Furniture Plans: King Size Upholstered Tufted Headboard

Over the Christmas break, and mostly during my recovery from my surgery, TJ decided to start this woodworking website. He’s wanted to do it for awhile and he just decided to do it. He thought it would be so fun to do tutorials and share plans for all the things he has built in the past and for future projects we do. I decided to take advantage of his new website and give him a project to build. I drew up my vision - an upholstered headboard and bed frame with tufted fabric, researched our needed dimensions, and I even figured out how much wood we would need. Then, I went out and bought all the non-wood supplies: foam, batting, fabric, buttons, upholstery thread, upholstery needles, etc. After I had everything we needed but the wood, I convinced TJ to go get the wood so we could get started. He obliged. He bought all the lumber on a Saturday night and we started building on Sunday afternoon. We had the bed completely finished six days later, on Saturday night. We made sure to document most of the building process so we could put together a tutorial.

Estimated Cost 
$282.62

(See detailed material list below.)

Dimensions
Headboard = 79 inches wide by 60 inches tall (note: it will be a little wider with the fabric and batting)
Bed Frame Dimensions = 86 inches deep by 79 inches wide by 15 inches tall. 

Tools 

• Table Saw or Circular Saw  
• Miter Saw  
• Kreg Jig  
• Jig Saw  
• Band Saw
• Drill and Driver with drill Bits  

Lumber and Materials List
See the detailed materials list below 

Cut List 

See the cutlist diagram shown below.

Instructions 
Step 1 
I started by measuring and marking the 4x4 side posts the full height of the bed frame (60 inches). I then used the outside point as a midpoint to scribe a 10 inch radius. I then took my scribed 4x4 post and cut the approximate angle on the Miter Saw . I sanded the 4x4 posts in my drum sander. That machine makes sanding easy work! It does a great job and requires almost no effort. 

Step 2
I cut the ½-inch plywood sheet to 72 inches wide by 33 inches tall. We measured out the angle of the arch for the corner of the bed again by marking an imaginary midpoint and rotating my tape measure marked at 10 inches. 

Step 3
Then I went ahead and cut the arches out with the Jig Saw .

Step 4 
I then used the Kreg Jig to drill the holes in the plywood where we would attach the posts to the headboard. Use 1 inch coarse thread kreg screws to attach the ½ inch plywood to the posts.

Step 5 
We then got to work building the frame to go around the headboard. We needed to build the edges out a bit so we had a nice thick area to wrap the batting and fabric around and a spot to staple them too. We stacked two 2x4s around the plywood (since we used ¾ inch plywood instead of ½ inch, we had to run one of them through the planer to make it a little thinner). The bottom 2x4s were cut at 72 inches and the top 2x4 were cut at 61 inches. We drilled holes for 2 ½ inch coarse thread kreg screws at each end of the 2x4 pieces. We then drilled 3 inch wood screws from the plywood through the stacked 2x4s.

Step 6 
We used the arch piece we had cut off the plywood as a template for the 2x4's that go in the corner.

We used the Band Saw to cut the 2x4s at the same angle as the arch on the headboard. We drilled the 2x4 pieces together with pocket screws and 3 inch wood screws from the front (plywood side)

Step 7
Next, we measured out where we wanted the buttons to go. See the layout below. I marked them with a piece of blue painter's tape so I could stand back and make sure I liked how they looked. I did, so then we peeled off the tape and drilled a hole where each button will go.

Step 8
Once I had the holes drilled , I stained and sealed the posts of the headboard. After the posts were stained and sealed, I put the 2" thick foam down on the headboard and cut to the same shape. I used spray adhesive to give it a little bit of stickiness to hold it into place. I then poked a needed through each hole for each button and marked where they went on the foam. I went around to each button spot and cut out a quarter sized hole.

Step 9
We ran the batting around the headboard. I was a tiny bit short on batting (I wanted to do it double thick, otherwise I would have had plenty) but we made it work.

Step 10
We started the tufting. We put the fabric over the headboard and got it lined up nicely. The tufting took a little bit of time, but once I figured out a nice system it went fairly quick. I would run a long upholstery needle, threaded with upholstery thread (doubled), through the button hole at back of the headboard. I would pull it out the front, run my button through the needle, and then feed the needle back through the headboard. The trickiest part was being able to line it up perfect and find the hole again. Once I had the needle fed back through, we'd pull the string nice and tight and use the pneumatic staple gun to hold it into place. We'd run the thread several directions and staple it into place several times to make sure it was tight.

I looked at several websites to learn how to tuft. Similar to this one:

http://www.addicted2decorating.com/how-to-make-a-diamond-tufted-upholstered-headboard.html

Step 11
Once we finished the tufting, we just wrapped the fabric around and we used the pneumatic staple gun to staple it into place. A hand-held staple gun will work, but the pneumatic stapler was so much easier!

Once everything was in place we trimmed off the excess material.

Step 12
After the headboard was completely finished, we got to work on the bed frame. We cut two 2x10 side rails at 79 inches and the footboard rail at 72 inches. We cut two 4x4 pieces at 15 inches tall. We also cut two 4x4 posts at 5 ¾ inches. We then marked the 15 inch 4x4 posts to cut a bevel. I set the Table Saw at a 45 degree angle and ran the 4x4 most of the way through and then turned off the saw. I finished the 45 degree angle with the Band Saw and a 45 degree home-made jig.

Step 13
We sanded and then we stained and sealed those pieces. It takes awhile to finish this step, since we had to wait 6 hours between each coat. Finally, we finished all the staining and sealing. TJ used the Kreg Jig to drill pocket holes on both sides of the rails.

Step 14
We cut out 2x4s for the inside box spring supports. For the side and bottom cleats, I ripped a 2x4 in half on the Table Saw . I cut them at the same length as the rails.

Step 15
I assembled the headboard and bed frame by screwing 2 ½ inch screws into all the pre-drilled pocket holes. I screwed the cleats flush with the bottom of the rails. I used 2 1/2 inch screws.

  

Step 16
I field measured the center 2x4 supports and cut them to fit. I used pocket screws to fasten them to the bottom and side cleats and support them with the 5 ¾ inch 4x4 posts.

Step 17
Finished! It took a couple hours to put together, but it was worth it. This frame is so much nicer than the metal bed frame we'd been using.

I can't believe how fairly easy it was to build and how much a difference it makes having a headboard in my room. It looks so much more grown up and put together. I'm so happy with how it turned out, especially since it was our first time doing an upholstered/tufted project.

I think my very favorite part is no longer have a bed skirt! I hate the way bed skirts look like clutter or like they are hiding something (like your box springs or junk under your bed). It's been such a fun project and TJ and I really enjoy spending time together building things.