Not your grandmother's headboard...

...well actually, it is.


My grandmother recently moved into a senior living community nearby. The transition hasn't been easy (let's just say, she wasn't too keen on moving).



She has always complained about her bed because the headboard is too hard, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at making an upholstered headboard.



There are SO many tutorials out there that it's almost overwhelming--how do you know which one to use? After lots of reading, I used this tutorial as a starting point, tweaking things as necessary along the way.



Because i dont have a truck or SUV, the first stumbling block arose when trying to figure out how I was going to get a 60" piece of plywood home from HD. I just had them cut it into two 30" pieces (you can see the seam below if you look closely)








I used MDF to ensure the nail head trim would be secure.







I didnt bother with buying a sheet of foam, and instead used a twin mattress pad/egg crate that I had left over from my college days. The spray adhesive wasn't cutting it, so I used my staple gun to attach the foam to the plywood.








BTW - don't worry about the padding being smooth because of the egg crate. I was concerned, but you definitely can't tell once the batting and fabric are in place.



I laid the batting on the floor, smoothed it out, placed the headboard on top of it, and then stapled away.





Rinse and Repeat for the fabric. As you can see below, stretching the fabric around the cut outs was difficult, but you really can't tell that it's not smooth once the piece is finished.










And the finished product:

It's not the fabric I would have chosen for myself, but she loves it.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this project was; it can definitely be done in a day if you have the right tools.