(Welcome to Shelly! She is joining the AT:Chicago team as our resident DIY Upholstery and How-To expert. She'll be posting regularly on ideas and tips for home decor projects.)
Contrary to what you may think, cushy, plush custom headboards are very DIY-able. We're not talking about the homemade looking ones that are flimsy, thin and wobbly. Professional headboards are simple to translate for those who are a little handy and don’t want to lay down a bundle for a new look in the boudoir. Jump below for the full step by step instructions:
Don and Betty Draper’s headboard shown on Mad Men is a traditional design with a band and button tufting. You can make it for real on a piece of plywood, or you can try this off-the-wall-version I made in our guest room. You’ll need drywall as your base and you may want to know how to spackle if you ever decide to tear this off the wall.
Materials you’ll need:
Fabric (1 1/2 yard for a full size bed, 54” wide fabric)
Trim or gimp to cover staples
Dacron or cotton batting
Staple gun*
Staples
Yardstick
Pencil
Covered button kit
Hot glue gun
Paper pattern
Chalk
Sharpie
*For any upholstery project you’ll want an electric, rather than a manual, staple gun. They range in price from about $32.00-50.00. I bought a new one for this project that cost $49.99. If you’re willing to spend more, go for a pneumatic stapler with a small air compressor. It’s worth it.
What you do:
1. Measure the width of your bed. A standard measurement for a full size bed is 54”, a queen size is 60”.
2. Determine how tall you want your headboard. Measure from 3” below the top of your mattress to the desired height, that’s the height measurement. With pencil, measure and mark the middle point of the headboard. With a yardstick, draw a penciled line from the bottom center to the top center.
3. Draw a “half” pattern of the headboard shape on paper. On pattern measure in 4” from the outside edge all around, mark and connect the line. This will be the band. Cut the pattern out.
4. Determine placement on your wall behind the bed, mark center top and center bottom. Using painters tape, tape pattern on wall lining up center of the pattern to the penciled vertical line.
5. Trace outline of pattern on wall with chalk.
6. On the paper pattern, determine where you want your first row of buttons. From the center point of that row, measure out 3” to the right and 3” to the left and make a mark with the Sharpie. The next row of buttons will be 4” down and staggered evenly from the top marks. This will end up making 8” x 6” diamond patterns for button placement. With a screwdriver or scissors, poke holes in paper pattern where buttons will be.
8. Place pattern on a piece of batting and cut out. Go back and cut off ½” more around outside of batting.
9. Place pattern on top of fabric, trace and cut out.
10. Cut the “band” off of the pattern. Center remaining pattern on fabric with bottom edges lined up and trace the outline. With chalk, carefully holding pattern in place, chalk the button marks through the holes onto the fabric.
11. Go to the wall and center the batting ½” inside the chalked outline. Staple in the center and move outward as you smooth the batting. Be sure the shape of the batting matches up with the chalked outline on the wall. Staple all around the top design, smooth the sides out to within ½” from the outline and staple in place.
Starting at bottom center, move out towards bottom corners.
13. Repeat with fabric. Fabric edge should line up to chalked outline.
14. Keeping staples in a nice line, staple around the band line.
15. Add two staples next to each other at the button marks.
16. Make enough covered buttons to hot glue on your headboard.
(You can take fabric to an upholstery shop to make your buttons or you can buy kits at the fabric store. You could also use plastic or decorative buttons, pompoms, medallions or anything you can think of.)
I made mine using a nail back to save time.
17. Hot glue gimp or other flexible trim (I twisted three pieces of chenille yarn) on headboard to cover staples.
Push your bed up against your new headboard and stand back and enjoy.
Photos: Shelly Leer
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Comments (18)
OK, why not, but I'd be afraid of doing it directly on the wall, especially if you like to rearrange the room regularly.
Am I the only one that thinks this looks cheesy?
O, this is awesome, cause I'm going to tackle my own DIY upholstered headboard this weekend. But I rent, so on-the-wall is definitely out!
For tufting, any advice on the best way to secure the buttons through the fabric to the holes drilled in the plywood? I have the buttons and upholstery thread to do the tufting, but most of the tutorials I've seen advise you to tie the upholstery thread around a bolt with no head (has a special name I can't recall). That seems like it would create a bumpy surface on the back of the plywood and make it harder to hang it on the wall. Better ideas anyone?
I am totally impressed!
"Am I the only one that thinks this looks cheesy?"
Nope - Looks like a cartoon to me...
...the original is done in a rich velvet and is much more deeply upholstered. This is a very poor substitute - and I'd NEVER do it directly on the wall.
bepsf, that was my first thought as well. It would look adorable in a little girl's room with cartoony looking items and colors. But this is NOT "how to make a Mad Men headboard". This is "how to make a tufted headboard for your kid's room on a budget." For those that don't know what the bed in question looks like, I linked it for ya:
http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=madmen3fd1.jpg
To adapt this for an adult, here's what I would do. You'd need to add at least another inch of batting, a better quality fabric (as well as add'l fabric to accommodate the extra batting), and attaching this to at least plywood so you can move it around. You could even get the chenille yarn in a color one tone darker than the color you choose for the fabric and it could act as a shadow of sorts, instead of a dark outline like it's behaving as now.
Thanks for the link TheMia
Actually, by comparison, this headboard isn't even near the original...
I like the concept of DIY-ing a headboard like the Mad Men one but this one falls way short.
Not even in the same league. Sorry.
To lurker-When attaching the buttons through the plywood, you can pull the twine snugly and use your staple gun to secure the twine. Give it a few good staples.
The on-the-wall headboard is an inexpensive, time saving alternative to making an actual headboard. As I said, you can surely cut a piece of plywood, attach 2 1/2" foam, add a nice lofty layer of batting and do actual diamond tufting. If you don't want to add legs, leave a few buttons off, attach it to the wall with screws and then hot glue some buttons on to cover the screws.
I think she did a great job with creativity, i'm still saying, why didn't i think of that?
Urban Outfitters has these and they look much better. Plus... you don't have to build anything. There are a bunch of colors too
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp;jsessionid=22D170368CD261467325EFD485477C4B.app12-node3?itemdescription=true&itemCount=10&startValue=71&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=13483151&parentid=A_FURN_FURNITURE&sortProperties=&navCount=207&navAction=jump&color=
slightly OT, buuuuuut...where did you get those gorgeous round green cushions!?
I hope readers will just look at the techniques used and adapt them to your own project. You can add thick foam, deep cut out holes for buttons, any color of trim, and lush expensive velvet. I wanted to show how to make the shape, attach the batting, fabric and buttons. Grab a sketch pad and design your own.
P.S. The velvet pillows were purchased at SteinMart last year.
Thanks for the tip on attaching the buttons. And screwing it to the wall and then putting buttons over those screws is a brilliant idea. I've been trying to find these special flat brackets recommended by another tutorial that hardware stores rarely carry--your suggestion sounds much easier!
Thanks for the great instructions! I can see that this was done to show us how to take on such a project and do it with any type of budget. We all love to "knock off" ideas and your technique was very helpful. Looking forward to more of your posts.
lurker2209, why not use larger flat buttons in the back to anchor the tufts?
If you don't want to make Don and Betty Draper's tufted upholstered headboard yourself... you can now buy an almost exact replica at clubfurniture.com. It's called the "Draper" and it's available in 50 fabrics and 20 leathers in full, queen, king and Cal. king sizes (headboard only or platform bed). Here is a link to the "Draper" bed...
http://www.clubfurniture.com/drfaorleuptu.html
I just saw a painted-on one somewhere last week, now this. Is this a sign that I'm supposed to put a headboard on my wall?