in Leesburg, VA.  Fabulous finds at reasonable prices... good thing I only discovered it shortly before leaving Virginia or else I would have gone broke in that store alone.

Once we found the perfect old door, we went to home depot to pick out some trim and created a plan for transforming the old door into a shabby chic headboard.  Paul worked his magic and created a headboard more beautiful than I had pictured.

The last steps was to paint the door and make is look shabby chic.  First, I painted it will a dark brown exterior paint to seal the lead paint below.  Then a dry-brushed on white over the top and left some of the brown exposed to create the "shabby" look I wanted.  We still use the headboard today and actually now we have a matching footboard that I will share in a future post!