If you read my first post, you’ll know that I am a person who LOVES to make things. You’ll also know I hate spending money especially if it is on something I know I can make at home cheaper! Needless to say, I am a total “DIYer” (this is a term right?).
BACK STORY
When Matt and I first got married, (read more about my story here!) I was putting together our bedroom furniture and LOVED the idea of having a tufted headboard. While we were staying at a Hyatt Hotel, I noticed the headboard was basically just a piece of foam stapled onto plywood wrapped with vinyl leather.
After looking at it a while, I decided I could totally try this at home.
I already had a piece of plywood the correct size, so I laid it out with a piece of foam, stapled it to the plywood in sections where the upholstery pins would be placed to make the “tufted” look. (You can get really precise with this and get our the ruler to figure out exactly how far apart the tufts should go- I just “eye-balled” it!)
WRAPPING THE FOAM
Next, I wrapped it in the leather material. Once I had wrapped the leather, I felt where the dimples were under the leather material in the foam from the staples and hammered the upholstery pins with a rubber mallet right in the center of each dimple.
Just as I’d hoped, it turned out great! This headboard lasted us for a good number of years… until I wanted to update our bedroom, of course!
HEADBOARD MAKEOVER TAKE #2
The next makeover included shaping the headboard into a camel back style. I am a huge Olivia Pope fan. (Where my TGIT peeps at?!?!) She had this GORGEOUS grayish, plum colored, camelback, velvet headboard that I just drooled over every episode!
Once again, my “I-can-make-that-myself-and-cheaper” radar went off. This time, I recruited my dad to help me as he has the awesome numbers, diagramming, and planning skills (notice the graph-he’s a detail/numbers guy and I am not!). Also, he had the scroll saw!
Now that it was shaped, I cut the foam, re-stapled for the tufts, and re-wrapped using the new fabric.
FINISHED PRODUCT TAKE #2
Like before, I was pretty pleased! Until after a few months, the fabric, sadly, had some reaction with the foam and turned a strange reddish purple color….. It definitely wasn’t the look I was originally going for!!
Thus started the brainstorming for the next headboard makeover. While looking for inspiration on Pinterest, I stumbled across a DIY post (similar to this one) using a canvas drop cloth from the hardware store to reupholster things. I was sold!
HEADBOARD MAKEOVER TAKE #3
(HOPEFULLY THE LAST)
Fabric at a craft store can be up to $10 or more per yard and I needed about 2 and 1/2 or more to be safe. The drop cloth was MUCH bigger and was only $9! HUGE WIN! SO! Once again I unwrapped the headboard of it’s reddish, purple velvet and rewrapped it in the canvas.
I was, of course, THRILLED at the final result! The colors of my bedroom all coordinate so much better and are so light and dreamy! I am in LOVE with this room! (See below for final results!)
AND! The best part! There was extra canvas left to recover the bench at the end of my bed so they looked like a set! There’s a story behind this bench as well…
BENCH BACK STORY
A few years back when we lived at our old house, I decided that it would be great to have a bench at the end of our bed to sit on or put our pillows on at night. I started looking around to see what kind of prices were out there.
Of course, after looking around and realizing I was not impressed with any of the prices, I decided that I could just make it on my own. SO, my creative cogs started spinning once again and I started looking for anything I could turn into a bench. And I mean- ANYTHING.
A few weeks later, I was at a value store and saw a small entertainment center on sale. I thought to myself…”I could put legs on that and it would be a bench with some storage.” So, that’s exactly what I did! I ran by the hardware store (I’m pretty sure I got mine at Home Depot, but these on Etsy are really cute too!) on the way home and picked up some legs and some castor wheel plates to screw into the bottom of my “entertainment center bench”.
After the base of the bench was made, I stopped by the fabric store to pick up some furniture foam and fabric to cover it, then attached it to the top of the bench. (you can also get some at Walmart or on Amazon here).
This was the first finished product! I was pretty proud of my “entertainment-center-foot-of-the-bed-bench”!
BENCH MAKEOVER TAKE #2
Later, I decided the black was too heavy so I painted the base white to go with the softer look I was going for. Out of my own stupidity, I had already reupholstered the top of the bench so I had to figure out a way to cover it so the top of the bench wouldn’t get spray painted white too!
THE FINISHED PRODUCT!
BUT…….. After all that hard work, all those headboard makeovers, all the painting and reupholstering, etc. HERE is the finished product! I couldn’t be happier with my bedroom set! It’s a wonderful feeling to walk into my light and airy bedroom that I put together myself! Now, it’s definitely one of my favorite rooms in the house!
Notice the night stands. There’s a story behind those too! Be sure to subscribe to my mailing list and check back here for blog updates! I’ll share about how I revamped my night stands soon!
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Be sure to check out my post on my DIY Farmhouse thrift store table!