Simply {Momma}: DIY Nailhead Trim Headboard

Recently I have been doing a lot of searching for the right headboard for our queen size bed. Well first lets back track, Okay back in 8th grade my parents bought me this really expensive bedroom set that was probably along the lines of being around $5k for everything including- a nightstand, dresser with mirror, headboard-footboard, and an armor. well my bed was a twin size at that time and I obviously have out grown a twin size bed upon having a baby and getting married, so I got a queen size bed a couple years ago and have been going without a headboard for quiet some time now and in all honesty its really annoying me. It looks trashy to me and it just bugs the crap out of me. So I have been on the man hunt for a new headboard and the one that matches my furniture is around $500 just for a queen size, thats a little out of my price range at this moment, and I will eventually hand down my bedroom set to Rylan and baby #2 (when it happens) will get Ry's dresser and what not and we will just get a whole new bed set. anyways on my search for a new one I just had a hard time finding the right one that matched our bedroom set and one that could potentially match anything I bought or brought into our room if I decided to redecorate.

So I came across this DIY Tutorial on Pinterest for a Nailhead Trim Headboard. I followed the Tutorial on this ladies blog and it helped me out a lot, there were a couple of steps I skipped because I thought it just wasn't necessary in my case. So I am going to share with everyone how I did my Nailhead Trim Headboard.

Step one: Go to Lowes and buy a GIANT pieces of plywood.

Step two: Cut the plywood down to size

The plywood was a little too big than what I needed so I had my step-dad use his power saw and cut it down to the size I needed. Since this is for a queen size bed I cut the plywood down to 46' x 65'. leaving a little extra on the sides. I used the excess pieces of wood that were cut off and using those for legs to attach to the headboard.

Step three: Choose the shape of your head board.

I didn't want anything too crazy so I went with something classy. I went with the "Belgrave" shape

In order to get the "Belgrave" look, I took a pencil and tied a piece of string to the pencil. held the end of the string at the corner and drew half a circle. This was really successful for me, I tried using a plate to trace but the plate wasn't big enough so I resulted into using the pencil and string.

Step Four: Cute of your headboard shape

We used a jig-saw for this, it's smaller and is easier to move around those round edges to get the right shape. once one side was cut, Once, I had the cut out portion of one side cut. I took that piece of plywood and used it as my template for the other side. That is so I made sure they both were the same size. When you're done cutting you will want to sand down the edges and sides to make the piece of wood not so rough when placing your quilt batting and fabric.

Step Five; Make the headboard legs

I used the excess pieces we had cut off the sides and used that for the legs. I wanted the bottom of the headboard to sit just above the mattress so I measured the height of the bead and thats how I determined on how long to make my legs. I think they ended up being 26" long. A lot of the headboards (store bought) didn't have legs and were to be mounted on to the wall, But with my headboard being so ridiculously heavy, I just decided to make the legs and bolt it onto the bed. I could just picture the headboard falling on top of us in the middle of the night smashing us to death.

I attached the legs onto the plywood with wood glue and used clamps to squeeze the wood together, I did this for about 24 hours then I screwed wood screws into the wood to give it double the hold up.

Step Six: Position the quilt batting and fabric

A lot of the DIY headboards called for foam, but Im like really? its mainly for looks not to protect my head or anything, so I just doubled up on quilt batting I placed two layers of quilt batting.

You are going to want to lay your quilt batting on a flat, clean surface then place your head board on top of the quilt batting, once the head board was placed on the batting, I just pulled back the batting and stapled the ends to the back of the headboard, once I was done doing this, I cut away any excess batting.

I then did the exact same thing with the fabric as I did with the quilt batting, make sure to measure how much fabric you are going to need before buying it, I think I purchased 2.5 yards of this fabric and paid a total of $35 for it since it was on sale at Hobby Lobby. I pulled the fabric really tight, because if you don't then it will bunch up and look really tacky. And stapled the fabric to the back of the headboard, this is really a two person deal when placing the fabric, because you need one person to pull on it and make the fabric tight and the other to staple. Once I was done stapling the fabric to the back of the headboard I cut the excess fabric off too.

Step Seven: Cut fabric for legs

I used the left over fabric from when cutting the excess off the headboard and just wrapped it around the legs, this part doesn't have to be perfect because it will be on the ground and potentially behind the bed, so don't worry if it doesn't look the greatest.

Step Eight: Apply Nailhead Trim

I have been through hell and back with nailhead trim. I found this off Amazon, I ordered it, It said it was sent to my house....never received it....So I reordered it...Finally received it, Then I emailed then demanding my money back from the first order. STILL HAVE YET to receive my money back, So I reordered it again, then I got told Joann's Fabric had it, went there and got it and sent back the second nail head trim to get my money back AGAIN, STILL HAVE YET to receive it....Needless to say I will be calling Amazon this week throwing a fit.

This nailhead trim is basically like ribbon, its wrapped around just like ribbon, basically you just line it where you want it, (this is a two person task as well) have someone hold it where you want it then in every 5th hole you hammer in a loose nail and you keep doing this until you are done with placing it where you want it. It's really easy to use, a lot of the reviews said it was crappy and that the nails bent when they hammered it into the wood, but in all honesty I didn't have a single problem with it besides it slicing my finger a time or two. so be CAREFUL!!!!