Thrift Store Headboard Makeover

My first problem. My daughter needed to take her bed from home and move it to her apartment. That leaves me with one double mattress with no headboard, no frame and no box spring.

that stinks........

So now I'm faced with buying a box spring and a frame. Not relishing the thoughts of traveling around to buy a box spring (and they never let you buy that separately) , trying to cram it into my Mustang (yeah, right) and spending money that I don't have, I started searching around on the Internet for some alternatives. I found this new type of box spring and boy it is cool. It's fairly inexpensive, is a box spring and frame in one, gives you space underneath the bed, ships easily to your home and goes together fast. Take a look here. It's called Better Than A Box spring. I put together, tried it out and guess what? It's comfortable. So this saved me.

Now I just needed a headboard. Originally I was going to make my own using plywood and 2X4's, but I happened to find exactly what I wanted at the local thrift store for $9.00.

Below is the headboard I purchased. It's perfect for what I have in mind. Only problem is-this is a queen size and I need a double. Ok, so no big deal. I'm going to cut down the middle and remove enough wood to bring it down to size. I'm choosing the middle so I don't make any
mistakes that will screw up my sides. I don't want to have to remove the side polls and mess with it so cutting in the middle seems less complicated.

Below, I've cut down the middle and removed enough wood to bring it down to size. I'm going to glue it together and fasten straight brackets to it. This should hold it together just fine.

To the right, the headboard is glued and brackets are installed. I'll let the glue dry and then start to prime my side polls. My plan is to paint the polls dark brown.

Primed.

Below the polls are painted dark brown. My plan now is to cover the headboard with cotton batting, using spray adhesive to keep it in place. I purchased a few yards of microfiber fabric to cover and enough decorative brass upholstery nails to nail around the perimeter of the headboard once it's covered with fabric.

The most difficult part of the entire project was nailing the upholstery tacks in straight, even and spaced out correctly. For this I made a small template with cardboard. They still didn't go in exactly straight, but good enough. I used a disappearing marker (found at Joann's Fabric store) to draw a line that I could use as a guide to hammer in the tacks.

To the right here, you can see how they look. I've found plenty of uses for these tacks. They have a nice look to them. Available in black, antique brass and shiny, bright brass. For this project I used the antique brass. I purchased them in Home Depot.

I wrapped the fabric around the headboard carefully and used staples to attach it to the back. The cotton padding added some dimension and the tacks added some design.

I've finally finished this up and placed it behind the bed. I like the way it came out, but better than that is the price.

$9.00 for the headboard

$12.00 for the tacks

$9.00 for the fabric

$6.00 for the cotton batting

The paint and primer I had at home.

The comforter set was purchases on the Internet at overstock.com because the price was very reasonable.

Another thrift store find turned into something worthwhile.

Christy

01 02 03

04 05 06

07 08 11 12