Three and a half years ago I mentioned I wanted to make a headboard for the guest room.  I even did a survey about the shape.  Then about six months ago I finally did.  Then I forgot to take pictures or mention it.

If a blogger builds something, but doesn't take pictures or blogs about it, did it really happen?

So, here I am way late sharing the final product.


Also, I didn't move the cat for any of these pictures, because one, he looks so darn cute sleeping, and two I didn't want to have to sweep his favorite nap spot, since gray fur + white blanket equals a perfect fur print.

There are tutorials all over showing how to make a headboard, so I won't reinvent the wheel here.  Basically, Mike cut me a giant curved shape out of plywood.  I used spray adhesive to adhere foam, then wrapped it with batting, then stapled my fabric on.

Before we did any of that though, I bought the Ikea FJELLSE frame and set that up.  We first thought of attaching the headboard directly to the wall since we only had the metal box frame rails.  But we have plaster walls in this room and we were concerned about the weight/wear on the walls that the headboard may cause.  We decided that we would be better to attach to a frame and the FJELLSE was cheap and easy to modify.  I painted the frame the same color of the walls because I already had it in the basement.  I also stapled some fabric on the box frame to create a clean look.  Not going to lie, this was super difficult since no one tells you that a box frame doesn't really have anything to staple into, it's basically fabric.  A was very liberal with the staples and enough of them stuck, so it's fine, but it's not something I would do again.


The headboard actually runs the entire height and sits on the bed frame base.


It's more material, but it was easier construction that way.  Mike created a "lip" on the other side to sit over the headboard of the bed frame.  He used more plywood to create 3 points total that fit over the frame. 


Not sure why the little spot didn't get painted, oh well!


The bed frame sits right against the baseboard, and the plywood support stops right above so that if the head board does get pushed back, it sits against the wall and nothing dents anything.

It took forever to get the motivation to do this, but it's down and it definitely makes the room look more finished.


It also adds the needed height to that wall.

And, finally a little before/after action:



Crazy how such a small build can take so long to get motivated to do!