Build Plans | DIY | Furniture
DIY Project: A ‘Reclaimed’ Wood Heaboard
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| Our new ‘reclaimed’ wood headboard |
A proper, grown up bed in less than 24 hours! I’ve always wanted a headboard, one of those really rustic ones, but for my whole adult life I’ve never had one. Not even a crappy one. I haven’t had a nice headboard during my years of uni, rental apartments and early married life! That was when I told Luke I wanted to make our own headboard. I really wanted to use reclaimed barn wood, but we couldn’t find any. So here is what we came up with.
I was inspired by these headboards I found on Pinterest and we made a hybrid of them:
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| From AKA Design |
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| From Design Sponge |
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| From: Sugar & Charm |
I love the look of the reclaimed wood, but we followed AKA Designs advice and got some pine from Home Depot. They hung their’s on the wall, but we opted to bolt our’s to the bed just in case we wanted to move the room around, like the second headboard.
Here is what you need (this posts contains some affiliate links):
– Wood. We used pine from Home Depot 1″x6″x6′ (Luke cut this down to 5 ft. to coincide with the size we wanted) We used 7 pieces ($7.12 ea). 3 lengths of 1″x4″x6′ for the back to act as legs and a brace ($4.87 ea).
– Carriage Bolts (5/16th) with washers and nuts x 14 ($1.08 ea set) (we used these because we liked the look, but you can use screws or other bolts that are cheaper)
– Hex Bolts (5/16th) with two washers and nuts x 4 ($0.55 ea set) to attach to bedframe.
– Sandpaper (already had)
– Old rag or t-shirt (already had)
– Minwax Stain in Special Walnut (you can choose which stain you like the best) Small can which cost $4.58, but only used half.
Total Cost: $89.02 (not including tax)
Tools:
– Circular Saw or table saw (preferable)
– Drill
– Square to make sure the headboard is square and not wonky
Step 1: Measure and cut the wood to desired length. Home Depot can do this for you, but we decided to do our own. It actually was good, because the cuts were a few millimeters different and gave the wood a more reclaimed look.
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| Daddy’s little helper |
Step 2: Make sure everything is square and mark spots to drill holes for the bolts:
Step 3: Drill pilot holes and then 5/16 holes:
Step 4: Put the carriage bolts in:
Step 5: Cut and screw on brace making sure the whole thing is still square. The headboard will still move until the brace is attached. Sand the wood very well. Don’t want to get splinters from your head board!
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| view of back with brace (make sure your screws aren’t too long) |
Step 6: Measure exactly where you want the bottom of the headboard in your room and then cut the legs and drill holes to correspond to the location of the holes in the bedframe.
Step 7: Stain the wood. We used one coat of Minwax Special Walnut. You can use more if you want a deeper color or you can use a different stain. I didn’t use gloves but would recommend them when applying the stain.
The stain went on nice and easy. I loved how it brought out the knots and imperfections in the wood. Make sure it is completely dry before bringing it into your bedroom.
Step 8: Attach to the bed frame with bolts, insert the bolts from headboard side to prevent damage to wall trim. We also attached felt pads to the bolts to prevent wall damage:
And voila! A cheap and cheerful head board por moi!
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| Starfish garland is optional 🙂 |
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LOVE the new room!!! BTW- made your meatballs last night with help from the kids. Such a fun family project and EVERYONE liked them, especially Sophia. Thanks for the posting and keeping me motivated to do fun family projects amiss the hussle and bustle of life 🙂
I love how Conor helps Luke out, he’s going to be just as handy as daddy when he’s older!!
Thanks, Liz and Beth! Glad you guys like it. We are so happy with it and it was very easy to do.
its beautiful <3
Thanks, Brooke!
Love this! I am a hug fan of these headboards and yours looks so gorgeous! Great job! {I also want those linen pillow cases from Ikea!}
Thanks, Becca! The pillows from Ikea have worked great. You should get some.
Your headboard looks awesome! I would love to do a full wall of reclaimed wood in my master bedroom…just wondering how to convince the hubby to tackle my project,
A full wall of reclaimed wood sounds beautiful! I love the look and texture.
Hi Danielle, stopping by from Tip Junkie’s Tip Me Tuesday, your headboard looks great, I think it was worth it to wait! I love rustic and I’d love to have one like yours but I’m afraid it goes beyond my skills! maybe someday…
I’m your newest follower!
It would be great if you could stop by my blog.
http://www.handmadebyizz.blogspot.com/
Greetings from Spain
That is just so darn cool! I’d love to make one of these. I’d love to have you link this up to Project Pinterest on Thursday!
Sarah:)
http://randomthoughtsfromamomsperspective.blogspot.com
Beautiful!! I’m going to “pin” it to show it to my husband to inspire him! 🙂
Leanne @ Because (I think) I Can
Hi Is, your blog has such great tips. Sarah, I’ll link up today 🙂 Leanne, so glad you like it. Looks harder than it is.
Thanks so much for linking up to Project Pinterest! Love it even more the second time looking at it. I’m now following your blog.
Sarah:)
Thanks, Sarah. I really love getting into bed each night. So happy how it came out.
Looks great…I love the simplicity 🙂
This is so beautiful! I want the headboard and the garland :)~
Visiting from TT&J
Rhonda @ home.made.
So gorgeous!! A big pat on both your backs!! It looks fantastic!
I’m so happy for you having a headboard now after a long wait! They’re pretty good aren’t they?!
Ours is our old shed’s timber door that we turned sideways and drilled to the wall after I painted it gloss black. That was 5 years ago and now I so wanna strip it back!!
Thanks for the lovely comments!
Danielle! This is fantastic! I love how you added the string of seastars; they totally pop against the dark stain. Nice to see that everyone joined in on the fun. Beautiful!
This looks so amazing Danielle! I love it! The carriage bolts are the perfect industrial detail!
xo,Becca
Loving your headboard! It’s so clean and has a ton of character. I have been wanting to do something like this in our room. Thanks for the inspirations!
Mandy @ The Hankful House
I love your headboard!! I made mine from pallets!!
Thank you! I just stopped by your blog and your pallet heaboard looks wonderful. x
What size headboard did make? Want to make one for my sons full size bed. Thanks!
Angie, we did this for a queen size bed, but you could modify for a double. Hope that helps!