DIY Headboard - $60 and 1 Hour to Make

by Erin Colburn

$60

1 Hour

Easy

As promised last week, I'm back with the full tutorial for another very simple DIY headboard for our guest room. I made a headboard a few years ago for our master bedroom, and this one was even easier to make than the last.

I started out by picking up (2) 1x8 boards, each 10' in length. Since my guest bed is full size, I cut each board into two 56" lengths. I had a small scrap piece leftover from each original board. I sanded the edges to make sure there was nothing sharp that could hurt anyone and then started staining.

I used a combination of two stains for this project. The first was Minwax in Classic Grey.

On each board, I took a very small amount of the grey stain and rubbed it in so there was nothing left to rub off. I started with very small amounts and added a bit at a time until I achieved full coverage. The plastic bag is around my hand to protect my skin from the stain, so I can avoid lots of cleanup.

This is how much grey stain I put on each board for the first coat.

Next, I used Minwax Jacobean for the second coat. I've used this same stain on our master bedroom bed and headboard, and the bench on our porch.

I took an even smaller amount of this stain than the first coat of grey. To be safe, you can always add more stain later, but start small. I added a light coat of this dark brown stain to add some warmth to my boards.