Head Board. Stage One. Inspiration.

Making an upholstered headboard can't be that hard right? And when I looked online I found several resources for making a headboard, all a little different, each one with its unique techniques. As I started doing this -- one of the easiest and most popular DIY projects out there -- I couldn't figure out how to go at it. Enter my husband. I have known for some time now that God made us perfect companions to each other, compliments in so many ways, but not until we started this project did I realize how intertwined we are. You see, I couldn't figure out what would work best for us because all I had was the picture of the end in my head. I couldn't figure out how to combine all of the options to get to where I was wanting to go. Thankfully, I married an engineer. Not just an engineer, but a perfectly patient man who could walk me through all of the different options, and explain to me what kind of out come could be expected from each step!

So, where did we start? With some inspiration. I found this lovely head board at a small shop in Houston. Its price tag a meer $2,000+ was not so lovely.

This is what I wanted the head board to look like in the end. But I had so many questions. How tall did it need to be? How large of a circle should we cut out on each corner? I wanted the proportions to be just right. So, what did we do? What else, turn to auto cad!

I know that you can't see all of the details that my husband lovingly put into this auto cad drawing, every single measurement, the tufting and nailhead trim, and the thing of the left? Oh thats what the head board looks like from the side! But the thing that helped me the most was getting to see the scale of the thing. Understanding how changing the arch of the curves, or the width between tufts, or the lines of the nail head would effect the end result. This was exactly what I needed, and so far this was the hardest part!

Now, I know that not everyone has access to auto cad, but the same result can be acheieved by making drawings to scale until you get a result that you like. Trust me, we had to make several adjustments to get to our end result!

So, what did I learn from this project? I used to think that I wasn't crafty or creative or anything. What I realized is that when I did things previously, I wanted my projects to come together without having to think them through, but that just isn't reasonable! So many people that do things themselves and are labeled as "creative" really have to think to work out the details. (and thats ok!) So, now that I am armed with this knowledge I feel like with enough planning and work we can tackle any project we want!