Easiest upholstered headboard tutorial/cheat, promise! ~ Make Do and DIY

So today I'm going to show you the easiest way to re-upholster a headboard. It's so easy that it's basically a cheat, and while it may not be the "proper" way of doing things it most certainly worked and I'm delighted with it! And as one of my fave bloggers over at the nesting place is so fond of saying "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful", and I couldn't agree more. So here we go......

As Max got bigger and needed to move out of the moses basket and into a cot, we decided that the time was right for Emilia to get a big girl bed, freeing up her cot for Max. There was no way we were going to buy a second cot when Em was nearly three and able to climb out of hers anyway, and neither were we going to use the travel cot for Max in his room. It's fine, but it's ugly. So it was time to bite the bullet and buy a single bed.

Now, the minute I knew we were getting her a bed I started thinking about what would be the best option, both style and function wise, and decided on a divan or a wooden framed bed without a headboard, the idea being that I could hang one on the wall behind the best and therefore have it be really easy to update as her room changed.

And the minute I knew I had free reign with the headboard situation I knew I wanted a really luxe, over the top vibrant velvet upholstered headboard. I've always loved the style, and I thought in a kids room it would stop if from being too "little girl" while still being really colourful and fun.

So I kept my eye out, not sure how I was going to go about it, and then one day I was nosing around the LAW charity shop and found the perfect solution....a single headboard in a gorgeous shape and great condition in the exact style I wanted, for three frickin euro!!! The lady in the shop told me they often get them in and have trouble selling them, so it was cheap.

Only problem was the colour. It was an olive green, and while I actually really liked it as it was I had set my heart on something really bright for the room (Em's room is coral pink/white/gold) it had to be changed.

So I went on Ebay and ordered up a metre of beautiful mint green velvet, thinking that it would be a real statement, and then I could bring the colour into the rest of the room with accessories.

The velvet arrived, the colour was perfect, I had all my materials (stapler and fabric!), I was good to go.

And then I made my first mistake...I cut out the shape I would need after laying it over the headboard, not taking into consideration that it would have to be forced down into the button hols, so this wouldn't be enough.

Nightmare!

Noooooooooo!!!!!!

And while this would have been fixable by just pulling the material tight and stretching it, that meant that there was too much strain on the staples in the buttonholes, and it started to rip!

(I had bought dressmaking fabric rather than upholstery/curtain fabric which is much more robust as I couldn't get the colour I wanted in it)

Double nooooooo!!!!!

So it was back to the drawing board, and this time I chose a coral pink velvet (€4.99 a meter in Guineys) as it had turned out I wasn't that happy with the mint green in the room anyway.

This time I was determined to not mess it up!

So I ironed my fabric, even though ironing is one of my very least favourite things to do!

This child better LOVE her room! I only iron on VERY special occasions.

The I dug out my trusty hot glue gun.....

....and laying the fabric over the headboard with plenty of extra over all the edges, I simply started from the middle and glued the material on... I didn't even remove buttons, I told you this was a cheat!

Liquid fire, a.k.a hot glue

To hold the fabric in place while the glue dried (hot glue is approximately as hot as the surface of the sun) I found the inside of a childrens Nurofen syringe was perfect! Happily this was sitting by the sink when I was looking for something to do this job :)

Then I had a toddler inspect my work with a pencil......

Now, if I had thought about it a bit more I would have realised that if I worked up/dpwn/up/down the lines between the buttons would have been much more even, but whatever, I think it's fine :P

I then flipped the whole thing over, trimmed the excess fabric off and then pulled what was left tight before stapling top and bottom in the middle to start with, then worked the whole way around, pulling it tight and smoothing the edges as I went.

And there she is!

It could be smoother, and the lines a bit more even, but I think it's gorgeous anyway! It took around an hour, not counting my first attempt, and I think it's going to really pull Emilia's room together.

It cost €9 total, and if I had just slowed down and actually thought it through before I started the first time I could have saved myself a lot of trouble! This was a project that I had convinced myself was going to be so easy that I was way too confident and ended up sabotaging myself. But now I've told you what not to do so it should be easy peasy for you ;)