Learn the easiest way to make a DIY Diamond Tufted Headboard for under $50! This is by far the most detailed and easy-follow tutorial.

Channel Tufted Headboards scream luxury and comfort! Follow my easy tutorial for making your own DIY channel tufted headboard. So gorgeous & customizable.

The easiest how-to guide on how to create diamond tufted headboards and cushions for benches. This easy to follow step by step tufting hack will have people thinking you bought a professionally tufted furniture.

Is your bedroom over-due for a refresh? We're seeing channel-tufted headboards everywhere. Designer Brady Tolbert and DIY blogger Jessica McGurn break down how to make a headboard of your own. Check out their step-by-step guide here.

I've known for a long time (4 years or so...I'm really good at procrastination) that I wanted to DIY a headboard!! I prefer my bedroom to be dark, elegant and sophisticated, and I've been terrified that it would look cheap. Goal #1: Don't look cheap. Recently, my interest was sparked again, so I started brainstorming ideas. Being the control freak that I am, I planned at least a dozen different headboards. For anyone planning to make one, these are all thing to consider: Upholstered or not? If yes, tufted or not? If yes, square or diamond patterned? Also, how crowded? If yes, what upholstery fabric? If no, then what?! Will a hard surface be exposed? Wood? Stained? Painted? Studs? Shape Squared off Rounded Alexander? Finsbury? Portman? Eccleston? AHHHHHH....look here. Mount to wall? Or to bed frame... How tall from the top of the mattress? I must have looked at a thousand different headboard pictures. I'm not exaggerating even a little bit. Eventually, I found this headboard, which I considered to be nearly perfect. I can't find the source for this. So so so sorry. Blogging faux-pas #1. Most likely houzz.com I loved the square tufting and detailed trim work, but knew my budget required cheap trim. As far as the design element, I chose (1) upholstered, tufted, in a loose square pattern, (2) with wide, gloss black trim, (3) not studded, (4) squared off, (5) mounted to wall, and (6) tall!!! A great deal of my design decision came from ease...I wanted the hardware store to be able to do most of the cuts! I have a jigsaw, but hoped not to use it. Unfortunately, that was not the case. My apartment kitchen turned into a workshop and I made a big, big mess. The last consideration was time. I knew I needed to get this done in a weekend or it would take months to complete. I had no desire to spend an entire weekend making this, but luckily I had a four-day weekend for Independence Day!! Most of my family and friends were out of town, so this was the perfect time to take on a project. I have a queen sized bed, which measures 60" across. I decided my headboard would be 62.5" x 36.5"...though I wish I had been kinder to myself on those measurements. 2-4" wider than the mattress should be sufficient!! Materials used: 1/4" plywood, cut to 55.5" x 29.5" 1x4x8, cut to 62.5" (x2) and 29.5" (x2) >>> do yourself a favor and buy the pre-finished/sanded trim work. It's worth the price hike!! Wood filler (I like Elmer's because it dries quickly) Sandpaper/sander (I use a Black & Decker Mouse Sander), 180 grit sandpaper Wood glue (Again, Elmer's) Cordless screw driver, screw heads and drill bits Black gloss paint >>> I typically prefer Rust-O-Leum, but didn't want to have to deal with the Oil-based paint clean up. I went Valspar this time. Paint brushes and clean up Upholstery grade staple gun and staples (1/4" so they don't poke through the plywood!!) 1/2" foam, +12 inches wider than your headboard Batting, +12" wider than your headboard Scissors/Utility knife Spray adhesive Button kit (I used 15 buttons, which was 1 cover button kit and 2 cover button refills) Fabric (+12 inches wider than your headboard, extra to make buttons) ** Scotchgard Heavy duty sewing needle Washers (same number as buttons) Flush wall-mount brackets + hardware Drywall Anchors to fit wall-mount bracket hardware 4 large L-Brackets 8 straight brackets Level (24-36") Time!! (2 days, minimum) **The best advice I got came from one of my favorite bloggers, Make It Love It. She recommended using a curtain panel for the fabric!! I would not have been able to afford the fabric I wanted from a website in silk, and would have questioned how it would look, but the curtain panel (polyester, but who cares) was perfect!! (On sale for $17 at Target) Frame: The first thing I did was layout, connect, and fill the frame. I decided not to go with a mitered edge (diagonal) because I didn't want to screw up the measurement or have a crooked rectangle. There were only a couple of fill spots on the front of the trim, but I did need to fill the ends. Sand away the filler once it has dried (I'm impatient, 30 minutes was good). Since I wanted all of my edges to be clean, I first glued the trim ends together, then attached an L-Bracket to each corner. This didn't seem sturdy enough, so I added an additional straight bracket to support. Once that is done (3 hours later, ugh), I painted the frame with two coats of gloss black. I let it dry overnight!! Upholstered Insert: For the upholstered plywood insert, I measured out my button positions first. I started with my center button and worked my way out, 10" apart on all side. Using a 1/8" drill bit, I predrilled the plywood. FYI: Don't drill through the carpet. Since I was working on already damaged carpet, I placed trash bags underneath the board and applied spray adhesive to the plywood. Be generous. This required proper ventilated, so I opened the patio door (see dog). Then, press down the foam until it is secure. Cut away the excess foam. Then (I did not wait between layers to let the adhesive dry since it seemed to have a firm hold), spray the foam, place the batting overtop, and press down on the batting until it is secure. Leaving at least 6" of batting on all sides of the plywood will allow you to wrap it around the board. Staple the batting a few times to the underside of the plywood. This doesn't need to be pretty, you'll clean it up later. Your fabric/curtain panel, at this point, should be cleaned, dried, and ironed (don't leave that out). I placed the wrong-side-up curtain, then the liner to hide all of the green foam, since I had it. Flip the board so the layers are in the correct order (curtain, liner, batting, foam, plywood). I found it easiest to start stapling the batting/curtain pane at my four centers. Staple the batting, liner, and curtain to the plywood so it is taught. I stapled at least every inch (you cannot staple too much), about 3 inches from the edge of the plywood. I then removed the batting staples from Round One and trimmed back the batting. Make sure your corners are pretty so they don't pucker!! This would be a good time to Scotchgard the fabric, since your doors/windows are already open. Let the Scotchgard dry before continuing. Buttons & Tufting: To make your buttons, follow the button kit instructions!! This was fun. I basically layered the button bottom from the kit, button top from the kit, a small circle of batting, and a 2" diameter circle of fabric. Threading the finished buttons through the curtain, batting, foam and plywood was the worst part of the project. The thread kept tearing up my hands and was very difficult to find the center of the buttonand re-thread every time. I first threaded the needle through all layers three times so it was secure, then knotted the thread through a washer, another helpful tip from Make It Love It. Sorry, no pictures of the back, but there are some on Ashley's site! I found it helpful for me to strategically pull and staple the washers for the buttons that were not as tight as the others. If you are a control-freak like me, this kept them uniform and was crucial. Normal people, you can skip that step. Assembly: To connect the frame and the insert, I used the remaining four straight brackets and centered them. Keep in mind, you CANNOT drill through foam/batting. Either buy your straight brackets long enough to avoid this, or be prepared to re-staple and re-cut your fabric/foam/batting layers. Isn't it pretty all put together?! One more final touch that I found helpful was to staple poster board painted the same color as your trim along the back seams between the trim and the upholstered insert. I didn't want my wall color to bleed through at all, and in would have in the corners. Mount: The final step was preparing to mount the headboard. I measured 0.5" in and down from the frame so I would know exactly where to position the wall side, then screwed in the frame side wall-mount brackets. Once that was done, I measured, leveled, re-measured, re-leveled, re-re-measured, re-re-leveled (measure thrice, drill once hopefully), predrilled, anchored and attached the opposite bracket to the wall side. If you've measured and leveled correctly, the headboard will drop flush to the wall and you can stand back and enjoy your hard work! I've got to say, this is the best resulting DIY project I've ever done. My room looks so much more grown-up and put together, and I'm completely satisfied with the results!!!

DIY Modern Tufted Headboard tutorial | www.classyclutter.net

Here's how to DIY a statement-making velvet channel tufted headboard! It's super impressive but equally easy! Check it out here!

Learn the easiest way to make a DIY Diamond Tufted Headboard for under $50! This is by far the most detailed and easy-follow tutorial.

I will show you how to make an easy DIY tufted headboard. Have you ever wondered how to make those deep, diamond tufted headboards? Look no further!

Learn how to make a cheap & easy DIY upholstered headboard with tufting, using simple materials you have at home. No powertools and no sewing needed.

Made from Linen and decorated with covered buttons, used for the button-tufting, the simple headboard rests on the bedstead or mattress. Sew Tutorial

Get your craft on with these easy-to-execute tutorials on Home Made by Carmona! Make cute decorative items for your home, or learn to build diy projects!

I've been talking about making an upholstered headboard since 2006. I used to lust after the ones in Urban Outfitters catalogs, but was always too cheap to spend $350 + shipping on one of their headboards, which frankly look pretty cheap. If I was going to have a cheap-looking headboard, I would make it myself, dammit! I've read so many DIY upholstered headboard tutorials that I felt really confident going into this project. I relied most heavily on Jenny's AMAZING tutorial at Little Green Notebook and Carrie's at Brick City Love. Jenny has a way of making everything look easy. Here is what I learned: while I don't doubt it was pretty easy for her, it was NOT easy for me. I want to give the most honest, but helpful tutorial I can, so bear with me because it might be on the long side. I'm going to walk you through the steps I took. At the bottom, however, I'm going to put a full shopping list and the steps I would take if I did it again, so you are welcome to skip ahead. Day 1: Button Making and Pegboard Prepping On Saturday, I sat down with several of Dritz's cover button kits and a strip of my Robert Allen linen. I bought enough to have 36 buttons, but I only used 33 buttons. Every tutorial I've ever read has made this seem like a breezy endeavor, but I will tell you right now that making fabric-covered buttons this small with this kit sucked. If you can suggest a better kit, please do. Basically, you use a circle pattern that's printed on the back of the package to cut out circles of fabric. You then center the circles over the white rubber piece, stick a button top into the center of the fabric, push into the white part and then tuck the fabric into the back of the button. Place the button back over the fabric, and using the blue button, push it down until the back wedges under the button top, thus creating the button. Ultimately, I had to use a hammer...my wimpy fingers just couldn't apply enough pressure to get the buttons to stay together. It was agonizing and some of the buttons looked truly horrible, but I didn't care. Et voila! A finished button. I do not exaggerate when I say I made buttons from noon to about 9 p.m., taking small breaks so my fingers didn't fall off. This leads me to my first big piece of advice: you can do this alone, but if you can recruit a friend to help you with this, DO IT. Buy them a pizza, I don't care. You just really need a helping hand, and Sean had to work all weekend so I was all by my lonesome and feeling cocky. Per Jenny's advice, we used pegboard that we purchased from Home Depot. It was 5 feet across and 3 feet wide...we wanted 4 feet, but couldn't fit it in our little Saturn. You can only fit this in your car if your backseats fold down. I played around with several button layouts, but settled on five rows of buttons, alternating between seven buttons and six buttons. I separated the buttons by counting seven dots in the pegboard between each horizontally, and four dots vertically. You can always do more or less. When I was happy with the layout, I used a white pencil to circle where each button would go. Here is where I must tell you my second piece of advice: If your pegboard is white on one side and "raw" on the other side, for the love of god, put the fabric on top of the white side. This is the single biggest mistake we made; we had the white side as the back and its veneer made stapling impossible. I laid the pegboard on top of a 5 foot wide piece of 3-inch foam I bought at Joann's with a 40 percent off coupon. I stuck a Sharpie in each of my pre-marked circles so I could see where my buttons will go on the foam. Once that was done, I sprayed the foam with spray adhesive and stuck it to the pegboard (REMEMBER, white side inside, raw side outside). Using a paring knife, I cut a rough circle around each dot. This is where you'll push the button down, which helps coax the fabric into diamond tufts. If I did it again, I might even cut it more into an "x" shape. The whole foam strip will look like this. I don't have sawhorse legs, but balancing the pieces on two chairs worked just fine. I covered the foam with twin mattress-size hi-loft batting that I trimmed to fit, then placed my linen on top. Another tip: Make absolutely sure the fabric is centered...obviously. Mine was, at the beginning. By the end of the adventure...not so much. This is where I admit that I basically wing it when it comes to tying knots. I'm sure there are incredible sailor's knots or some such that I should be using, but here's what I did: I took three strands of upholstery thread and tied them in your basic knot around the button hole. I let the strands fall free from there. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to get an amazingly huge upholstery needle...this one was 10 inches long. I pushed the fabric into the holes in the foam and, starting from the middle of the first row, I stuck the needle through and then pulled until the thread strands were in the back and I could pull the button taut. I stapled the thread to the back, yanking in different directions to keep it taut. That method worked exactly once. It became progressively more and more impossible until I had a pile of bent staples that was truly shameful. Seriously. Sean and I convinced ourselves the answer to our prayers would be an electric stapler, which we bought with a gift card from Lowe's. It was not the answer to our prayers. It will be returned. Another tip: Your fingers will be throbbing and your hand muscles will be so sore from stapling. Split this project over two days, or even three, just to keep yourself from weeping. Day 2: Tufting and Stapling, Rinse, Repeat So, at some point, I had no patience left and decided to go ahead and get all the buttons into place so that when Sean returned, I would be ready to go and he could help with the stapling. I personally wouldn't recommend this, simply because it makes it hard to keep the folds neat and tidy. And then this mess happened. Are you kidding me, universe? Luckily, I had some fabric glue on hand and it was surprisingly perfect for sticking the button covers back on. I was at a low place....I had already threatened once I just give up and throw the whole project in the dumpster in a fit of existentialism. And that's when I remembered Carrie of Brick City Love's tutorial and thought, "Wait a second! She used buttons on the back to secure her tufts!" So, I picked up a ridiculous package of big white buttons from Michael's and attached each button to two of the three strands, using the third strand to tie a tight knot. I retied the knot several times over until the buttons were firmly in place on the backside. This method does not get tufts as deep as the stapling method, but it totally worked and although it sounds tedious, it took less than an hour to finish the tufts. Once the tufts were done, I was ready to finish the edges. The stapler worked much better with the fabric to cover the veneer. I stapled the batting first, pulling as taut as possible, and trimming at the corners where it was a little too fluffy. After that, I gathered the excess fabric into folds at the top and on the sides...this was easier said than done, honestly, but that was mainly because my fabric had shifted and was no longer perfectly centered. Staple the folds, and in between, pulling tightly as you go. It should look like this, but better. To finish the part of the board where the foam ends, push the staple gun up under the foam and staple the fabric to the pegboard, which is still covered with batting down at the bottom. This really showed me how much easier it was to staple the "raw" side...no wonder Jenny's project looked so easy! See? Like that. I then pulled the remaining fabric around the bottom and stapled again. Just to show how very ugly this looks from behind. Total train wreck from the back. But look! This is how it ends up! Pretty good! I will tell you that I look at it and immediately get worked up about the folds that fell out in the button-tying process, so I can't recommend having a second person to help enough. We haven't even hung it yet, so I don't have those glowing after pictures, but now you have a working knowledge of how to do the damn thing. So, let's review: Materials for Queen Headboard 2 yards of fabric 5/8 size buttons with button cover kit (I bought 36 buttons at Joann's) A 10-inch upholstery needle Heavy-duty staple gun and staples Large two-hole buttons (optional for tufting) Hi-Loft Batting Upholstery thread Spray adhesive Fabric glue (just in case!!) 5-foot-wide foam, 3-inches thick from Joann's 5-foot-wide, 3-foot (or 4-foot) tall pegboard (we bought at Home Depot). You can also use plywood and drill the holes yourself. Flush mounts to hang the headboard Directions Cut a strip of fabric to make buttons and make fabric-covered buttons. Lay out buttons on the pegboard and circle where you'd like them to go with a sharpie or pencil. Place the pegboard on top of foam and mark the holes with a Sharpie. Attach the foam to the board with spray adhesive. Carve circles out where the buttons will go in the foam with a paring knife. Place batting over the pegboard and foam, trimming as necessary. Leave enough to wrap around the sides. Place fabric over the batting. Tie 3-4 strands of upholstery thread, all of equal length, around the back of a button. Thread the loose ends through upholstery needle. Starting in the middle of the first row, push the fabric into the foam hole and arrange the folds to form a diamond shape. Stick the needle through the hole, ensuring the button sinks into the foam and the thread comes out on the back side. Pulling the thread taut, either staple it down and yank in different directions, stapling as you go OR attach to another button and tie in a tight knot. Repeat process, arranging folds as you move down the rows. Once all the buttons are secured, gather the fabric at the top and sides into folds that meet the outermost buttons and staple to secure on the back. This helps make sure the fabric stays neat. Pull batting tight and staple all around the headboard. Repeat with fabric, stapling under the foam, then wrapping under the bottom of the pegboard. If using flush mounts, attach one side of each flush mount (use 2-3) on the back of the headboard and the other side on the wall so they'll fit together like puzzle pieces. Make sure your mattress slides into the nook formed by fabric stapled under the foam. YAY! It's over!

It is definitely spring, and I’ve got garden fever! Yep, it is that time of year when I have gardening dreams of grandeur. And every year my plans fail miserably as I struggle to keep my unruly garden plot. Well this year I’ve decided to try something a little different… a minimal work deck garden! […]

One of my favorite projects in Dylan’s Bedroom is her headboard. The original plan was to use the head and footboard that we were using before (because its fantastic). The problem was, that against the

Easy sewing tutorial for how to make an infinity scarf out of a refashioned sweater

Who doesn’t love a beautiful bedroom? These 17 Inexpensive DIY Bedroom Ideas will help you create the bedroom of your dreams on a budget! From beautifully tufted headboards on the cheap to cozy pom pom rugs, this list has it all to make your bedroom the coziest place on earth!!

Following in the footsteps of some great bloggers, I made by very own button tufted headboard! If you're looking for a tutorial to follow, I highly recommend the ones over at Little Green Notebook and Brick City Love. My headboard took elements from both of those tutorials, and I must say that they were very helpful. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, I thought I'd just share some photos of my process and a few notes on things I learned as I went along. --- I'm not sure where the idea for this headboard first happened. I must have seen something similar and got it stuck in my head. I spent months combing the internet for tutorials and inspiration images (many of my favorites I added to my pinterest board), until I finally gathered up the supplies and the courage to tackle this project myself. For my California King mattress, I ended up making the headboard two feet tall and six feet wide. I found this size made a big enough impact, while still being able to fit all the materials in my car! Upholstery foam also happens to be about two feet wide, which is another reason this size was so convenient. While other people have simply hung their headboards on the wall, I didn't really trust myself to be able to hang it securely enough to stand up to regular use. Instead, I made a simple frame using 1x3 and 1x2 boards. I was originally going to use plywood, but I'm really happy that I chose to use pegboard instead. It kept the headboard very lightweight, so that it was no trouble for me to flip around on my own. It also saved me a ton of time since I didn't have to drill 43 button holes. The frame helped keep the pegboard from flexing and gave me a nice surface to staple the fabric to. For my 6ft long headboard, I only purchased 2.5 yards of dark gray upholstery weight chenille fabric. As soon as I came home from the store, I got this sinking feeling that I had seriously miscalculated. Consequently, I decided not to try to cover the legs with fabric, and instead just painted them white to match the sheets. In hindsight, painting them with the wall color paint would also have been a smart idea. I'll save you the suspense and tell you that I had *just* enough fabric to cover the headboard, but I would have preferred a bit more just to be safe! I charted out the button spacing so that there were 5 long rows (3 of 9 buttons, 2 of 8 buttons). The spacing worked on a 4" unit in either direction. I happened to have a metal broom handle that was the perfect diameter for punching out 1/2" tunnels through the foam for my covered buttons to fall into. I used some fiberfill from an old pillow between the batting and the upholstery foam--though I'm not sure if it made a big difference in the end result. I have to say, my least favorite part of this process was making the covered buttons. They simply don't want to come together around such thick fabric! I eventually came up with a system involving a rubber mallet and a whole bunch of glue, but managed to break two of the little assembly tools in the process. If you choose a thicker pile fabric like I did, you might be wise to ask a local upholstery shop to cover buttons for you. It would cost a little extra, but would save some trouble. Every tutorial I read suggested starting in the middle, and working row by row. I started out this way, but quickly ran into trouble when I started on the next row. Having never done this before, and being too lazy to figure out how to mark the appropriate spacing on the fabric, I found that I wasn't getting the right amount of tension on the fabric. When I started the second row, I wasn't always able to make nice diamond folds in the fabric. So, I decided to start over. The nice thing is that there was no damage to the fabric, so starting over isn't a big deal. I did start in the middle, but ended up working in every which direction from that middle point. This let me really play with the folds in the fabric so that I didn't use too much of the slack in any one direction. Once I started doing it this way, it was pretty easy to figure out the rest. I ended up using a package of waxed button thread I found in the upholstery section of Joann Fabric. I really liked working with it because the wax kind of holds your knots in place with friction as you work, so the buttons don't fight against you the whole time. I originally was going to staple the thread to the back of the pegboard, but the density of the pegboard made stapling impossible, so I ended up using all the random little buttons I could find. They worked perfectly to secure the thread. One note on buying supplies: if you have a smart phone, you must download the free app from Joann. It gives you a bunch of great coupons each week, and then you can join me on my quest to never buy anything there for less than 50% off ;). I propped my headboard up on four chairs, allowing me to work over and under the board with ease. here I've worked from the center to one end, and have started working the other direction. Finished and attached to the bed frame with carriage bolts. I worked on putting this together in bits and pieces over the course of a week. If you were really determined, you could finish this in a weekend. It's not a terribly difficult thing to make, though you will need to work smartly and thoughtfully to ensure a professional-looking end product. I hope I've inspired a few more people to try it out! Oh, and if a headboard isn't your thing, this technique could also make a lovely bench--I'm thinking of making one of those in the future!

Looking for a DIY wood headboard idea??? Well, Emily Bowser and Sara DIYed the cutest and chicest wood headboard probably ever. Come see the details!

They Belong in a Landfill, Not Your Home Over time, once cherished items used as decorative components in the home eventually become outdated and old-fashioned. Instead of holding on to these items, it’s best to dispose of them in the landfill rather than keep them. A series of assessment boils down to some household items …

This is the (renter friendly) lighting trend for your dining room you maybe didn't even know you needed, plus shopping picks.

So I got this lovely tufted headboard when we moved in to our new house. Three cats, two kids, and three years later…it wasn’t looking so lovely anymore!So of c…

Who doesn’t love a beautiful bedroom? These 17 Inexpensive DIY Bedroom Ideas will help you create the bedroom of your dreams on a budget! From beautifully tufted headboards on the cheap to cozy pom pom rugs, this list has it all to make your bedroom the coziest place on earth!!

Click Here Know!!

Today we're sharing 8 home decor project ideas from the DIY professionals themselves. Have a look and try one (or a few) for yourself!

Their new PetSmart collection features over 40 products that make small-pet habitats chicer starting at just $6.

Learn the easiest way to make a DIY Diamond Tufted Headboard for under $50! This is by far the most detailed and easy-follow tutorial.

I've been talking about making an upholstered headboard since 2006. I used to lust after the ones in Urban Outfitters catalogs, but was always too cheap to spend $350 + shipping on one of their headboards, which frankly look pretty cheap. If I was going to have a cheap-looking headboard, I would make it myself, dammit! I've read so many DIY upholstered headboard tutorials that I felt really confident going into this project. I relied most heavily on Jenny's AMAZING tutorial at Little Green Notebook and Carrie's at Brick City Love. Jenny has a way of making everything look easy. Here is what I learned: while I don't doubt it was pretty easy for her, it was NOT easy for me. I want to give the most honest, but helpful tutorial I can, so bear with me because it might be on the long side. I'm going to walk you through the steps I took. At the bottom, however, I'm going to put a full shopping list and the steps I would take if I did it again, so you are welcome to skip ahead. Day 1: Button Making and Pegboard Prepping On Saturday, I sat down with several of Dritz's cover button kits and a strip of my Robert Allen linen. I bought enough to have 36 buttons, but I only used 33 buttons. Every tutorial I've ever read has made this seem like a breezy endeavor, but I will tell you right now that making fabric-covered buttons this small with this kit sucked. If you can suggest a better kit, please do. Basically, you use a circle pattern that's printed on the back of the package to cut out circles of fabric. You then center the circles over the white rubber piece, stick a button top into the center of the fabric, push into the white part and then tuck the fabric into the back of the button. Place the button back over the fabric, and using the blue button, push it down until the back wedges under the button top, thus creating the button. Ultimately, I had to use a hammer...my wimpy fingers just couldn't apply enough pressure to get the buttons to stay together. It was agonizing and some of the buttons looked truly horrible, but I didn't care. Et voila! A finished button. I do not exaggerate when I say I made buttons from noon to about 9 p.m., taking small breaks so my fingers didn't fall off. This leads me to my first big piece of advice: you can do this alone, but if you can recruit a friend to help you with this, DO IT. Buy them a pizza, I don't care. You just really need a helping hand, and Sean had to work all weekend so I was all by my lonesome and feeling cocky. Per Jenny's advice, we used pegboard that we purchased from Home Depot. It was 5 feet across and 3 feet wide...we wanted 4 feet, but couldn't fit it in our little Saturn. You can only fit this in your car if your backseats fold down. I played around with several button layouts, but settled on five rows of buttons, alternating between seven buttons and six buttons. I separated the buttons by counting seven dots in the pegboard between each horizontally, and four dots vertically. You can always do more or less. When I was happy with the layout, I used a white pencil to circle where each button would go. Here is where I must tell you my second piece of advice: If your pegboard is white on one side and "raw" on the other side, for the love of god, put the fabric on top of the white side. This is the single biggest mistake we made; we had the white side as the back and its veneer made stapling impossible. I laid the pegboard on top of a 5 foot wide piece of 3-inch foam I bought at Joann's with a 40 percent off coupon. I stuck a Sharpie in each of my pre-marked circles so I could see where my buttons will go on the foam. Once that was done, I sprayed the foam with spray adhesive and stuck it to the pegboard (REMEMBER, white side inside, raw side outside). Using a paring knife, I cut a rough circle around each dot. This is where you'll push the button down, which helps coax the fabric into diamond tufts. If I did it again, I might even cut it more into an "x" shape. The whole foam strip will look like this. I don't have sawhorse legs, but balancing the pieces on two chairs worked just fine. I covered the foam with twin mattress-size hi-loft batting that I trimmed to fit, then placed my linen on top. Another tip: Make absolutely sure the fabric is centered...obviously. Mine was, at the beginning. By the end of the adventure...not so much. This is where I admit that I basically wing it when it comes to tying knots. I'm sure there are incredible sailor's knots or some such that I should be using, but here's what I did: I took three strands of upholstery thread and tied them in your basic knot around the button hole. I let the strands fall free from there. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to get an amazingly huge upholstery needle...this one was 10 inches long. I pushed the fabric into the holes in the foam and, starting from the middle of the first row, I stuck the needle through and then pulled until the thread strands were in the back and I could pull the button taut. I stapled the thread to the back, yanking in different directions to keep it taut. That method worked exactly once. It became progressively more and more impossible until I had a pile of bent staples that was truly shameful. Seriously. Sean and I convinced ourselves the answer to our prayers would be an electric stapler, which we bought with a gift card from Lowe's. It was not the answer to our prayers. It will be returned. Another tip: Your fingers will be throbbing and your hand muscles will be so sore from stapling. Split this project over two days, or even three, just to keep yourself from weeping. Day 2: Tufting and Stapling, Rinse, Repeat So, at some point, I had no patience left and decided to go ahead and get all the buttons into place so that when Sean returned, I would be ready to go and he could help with the stapling. I personally wouldn't recommend this, simply because it makes it hard to keep the folds neat and tidy. And then this mess happened. Are you kidding me, universe? Luckily, I had some fabric glue on hand and it was surprisingly perfect for sticking the button covers back on. I was at a low place....I had already threatened once I just give up and throw the whole project in the dumpster in a fit of existentialism. And that's when I remembered Carrie of Brick City Love's tutorial and thought, "Wait a second! She used buttons on the back to secure her tufts!" So, I picked up a ridiculous package of big white buttons from Michael's and attached each button to two of the three strands, using the third strand to tie a tight knot. I retied the knot several times over until the buttons were firmly in place on the backside. This method does not get tufts as deep as the stapling method, but it totally worked and although it sounds tedious, it took less than an hour to finish the tufts. Once the tufts were done, I was ready to finish the edges. The stapler worked much better with the fabric to cover the veneer. I stapled the batting first, pulling as taut as possible, and trimming at the corners where it was a little too fluffy. After that, I gathered the excess fabric into folds at the top and on the sides...this was easier said than done, honestly, but that was mainly because my fabric had shifted and was no longer perfectly centered. Staple the folds, and in between, pulling tightly as you go. It should look like this, but better. To finish the part of the board where the foam ends, push the staple gun up under the foam and staple the fabric to the pegboard, which is still covered with batting down at the bottom. This really showed me how much easier it was to staple the "raw" side...no wonder Jenny's project looked so easy! See? Like that. I then pulled the remaining fabric around the bottom and stapled again. Just to show how very ugly this looks from behind. Total train wreck from the back. But look! This is how it ends up! Pretty good! I will tell you that I look at it and immediately get worked up about the folds that fell out in the button-tying process, so I can't recommend having a second person to help enough. We haven't even hung it yet, so I don't have those glowing after pictures, but now you have a working knowledge of how to do the damn thing. So, let's review: Materials for Queen Headboard 2 yards of fabric 5/8 size buttons with button cover kit (I bought 36 buttons at Joann's) A 10-inch upholstery needle Heavy-duty staple gun and staples Large two-hole buttons (optional for tufting) Hi-Loft Batting Upholstery thread Spray adhesive Fabric glue (just in case!!) 5-foot-wide foam, 3-inches thick from Joann's 5-foot-wide, 3-foot (or 4-foot) tall pegboard (we bought at Home Depot). You can also use plywood and drill the holes yourself. Flush mounts to hang the headboard Directions Cut a strip of fabric to make buttons and make fabric-covered buttons. Lay out buttons on the pegboard and circle where you'd like them to go with a sharpie or pencil. Place the pegboard on top of foam and mark the holes with a Sharpie. Attach the foam to the board with spray adhesive. Carve circles out where the buttons will go in the foam with a paring knife. Place batting over the pegboard and foam, trimming as necessary. Leave enough to wrap around the sides. Place fabric over the batting. Tie 3-4 strands of upholstery thread, all of equal length, around the back of a button. Thread the loose ends through upholstery needle. Starting in the middle of the first row, push the fabric into the foam hole and arrange the folds to form a diamond shape. Stick the needle through the hole, ensuring the button sinks into the foam and the thread comes out on the back side. Pulling the thread taut, either staple it down and yank in different directions, stapling as you go OR attach to another button and tie in a tight knot. Repeat process, arranging folds as you move down the rows. Once all the buttons are secured, gather the fabric at the top and sides into folds that meet the outermost buttons and staple to secure on the back. This helps make sure the fabric stays neat. Pull batting tight and staple all around the headboard. Repeat with fabric, stapling under the foam, then wrapping under the bottom of the pegboard. If using flush mounts, attach one side of each flush mount (use 2-3) on the back of the headboard and the other side on the wall so they'll fit together like puzzle pieces. Make sure your mattress slides into the nook formed by fabric stapled under the foam. YAY! It's over!

I've been talking about making an upholstered headboard since 2006. I used to lust after the ones in Urban Outfitters catalogs, but was always too cheap to spend $350 + shipping on one of their headboards, which frankly look pretty cheap. If I was going to have a cheap-looking headboard, I would make it myself, dammit! I've read so many DIY upholstered headboard tutorials that I felt really confident going into this project. I relied most heavily on Jenny's AMAZING tutorial at Little Green Notebook and Carrie's at Brick City Love. Jenny has a way of making everything look easy. Here is what I learned: while I don't doubt it was pretty easy for her, it was NOT easy for me. I want to give the most honest, but helpful tutorial I can, so bear with me because it might be on the long side. I'm going to walk you through the steps I took. At the bottom, however, I'm going to put a full shopping list and the steps I would take if I did it again, so you are welcome to skip ahead. Day 1: Button Making and Pegboard Prepping On Saturday, I sat down with several of Dritz's cover button kits and a strip of my Robert Allen linen. I bought enough to have 36 buttons, but I only used 33 buttons. Every tutorial I've ever read has made this seem like a breezy endeavor, but I will tell you right now that making fabric-covered buttons this small with this kit sucked. If you can suggest a better kit, please do. Basically, you use a circle pattern that's printed on the back of the package to cut out circles of fabric. You then center the circles over the white rubber piece, stick a button top into the center of the fabric, push into the white part and then tuck the fabric into the back of the button. Place the button back over the fabric, and using the blue button, push it down until the back wedges under the button top, thus creating the button. Ultimately, I had to use a hammer...my wimpy fingers just couldn't apply enough pressure to get the buttons to stay together. It was agonizing and some of the buttons looked truly horrible, but I didn't care. Et voila! A finished button. I do not exaggerate when I say I made buttons from noon to about 9 p.m., taking small breaks so my fingers didn't fall off. This leads me to my first big piece of advice: you can do this alone, but if you can recruit a friend to help you with this, DO IT. Buy them a pizza, I don't care. You just really need a helping hand, and Sean had to work all weekend so I was all by my lonesome and feeling cocky. Per Jenny's advice, we used pegboard that we purchased from Home Depot. It was 5 feet across and 3 feet wide...we wanted 4 feet, but couldn't fit it in our little Saturn. You can only fit this in your car if your backseats fold down. I played around with several button layouts, but settled on five rows of buttons, alternating between seven buttons and six buttons. I separated the buttons by counting seven dots in the pegboard between each horizontally, and four dots vertically. You can always do more or less. When I was happy with the layout, I used a white pencil to circle where each button would go. Here is where I must tell you my second piece of advice: If your pegboard is white on one side and "raw" on the other side, for the love of god, put the fabric on top of the white side. This is the single biggest mistake we made; we had the white side as the back and its veneer made stapling impossible. I laid the pegboard on top of a 5 foot wide piece of 3-inch foam I bought at Joann's with a 40 percent off coupon. I stuck a Sharpie in each of my pre-marked circles so I could see where my buttons will go on the foam. Once that was done, I sprayed the foam with spray adhesive and stuck it to the pegboard (REMEMBER, white side inside, raw side outside). Using a paring knife, I cut a rough circle around each dot. This is where you'll push the button down, which helps coax the fabric into diamond tufts. If I did it again, I might even cut it more into an "x" shape. The whole foam strip will look like this. I don't have sawhorse legs, but balancing the pieces on two chairs worked just fine. I covered the foam with twin mattress-size hi-loft batting that I trimmed to fit, then placed my linen on top. Another tip: Make absolutely sure the fabric is centered...obviously. Mine was, at the beginning. By the end of the adventure...not so much. This is where I admit that I basically wing it when it comes to tying knots. I'm sure there are incredible sailor's knots or some such that I should be using, but here's what I did: I took three strands of upholstery thread and tied them in your basic knot around the button hole. I let the strands fall free from there. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to get an amazingly huge upholstery needle...this one was 10 inches long. I pushed the fabric into the holes in the foam and, starting from the middle of the first row, I stuck the needle through and then pulled until the thread strands were in the back and I could pull the button taut. I stapled the thread to the back, yanking in different directions to keep it taut. That method worked exactly once. It became progressively more and more impossible until I had a pile of bent staples that was truly shameful. Seriously. Sean and I convinced ourselves the answer to our prayers would be an electric stapler, which we bought with a gift card from Lowe's. It was not the answer to our prayers. It will be returned. Another tip: Your fingers will be throbbing and your hand muscles will be so sore from stapling. Split this project over two days, or even three, just to keep yourself from weeping. Day 2: Tufting and Stapling, Rinse, Repeat So, at some point, I had no patience left and decided to go ahead and get all the buttons into place so that when Sean returned, I would be ready to go and he could help with the stapling. I personally wouldn't recommend this, simply because it makes it hard to keep the folds neat and tidy. And then this mess happened. Are you kidding me, universe? Luckily, I had some fabric glue on hand and it was surprisingly perfect for sticking the button covers back on. I was at a low place....I had already threatened once I just give up and throw the whole project in the dumpster in a fit of existentialism. And that's when I remembered Carrie of Brick City Love's tutorial and thought, "Wait a second! She used buttons on the back to secure her tufts!" So, I picked up a ridiculous package of big white buttons from Michael's and attached each button to two of the three strands, using the third strand to tie a tight knot. I retied the knot several times over until the buttons were firmly in place on the backside. This method does not get tufts as deep as the stapling method, but it totally worked and although it sounds tedious, it took less than an hour to finish the tufts. Once the tufts were done, I was ready to finish the edges. The stapler worked much better with the fabric to cover the veneer. I stapled the batting first, pulling as taut as possible, and trimming at the corners where it was a little too fluffy. After that, I gathered the excess fabric into folds at the top and on the sides...this was easier said than done, honestly, but that was mainly because my fabric had shifted and was no longer perfectly centered. Staple the folds, and in between, pulling tightly as you go. It should look like this, but better. To finish the part of the board where the foam ends, push the staple gun up under the foam and staple the fabric to the pegboard, which is still covered with batting down at the bottom. This really showed me how much easier it was to staple the "raw" side...no wonder Jenny's project looked so easy! See? Like that. I then pulled the remaining fabric around the bottom and stapled again. Just to show how very ugly this looks from behind. Total train wreck from the back. But look! This is how it ends up! Pretty good! I will tell you that I look at it and immediately get worked up about the folds that fell out in the button-tying process, so I can't recommend having a second person to help enough. We haven't even hung it yet, so I don't have those glowing after pictures, but now you have a working knowledge of how to do the damn thing. So, let's review: Materials for Queen Headboard 2 yards of fabric 5/8 size buttons with button cover kit (I bought 36 buttons at Joann's) A 10-inch upholstery needle Heavy-duty staple gun and staples Large two-hole buttons (optional for tufting) Hi-Loft Batting Upholstery thread Spray adhesive Fabric glue (just in case!!) 5-foot-wide foam, 3-inches thick from Joann's 5-foot-wide, 3-foot (or 4-foot) tall pegboard (we bought at Home Depot). You can also use plywood and drill the holes yourself. Flush mounts to hang the headboard Directions Cut a strip of fabric to make buttons and make fabric-covered buttons. Lay out buttons on the pegboard and circle where you'd like them to go with a sharpie or pencil. Place the pegboard on top of foam and mark the holes with a Sharpie. Attach the foam to the board with spray adhesive. Carve circles out where the buttons will go in the foam with a paring knife. Place batting over the pegboard and foam, trimming as necessary. Leave enough to wrap around the sides. Place fabric over the batting. Tie 3-4 strands of upholstery thread, all of equal length, around the back of a button. Thread the loose ends through upholstery needle. Starting in the middle of the first row, push the fabric into the foam hole and arrange the folds to form a diamond shape. Stick the needle through the hole, ensuring the button sinks into the foam and the thread comes out on the back side. Pulling the thread taut, either staple it down and yank in different directions, stapling as you go OR attach to another button and tie in a tight knot. Repeat process, arranging folds as you move down the rows. Once all the buttons are secured, gather the fabric at the top and sides into folds that meet the outermost buttons and staple to secure on the back. This helps make sure the fabric stays neat. Pull batting tight and staple all around the headboard. Repeat with fabric, stapling under the foam, then wrapping under the bottom of the pegboard. If using flush mounts, attach one side of each flush mount (use 2-3) on the back of the headboard and the other side on the wall so they'll fit together like puzzle pieces. Make sure your mattress slides into the nook formed by fabric stapled under the foam. YAY! It's over!

Make these stunning DIY candlelight trays for your tablescape. It means wax won't drip onto the table, and makes for a beautiful centerpiece!

I am so excited to share this post with you today! Finally, after months of replying to people that I will put together a tutorial on how I crafted a coffee table into a tufted ottoman, it has arrived! Of course, I should have taken photos as I went along the first time, but I ...