5.7.2016
Hello there! I’m excited to share this super easy, DIY tufted twin headboard idea that I just did for Madison’s bedroom. She’s only eight months old and still sleeps in her crib, but we had to do some re-arranging after we moved into a smaller home a few months ago. We decided to keep a twin bed in her room. I needed a headboard and have always liked the tufted look, but didn’t necessarily want to spend much. I must warn you ahead of time that this project does not give you an extremely durable, high quality, finished product. Its more of an I’m-in-the-mood-to-make-something-cute-and-cheap-in-less-than-three-hours-project. I really hope y’all enjoy it as much as I did! It didn’t take long at all and I thought it came out pretty cute for $24.98! I got all of the materials from Wal-Mart.
Here is what you will need to make a twin sized headboard:
1 large piece of cardboard
1 large bag of poly-fil
1 large needle
2 yards of fabric
1 spool of coordinating thread
1 spool of fishing line (optional)
Duct Tape
9 buttons
Glue gun & glue sticks
2-3 nails (for hanging)
I had to order a ton of priority boxes for our EBay Store, so I just used the large box that they all came in to make the headboard. Honestly I am the biggest jerry-rigger you will ever meet when it comes to crafts. I just eyeball everything and glue it all together and ta-da! Perfection. Don’t worry, I don’t sell anything handmade.
After I cut the cardboard into the size I wanted, I covered it up with the poly-fil. I doubled the poly-fil so it would be a little thicker. You could do a few more layers if you wanted to buy another bag and make the headboard thicker. Then I just smoothed out the poly-fil as much as possible, and hot glued it down on the back side. Then I taped it down really good. Once you tuft the headboard, the thread really keeps it all together just fine.
Next I folded the fabric so it was doubled, and covered the front of the headboard and hot-glued and taped the back side, like so:
Remember, no one will see this part. Just do what you gotta do! 😉
The fabric I chose is really soft and thin. I really love how the turquoise contrasts with all of the coral in Madison’s room. It looks great with her floral-watercolor comforter too. In case you were wondering, we got the comforter from Target.
After I finished securing the fabric, I mapped out where I wanted each button by placing a little dot on the fabric. Then I started the tufting. This step takes the most time and is pretty tedious. First, I quadrupled the thread, (if you are using really thick cardboard you may want to try to use fishing line instead.) You want to make sure that your final piece of thread is really long, about 36 inches will do. Then I tied the end onto the needle and poked the needle through the button and then pushed it through the headboard from the front to the back, leaving a large tail of thread on the front side of the headboard. I then cut the thread off the needle, and tied the tail of the thread from the front side, onto the needle. After that, I stuck the needle through the other hole in the button and pushed the needle through to the back of the headboard and tied both ends together as tight as I could. I used the same process for all nine buttons. You want to make sure you are leaving the thread somewhat long on the back, (specifically the top row of buttons,) so that you can use it to hang the headboard at the end.
Once you are all through tufting, all you have to do is hang it! I just used two nails.
First, I tied the thread that was behind the top right and the top left button into a loop by tying the two ends of the thread together. Once I figured out about how high I wanted the headboard to be, I held the headboard up, and made a little mark on the wall behind the top right and top left buttons and put the nails in the wall. If the nails don’t happen to hit a stud, you could always try monkey hooks. It is seriously amazing how much weight they can hold! Then I slipped the two loops onto the nails and it hung just fine. It is holding up great!
Have you ever attempted “tufting”? Are ya scurrred!? Overall, I am really happy with how well this turned out. I really hope you enjoyed hearing about my little DIY project!
That’s a great idea and what a quick, inexpensive idea for a little one’s room. I love those colors together, too!
I really enjoyed this project. So easy and super cute. Coral and turquoise is one of my favorite color combos :). Thank you so much for stopping by, Wendy!