How to Make an Upholstered Headboard

There are many DIY headboard ideas out there and I had always wanted to make my own, especially an upholstered one. I already had an existing base for the bed so I needed to make a headboard that was separate from the base. After toying around with lots of ideas, I ended up with this headboard design that's really easy to make, customize and you don't even have to attach it to bed or the wall!
I make the headboard structure, I used 1/4" plywood, 1"x3" pine boards and 1"x2" furring strips. I had the plywood cut at the hardware store and cut the pine boards with a miter box and saw but you could also have that cut at the hardware store.
I first screwed the 1"x3" to the plywood and then I attached the furring strips to the 1"x3" - they make the headboard look thicker and also act as legs.
To cover the headboard, I chose to use 3" burlap ribbon and 14" wide jute fabric but you could choose to use any fabric you have on hand. First, I stapled one length of the burlap ribbon at the top, covering the top and sides. Then I stapled the ivory jute panels, leaving approximately a 2 1/2" gap in between panels. I used more burlap ribbon to cover up the gaps.
As a finishing touch, I added some decorative nail trim to the sides.
Since the legs support the headboard, all I needed to do was wedge it between the bed frame and the wall and use 3M command strips to secure it to the wall.
You can see more details on this project, including a detailed list of materials I used, on my blog.
You can also see all the projects I did in my bedroom in this video.
Engineer Your Space
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Sheila S Chrisman Sheila S Chrisman on Jun 21, 2016
    I love how you swapped out the vertical blinds for curtains, brilliant, Ive wanted a solution for so long. I hate mine and I rent so I canno remove them, they where all preinstalled throughout my whole house. Could you show me or email exactly how you did thus wonderful idea! And what kind of curtains were used, they seem to be the old style of curtains which is great because they should be more affordable or possibly find used curtains. Thanks
  • Victoria Victoria on Oct 16, 2018

    Very nice job!! Bravo! Where did the legs come from because i didnt see them when you showed picture of frame. Thanks. I have an air mattress that could use an awesome headboard like this.

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