Once the snow melted, about mid May for us, I decided I needed to finish this crazy DIY project that was hanging over my head, literally. I inherited this great solid wood door when my parents replaced the door to their shed. I knew I wanted to turn it into a headboard, but it was in rough shape. We started by scraping off all the loose paint, if you do this at home be sure to wear a mask in case you are dealing with lead paint.
Step two was cutting off the bottom of the door. It was about 4 inches longer than the rest of the frame, and once it was cut, it would be the perfect size for a king-sized bed. Keep in mind for a headboard you want about 2-4 inches larger than your actual mattress, a lot of it comes down to personal preference- but once your bedding is on you don't want the headboard to look like it shrunk. I ended up making mine 2" wider than the mattress.
Once the door was cut down to the proper size John left me alone to do the rest by myself. Apparently no one thought I could use the circular saw unsupervised... #blondegirlproblems. I went to town filling the cracks and dents with wood filler. When it was dry I sanded it down with an electric circular sander. (Way too much work for a plain sanding block.) And then I refilled any holes that persisted, and repeated sanding.
Because I was dealing with raw wood I went ahead and used KILZ latex primer. I painted it on with a foam brush. But for efficiency's sake, and because I am the most impatient DIYer ever, I sprayed on the second coat of primer, which, saved me about an hour of work time and an hour of drying time. I painted it with Benjamin Moore's Misted Green, it took two coats to cover the head board and the legs.
Once everything had cured I screwed on the legs with metal plates. (On the back I put 2 screws in the leg and 2 screws on the headboard) On the front I put one screw into the headboard, and 3 in the leg.
I made mine with 3 legs so the middle was well supported, and I made the legs 3" higher than the top of my mattress. I have 12' ceilings, so I had to make up for that with a tall headboard- but you can only tell that the headboard rises above the mattress when the pillows and bedding are removed. If you don't have any antique doors laying around, I'm sure with some careful mitering you could also make this style of headboard with a sheet of plywood and some 2x4s!
If you like the fern botanicals above my headboard you can print them here. Have you tried to make your own headboards? I'd love to see.
5 comments:
I LOVE your bedroom...the color on the wall, the bedding, the frames....everything!!!
Thank you for sharing your headboard...I've been collecting ideas for several months but we still haven't decided what to do.
I Love your blog too. I'm your newest follower. Looking forward to spending some time looking around your lovely site.
Gorgeous!!
I love it! I just picked up a free door on Craigslist and am going to turn it into a headboard! How did you secure it? I was planning on bracing my door to the low backboard of my ikea bed frame with a few 2x4s behind it, but I'm not sure my bed would hold the heavy door. The way you did it looks like a better option. Did you secure it to the wall or the bed frame at all?
Love the throw pillows! Where did you find them?
To answer your questions, I did not secure the headboard to the frame or the wall, it is sandwiched between the frame and the wall and felt really sturdy. I sewed all of the pillows from fabric remnants I had leftover from other projects. I did purchase the geometric pattern especially for this room. It's a Liz Claiborne Home fabric.
Post a Comment