Wooden Headboard for Dorm Beds

I decided to make a wooden headboard for the third hackathon at Berry College that I competed in. I wanted to have something my add some pizzazz to my boring college bed. I figured it would be an easy project to complete in a 4 hour time span.

In order to build this headboard you need:

- Any kind of scrap wood that is large enough to fit the bed you are using the headboard with

- Wood strainer

-Paint Brush

-Wood Glue

- Band Saw (I also used a larger saw to cut the large piece I used into various pieces.)

-Pencil

-Ruler (Meter stick may be better, but ruler will suffice.)

I started out by measuring the large pieces of wood that I needed to cut to fit my bed. My tiny college bed is approximately 96 cm in width and I decided to make the headboard about 90 cm in height which ended up working out great.( I took the measurements prior to the event.)

Next, I used a large saw with the assistance of a professor to cut the large pieces of wood to the desired sizes. I decided to make 5 panels and to connect them to make one headboard. I cut the five pieces to be each about 12.7 cm in height and about 96 cm in width as mentioned before.

Then I cut two smaller panels to holster the larger panels on. These were about 70-80 cm in height and 12.7 cm in width.

Not going to lie, this was a rather tedious process because for part of the staining I did not have gloves. The other half of the process I used plastic bags on my already dark brown hands. I must say if you are looking for a good fast self tanner-- wood stain may be the way to go. Regardless, I stained all the panels with a dark cherry color because that was the look I was trying to achieve, but other colors would look just as great. (I also learned how to get wood stain off my hands fast-- WD-40 solved the problem pretty fast as it is an oil and broke up the stain... would not recommend as it was a quick fix while I was trying to work in a short time frame. Not my best moment..)

After waiting plenty of time for the stain to dry on the wood panels, I grabbed some wood glue and proceeded to put the headboard together. I was careful to make sure it was even and lined up.

I put down the two smaller pieces first because those were used to keep all the panels together.

Next, I lined up the panels on top of the two back pieces and then used some wood glue to holster them onto the two back pieces.

Finally, I had my completed headboard. The first picture is how it turned out. I decided to add some lights and I think that it looks pretty nice.

I would say this is a completed project, but if I could change anything, I may make the added lights a permanent addition to the headboard and also add a way to hang it, since currently because of circumstances and the fact that I am in college, I am using tape and some 3M command strips.