I used that and this little illustration from bejane.com to help me sort of cheat my way to an upholstered headboard.
Oh, that and a lot of spray adhesive.
So, here's the before shot:
It was sort of put together throughout the past few years look that I wanted changed!
So....I did get some plywood cut to fit behind my iron headboard-type thing. But, securing it to the headboard was presenting a bit of a challenge and so I decided to just go straight for the foam. Now, this is where I may lose some purists. That's ok. I understand. This isn't going to be moved very often, and I wanted structure, but the foam provided enough substance and structure without the stiffness of the board. I did have to compromise on the tautness of the fabric in the end since you are not heavy-duty stapling fabric to foam. But it's been up almost two weeks now and is still sturdy. So there you have it.
I bought some 2" thick high-density foam from Hancock Fabrics.
And traced where I needed to cut to fit. Then, using an electric carving knife, you just slice right through the foam! (It was very therapeutic!)The foam wasn't quite high enough for what I needed, but was longer than I needed. So I just pieced together the remaining foam (it was in two pieces) and spray-adhered them to the headboard.
I just sprayed this puppy directly to the iron. This wasn't anything I was worried about ruining, plus I could always rip the foam off if it really didn't work and display the non-ruined side.
But it stuck. Well. Really, really well. That spray adhesive doesn't mess around!
Then I wrapped and tucked and spray adhered the batting. I pinned the batting before I sprayed, just to get a general idea of fit/look before actually adhering it to the foam. This picture was taken with just the pins in place. It was much more taut and even after spraying. (That's important.)So...the fabric. I chose my favorite toile pattern again. The only problem there is the fabric wasn't wide enough for my headboard and since it's a repeating pattern, you can't just flip the fabric. So.....I had to get two cuts of fabric and connect them. I'm a non-sewer, so I just used the iron-on hemming tape and it worked really well. Connecting toile patterns is something I don't want to do again in the near future.
But it looks really seamless - you really can't tell it's two different pieces unless you're up very very close. See...
I also replaced our old duvet with a white duvet and shams from overstock.com - it was less than 30 dollars shipped! Love that place. And it's bleachable - so very kid friendly.
(I tried getting a great "after" photo - but there was no natural light to be had and my room is a little on the tiny side, so standing back far enough to really get a good photo was presenting a challenge.)My next to-do is to add a few more throw pillows for softness, but this is all about a step at a time, right?
Let me know if you tackle your headboard.
Also, I'm going to have an exciting giveaway coming up next week - that will be especially helpful will all of the holiday cooking coming up!! So, stay tuned for that!
