Getting Back On Track In the Boudoir

Remember way back in mid-March when I posted about getting busy in the boudoir?  Well, let's just say the tornado put a big time damper on things.  Literally an hour before it hit, we were working to get the upholstered headboard hung on the wall.  Since then, though, things have been at a virtual standstill while repairs were underway.  Thankfully, we just got deemed 100% complete on our repairs (still a few TINY things to do), so life is totally getting back to normal!  And with that happy bit of good news, I'm beyond thrilled to start posting about the projects underway in the boudoir!  ;)

As a quick refresher, here's a picture of the bedroom before.  When we moved into the house, we upgraded to a king size bed, and I purchased the comforter from Target.  Not expensive, but a quick fix to give us bedding and since I was super preggo at the time, I just wanted something quick and easy.  The wall color was also a beige-y peach color.  It was neutral, but not exactly what I wanted.  So, if you recall from the earlier post, I put a coat of fresh paint on the walls.  I love the color (Earl Gray by Olympic), and I'll be posting more pictures of it later.

BEFORE the paint and headboard.  Notice my paint
swatch over on the far left wall.  I love the darker color.

The next step after paint was getting the headboard assembled and installed.  But first things first...Let's start with the materials that are needed for the project.

Materials
--Plywood:  For our king size bed I used a sheet that was cut 48 inches tall by 78 inches wide by a 1/2 inch thick.  Be sure to make the width slightly larger than the width of your mattress to allow for the "fluff" of your bed coverings.  For example, our mattress is actually only 76 inches wide, so I added an extra inch on each side so things will line up evenly when the bed is made.  Oh, and get the plywood cut at the hardware store to your exact dimensions.  So easy and free!  I'll also admit that my headboard is taller than most people would probably like, but I was hoping for a statement...  And I totally got one!  :)

--Two Packages of Batting:  I used quilt batting that was 90 inches by 108 inches and it took two packages to give me the thickness I wanted on the headboard.  You could easily get by with only one, but I wanted my padding a little thicker.

--Staples and A Quality Staple Gun:  This is for attaching the batting and fabric to the plywood.  Be sure you get the right size staples for the job (long enough to get into the 1/2 inch plywood far enough while accommodating the thickness of the fabric and batting).  BUT, you don't want them too long or else you'll  be getting poked in the head when leaning up against the headboard.  AND, I can't stress enough about the quality of the staple gun.  I struggled with ours a bit in getting the staples to go into the board flushly (without using a hammer to finish driving them in).

--3 Yards of Fabric:  I used 3 yards for our king size bed.  This was the perfect amount with a little remaining for future projects.

--Flush Mount Hangers:  I liked the option of hanging our headboard with these best.  I found them at Lowe's and they were perfect for the task and not expensive!  A little challenging to get everything lined up during the install, but easily doable with a little patience!  Please note that we did not use the screws that came with these.  We ended up using longer screws and wall anchors for the wall side of the hangers, and we also used longer screws for the headboard side, too.

Now that we have all the materials listed, let's get down to the details on assembly.  Here's a picture of the "layers" for the headboard so it's easy to see how to begin.  The base layer is obviously plywood, then two layers of batting, then the fabric.

To get started, lay out a sheet of batting on the floor and smooth it out.  Then, staple the piece to the back of the plywood.  You don't have to worry about making the back side of the headboard look perfect....yet.  Just get it attached.  Then, lay out the second piece of batting (if you desire) and attach in the same manner.

Attaching the batting with staples.  This is
a corner shot.  You can see how I folded
things neatly, like a package!

This is after I've attached the first layer of batting, and
I'm getting ready to attach the second.

After I attached the two layers of batting, I trimmed off the excess to make things a bit neater for when I began stapling on the fabric.

Batting is stapled on and cleaned up.  Getting ready to begin
attaching the fabric.

You attach the fabric the same way as the batting.  Just lay out the fabric on the floor so the pattern will be facing out, smooth it so there are no wrinkles, and then attach with staples.

The tricky part here is making sure any patterns on the fabric are straight and lined up the way you want.  Since I was using a large scale pattern, I wanted to be sure the middle of the fabric was lined up with the middle of the headboard and that it was totally straight horizontally, too.  This part took some patience and an extra set of hands.

Once you get your fabric aligned, then you can begin stapling it.  It really is as easy as wrapping a package.  Just fold things neatly on the corners, and if you need, cut away excess fabric.

Stapling the corner of the fabric.  Just take your time
and fold things neatly.  You don't want this to bunch
up since it will affect how flush it hangs on the wall.

We also decided to double over the fabric and staple it.  We noticed that a few single staples seemed to be pulling at the fabric a bit too much, so we doubled it over to add more thickness and hopefully reduce the chances of the fabric ripping.  Also, be sure you don't overstrech the fabric.  It will cause it to pull too much and possibly rip.  That wouldn't be good, but it's easily avoidable.

Doubled over fabric with staples spaced out to provide maximum hold.

AND this is the headboard with the fabric fully installed and ready to hang!!

I'm going to go ahead and apologize right here, folks, but that's it for now!!  I'll be posting a picture of the final product, as well as the details on how we hung it on the wall and a few lessons learned.

Stay tuned!!