It all started with me having a meter and a bit of this beautiful fabric from CLARKE & CLARKE called PERSIA Denim / Raspberry that I had bought a while back and thought would look great in my tiny cottage in Sweden.
I had not been back to see my family and friends in Sweden since the start of the pandemic so I was super excited, of course, to finally be able go back this summer.
Unfortunately I was only able to stay for a couple of weeks on this visit, so the majority of my time was spent catching up with family.
Most of my normal ‘summer cottage projects’ just had to take the backseat this year. But I did find the time to put my lovely fabric to good use. I decided to make a headboard.
Read on and see how I did it.
Since I was short of time and had not pre-ordered material for the project, I decide to see if I could make do with materials that I already had.
First up was to find a suitable filling for the headboard. Luckily I found an old 90cm single bed foam mattress that was in good condition and that I did not need anymore. It was approx. 10cm deep so would work perfectly plus the mattress was now given a new lease of life.
Next was to build a frame. I didn’t want anything too heavy, but it still needed to be sturdy. I found a couple of long wood planks that was left over from building my wooden terrace 10 or so years ago! (Swedes’ do love a wooden patio or terrace, see my Pinterest board for inspiration. )
These planks were exactly what I needed, I cut them into 2x shorter and 2x longer length. The bed I was making the headboard for is 120cm wide. I wanted the headboard to measure 130cm in width so there was 5 cm access on each side. I also calculated (deducted) enough room for approx 1.5 cm on all sides for the foam to ‘overlap’ the frame and form a nice soft edge once secured by the fabric.
I also needed a backing for the frame that was not too heavy. I did not have this item so had to purchase it. I opted for a 3 mm hardboard that set me back approx. £7. These often come in larger sheets, but you can have them cut to size at the merchants.
To build the frame I used joining plates, which you can buy at any hardware store or online, (find similar here) to secure the planks together and a few nails to attach the hardboard to the frame. If you have a good staple gun, you can use that rather than nails.
Now the frame was ready to be dressed. I carefully laid the fabric, on top of the foam, if you are using a patterned fabric make sure the pattern is positioned evenly before stapling it on to the frame. It is important to stretch the fabric when you do this, so double check you are not pulling the pattern out of position. Before turning it over, secure the fabric with a couple of tacks on each side to temporarily keep the fabric in place. Keep checking your progress and make sure the pattern is still in good shape.
Make sure you fold the corners neatly and tight. This can be done in a couple of different ways, I opted to fold the side fabric in underneath the top fabric to form a ‘sharpish’ edge.
If it doesn’t look right on the first try, do it again until you are happy. Remember to really stretch the fabric. Practise makes perfect!
The only drawback of using a 90 cm wide mattress was that it put a limit on how tall I could make the headboard. I would probably have made it a bit taller if the foam had let me or I had ordered materials for a bespoke design. However the idea of this project was to try to use what I already had, so to maximise the visual height of the headboard I decided to attach it straight onto the wall.
Lining the headboard up neatly with the top of the bed’s mattress I attached it directly and ‘snuggly’ to the wall, using French cleats. This was something I did not have at home and had to buy.
Since my headboard wasn’t very heavy I opted for two 4 inch brackets. There are plenty of different options on Amazon. The one in the description below can be found here.
They worked a wonder and I am very happy with my budget headboard for a total cost of less than £45 including the beautiful fabric!
What do you think? Would you have a go at making your very own bespoke headboard?
