DIY: Create Your Own Headboard

Hey guys, I just got a gray question about Jennifer Adams and it requires me to show you how to do a project. I can't just write an answer for this one. He says Hi Jennifer. I just moved into my first apartment and now I'm broke but I really want a

headboard

for my bedroom. Do you have any suggestions on how I can finish the bedroom without literally spending money? Sign Sally, well Sally, yes, if you're clever, we can do this together. This is one way. To be literally minimal on

your

budget, you require cardboard, some foam, and a fabric of

your

choice, so let's get started.

If you get a large appliance box or a really sturdy moving box when you move into your apartment, you can cut it down to size. The general rule of thumb is to have the

headboard

extend three inches beyond the size of your mattress, so for example, today we used a queen bed whose queen mattress is 60 inches wide, so I cut the cardboard so that it has 66 inches wide. fold the cardboard because this is really the support for the entire headboard and tape it in each place because this is the base, then you can use it completely.

I only use a box mattress cover because it is very durable and actually costs even more. effective, so you want to place the cardboard on a nice clean surface and then foam it and cut it to the proper size. It's good to have at least 24 inches above the mattress for headboard height. You can go even higher if you keep it simple. rectangle, if you want to add a little detail you can take a bowl like this mixing bowl and put it right in the corner and if you trace that shape you'll get a really pretty pattern so all you need to do is trace right on your phone and right on the cardboard it's as simple as this and then keep the bowl in the exact same position and trace here and now you have a nice scalloped edge detail so now it's time to make the cut you want to start. first with a cardboard and to protect the floor you can use a very thin cutting board, place it right under the place where you will cut, this makes it easier to keep the floors protected, especially if you are in an apartment, take an exact. knife and you just cut along the line that you have drawn and now you have your nice scalloped detail so you want to make sure that the foam is secured to the cardboard and the way you do that is the first step with a little bit of use general. glue, it just doesn't even need to be pretty, all you want to do is glue the cardboard all over, now just place the foam directly on the cardboard on top of the glue and let it dry for about thirty minutes. so now you can lay down the fabric, make sure you have a nice clean surface, this is your most expensive asset.

You want to have the pattern down toward the floor, so lay it out and by the way, if you're using an old remnant piece. of fabric, make sure it's ironed because you won't have a chance to iron it once it's on the headboard, so lay it out and then you can take the batting and place it right on top of the fabric, the batting will help secure the cardboard to the foam and it will also give a nice smooth finish to the fabric once it's fully attached, just check to make sure the glue is dry, which this is, and just take the cardboard and the foam and place them on the fabric.

A tip to help conserve fabric is to make sure the header is about six inches from the edge of one side of the fabric, that way you won't waste a lot of excess fabric; in fact, two sides can be six inches apart because that will give you You have enough edge to be able to cut and then fold this and staple it, let's see if we have six inches here, let's see if we have six inches here, we do that and we're about six inches on this side, so then all you have to do. Bring this down and now we have six inches on this side so we don't even have to cut these two sides so now make the cut on the bottom side and on the other side and you want to trace this so you can I have six inches on each side , so I've traced it with a yardstick to keep the line fairly straight and just trace it now that it's completely traced.

I'm going to cut the fabric and the batting. To cut them at the same time you don't need to cut twice, just cut in a straight line. I love using fabric scissors, although you can use regular scissors, but I find this is easier and prevents the fabric from bleeding once you've cut it completely. You don't want to staple them, you want to just start with the batting on its own and make a really nice corner, almost like a hospital corner. When you are making a bed, now the batting is ready and it's time to make the fabric so you can actually repeat the same steps paying attention to the corners, make one hospital corner, fold it and then do the same with the other corner, one Once you have the corner nice and secure, you can start gluing and if you mess it up and staple it wrong.

Pull out the staple and start again easily enough and once you're done stapling all the fabric, you're done and have a complete headboard. This was very simple and I barely spent any money to do the project, so thank you for writing in the Question and one last tip since you are in an apartment and will probably need to protect your walls. This is so light that you can just use small 3m tapes and velcro and velcro directly to the wall from our tips that will make you love coming home. visit youtube.com, drag Jennifer Adams and follow us on Twitter at Jennifer Adams.