We owe you a full recap of our time at Haven/ATL, but we’re on the road home today after a whirlwind few days: crashing a bunch of inspiring houses, doing a thrift-store tour with Katie B, and hosting an informal backyard wedding for Clara and Will. Before we left for Atlanta we did manage to get started on a headboard for our freshly rearranged master bedroom, so here’s what we accomplished.
With Ed the Bed now without posts, we turned our attention to adding a proper headboard — something upholstered that would feel cushy to lean against. We read more in bed lately, and the new arrangement felt cozier but not quite soft enough. Our first house had curtained nooks flanking the bed, so perhaps we’re just fabric-starved.
Rather than use our usual stretched-canvas method, we needed a design that worked around Ed’s remaining headboard pieces. We settled on a plywood base with 1×3 boards to wrap around and conceal what’s left of the posts. The idea was to create a single, finished piece that would tuck over the old hardware and look seamless once upholstered.
Clara was an enthusiastic helper at the hardware store, alternately mesmerized and intimidated by the big saw that cut our plywood down to size. We bought 5/8″ plywood cut to 65″ x 36″, and to make it fit in our small car we had the store slice it in half. That turned out to be convenient for assembly too. Our total outlay for the plywood and two 1×3 whitewood boards was about twenty-something dollars.
Back home we laid out the pieces to plan the assembly. The two middle braces would join the two plywood halves, and the side pieces would wrap around the bedposts to hide them. I screwed the sides on using a pocket-hole jig and attached the middle braces with a few spare screws. The result was a sturdy frame: the back that will face the wall and provide the base for batting and fabric.
Before covering the board, Sherry wisely suggested we bring it into the bedroom to check the fit. It fit from side to side, but it looked taller than we wanted. In person it felt a little top-heavy and out of proportion with the modern, low-profile bed, so we decided to lower it by about 5 inches.
Rather than disassemble everything and recut pieces on the table saw, I used a circular saw to trim the top edge. Once back in place the headboard’s height felt much more balanced. The cleaner, lower profile complements the bed’s straight lines and leaves room above the headboard for artwork or another decorative layer.
If the early illustrations of how the side pieces wrap around the posts were unclear, here’s a closer description: the 1×3 side boards curl just far enough to conceal the remaining posts so that, once upholstered, the headboard will appear as a single, seamless, slightly thicker surface rather than showing a stray white post behind the fabric.
We haven’t covered the headboard with batting and fabric yet — Sherry will document the upholstery steps in detail — but I promised a preview of the fabric we chose. We picked a free-form botanical print that echoes the turquoise in our rug without competing with it. Rather than a strict geometric that might clash, the pattern is looser and brings a fresh, layered feel to the room. Photographed close to the rug it looks busy, but on the wall the headboard will sit on a different plane from the floor and the two will read together more harmoniously.
One lesson from this small project: always dry-fit the piece in place before upholstering or stapling. Had we covered it before checking height and proportion it could have been a lot more work to correct. Try the headboard in the room with all the bed pillows arranged exactly how you plan to sleep — pillows can hide a lot of the headboard and affect perceived scale.
Clara considered this whole trip to Home Depot an adventure — loud “scary saw” and cart-pushing included — and an eight-and-a-half-hour car ride with her today might add to the excitement. What about you? Any weekend projects, road trips with kids and pets, or headboard experiments to share?