Upholstered Headboard

I'm moving in a few months and have realised how expensive furniture is, take for example, a headboard. A nice upholstered headboard can cost hundreds of pounds, even thousands for high-end handcrafted ones. I managed to make mine for £6.49, although, to be fair, I did have most of the materials already.

Materials

Backboard

I used 1500x820mm OSB, as I had some on-hand. MDF or plywood would probably work better though.

Upholstery Foam

I had some packaging from a friends bed frame that worked perfectly for this. Two layers were about 50mm thick, and was about 20mm bigger than the backboard, 1540x860mm.

Fabric

My mum had a bolt of calico that I used for this, I would have preferred to use some heavier and more textured fabric , but the calico was free so I can't complain!

Self Cover Buttons

I went for 19mm buttons from Amazon, you could go for larger if you wanted, but I like the size of the 19mm.

Thread

I used some twine I had, but any thinish string/thread will do, just make sure it's fairly strong.

Tools

Upholstery Needle

I started by using a plastic one that my mum had, but that broke fairly quickly, so I ended up making one out of some 4mm steel rod, but it's probably best to buy one like this one.

Staple Gun

An ordinary stapler will work, provided that it opens open and can staple flat, but a staple gun will make things much easier. A pneumatic or electric one will make it even easier!

Drill + Drill Bits

A countersink bit is also really helpful, or a larger drill bit also works.

Meter Ruler/Set Square

A set square is the best, followed by a meter ruler, but anything long and straight would work.

The main theme of my research was planning. I used Adobe Illustrator to make my layout, but a pen and paper works too. I wanted an even spacing around the edge, 150mm in this case, and then I used the Transform tool to make copies, 206.5mm apart horizontally. This the spacing required to get 7 buttons on evenly spaced apart.

For the next row, I need 6 buttons to create the diamond effect, and the first one had to be half way between the first two on the top row, just 131.25mm further down. 131.25mm is the spacing required for 5 rows. This is then repeated until we have 5 rows.

I also made a document that has all the measurements from the top corner calculated, to save time and to reduce the chances of me making mistakes.

I have attached the files, be aware that they are to scale, so if you want to print them, make sure to scale them to A4!

Having cut the sheet down to size it's time to transfer the grid. Using a tape measures I marked each increment on the horizontal and then, used a set square I continued the line them up, I then did the same on the vertical side. Using a marker, I circled the holes than needed to be drilled. If you don't have a set square, or don't have one long enough, you can mark the top and on the bottom and use a ruler, or anything long and straight, to connect the two marks.

I then used a 5mm drill bit and drilled all of the marked holes, and then used countersink bit to remove some of the splintering, from both sides. The countersink was actually really helpful when using the upholstery needle so I'm glad I did this.

To make the buttons (33 to be exact) you'll need to cut of the fabric into circles, 30mm circles for 19mm buttons. Then using the tool provided, place the fabric circle into the button shell, then place the button's back over that, making sure none of the fabrics edge is out, and then squeeze firmly or lightly tap with a hammer.

This can be a little tedious but take you time and make sure they all look good.

My fabric was about 1500mm wide and I cut it to about 2500mm wide, this is definitely over kill, and I would've gotten away with cutting it 2000mm wide, but I really didn't want to come up short!

As for the foam, I cut this 20mm, or so, bigger than the backboard, so about 1540x860mm. Due to the thickness of my foam, I had to double it up, to make it about 5mm thick. If I had some foam safe glue then I would have stuck the two pieces together, and then stuck the two of them to the backboard. It worked out fine without, but I just had to be careful not to move and misalign the foam.

I then used a long nail, although the upholstery needle work have worked just as well, to transfer to holes from the backboard to the foam. I then used a marker to mark the locations; be careful doing this if you're using light/thin fabric as the marker might show through.

Finally I layed out the fabric over the foam and backboard, making sure there was an even amount of excess on all sides, and there there were no wrinkles.

Apologies for the lack of pictures, I got too carried away!

This is where it all starts to come together. The process is quite simple, but definitely takes some time.

Start by cutting about 30cm of thread and put one end through the loop on the back of a button, then take both ends and pass then through the eye of the needle. Staring on one side of the board, pass the needle all the way through the middle hole, once through, remove thread from the needle, pull the thread tight and then staple it to the back of the board.

This is basically the same for all the holes, I moved from the center out, then onto the next row. The main thing is to make sure the thread is pulled to the same tension, and the fabric is at the same tension before the needle is inserted.

To do the edges, pull the fabric directly underneath the button tight, making sure there is a fold the starts at the button, and then wraps around the side, and then staple this to the back. I found that I needed to pull the fabric tighter than I though I should, but this does give the correct look. I continued this on all four sides, leaving the corners for the end.

As for the corners, I first cut most of the excess fabric away, then folded the fabric over, and then stapled it into place.