DIY Tufted Headboard Tutorial

So yesterday I posted some of the headboards my husband and I have made. I wanted to show you guys how he did it. These pictures are from the first one we ever made, and honestly, this headboard is my least favorite of them all. Nevertheless, here is how we did it:

Materials You'll Need
1. Depending on the size of the headboard, you'll need to find 2.5-3.5yards of upholstery fabric of your choice
2. 2.5-3.5 yards of batting
3. A large piece of wood (usually about 65x37 for a full/queen)
4. 2 inch foam
5. Upholstery buttons
6. Thin upholstery twine for the tufting
7. Spray adhesive to keep the foam/batting to the wood
8. Upholstery needle
9. Sharpie
You'll also need a jigsaw or a circular saw (if you're making one without any curves), but hopefully you already have that!
- The total cost of the materials is about $100 (sometimes less if you JoAnn's is having a sale)
 

Step 1: Cut the shape of the headboard you'd like. A great way to use a template is to trace or freehand the shape onto wrapping paper while it's folded. Cut it and open it up and then trace this shape onto the wood using a sharpie.

Step 2: Use a jigsaw to cut the shape

Step 3: On the back of the headboard, decide where you would like your buttons. This will involve a lot of measuring! Be sure to make a nice mark where you need to drill the holes for the buttons.  Only drill through the wood, not the foam and batting. (This picture shows the foam and batting already on the headboard... you'll do that after you drill the holes)

Step 4: Once you have your shape cut out, now you'll need to add the foam and batting to the wood. The thicker the foam, the more tufted it will look. This is when you need the spray adhesive to keep everything in place. When you have it all in place, use a staple gun to secure everything to the back.

Step 5: Now you can add your fabric to the headboard, basically in the same way you did the batting. The best idea way to do this is to only staple the top in place and one staple in the bottom (just to keep the fabric tight for the tufting). You don't want to staple all of the sides before you do the tufting because that will create wrinkles, or it will be too tight to create the tufted look.  Put the needle through the back hole in the headboard and pull the thread (or twine) through to the front. Attach your button to the front and thread the needle through to the same hole to the back again.  It's best if you can have someone help you with this part because one person will need to knot the thread/twine on the back while the other one is pushing on the button from the front. This will help create the really puffy looking tufting.

Step 6: Enjoy your finished headboard! Sometimes we like to put a black fabric on the back to cover up all of the sharpie marks, but it really doesn't matter. You can attach the headboard to the wall using a french cleat.