Head board. Stage Two. Logistics

After figuring out the direction we were going. It was -merely- a matter of figuring out exactly how to get there. So, here is the mental break down about how we decided to do it.

First, plywood from HD that Travis later cut to our exact shape. The only snag was that the plywood wouldn't be thick enough on the sides, seeing as we wanted a thick plush looking headboard. We didn't want to spring for the thicker wood for the whole headboard, so we decided to put 1x4s along the edges. That gave us the thickness we needed at the edges without increasing the overall cost. Slowly, but surely, I am learning to think about the bottom line!

Here is a picture of the back of the head board, you can see the edges of the head board made more substantial by the 1x4s. Also, you can see the simple way Travis was able to line the arch with the wood. He just cut several small squares and then used each one to line the edge of the arch. As he did this he gave me a refresher in calculus or geometry or something saying "libby, a circle can be approximated at any point with an infintestimal amount of lines that change slope to fit the angle of the circle." Clearly, I didn't really learn anything from his lecture because what I just wrote makes no sense.

Here you can see some of our books, finally being put to good use, helping the wood glue attach the side supports to the plywood!




Another thing to consider were how we were going to make the legs work. We made the legs out of 2x4s and positioned them so that they butted up against the bottom of the 1x4s. Now, since they were going to be on the outside edge of the headboard they would be visible. So we didn't want to leave them raw. At first we thought we would just cover them in our fabric and attach them at the very end, but that made my structural engineer nervous. He wanted them to be attached with wood glue for the best possible hold and support. And really, who am I to argue with that?

So, we decided to attach the legs to the raw plywood before we upholstered the headboard. Then as a very last step we wrapped the legs in fabric, letting the fabric butt up under the headboard so there weren't any seams, and cutting out holes in the fabric so we could attach the legs to the bed frame.

Here is a picture of the legs being attached.

Everything else was pretty simple. We had to decide how thick our foam needed to be. Foam ranges from 1/2" thick to 5" thick. Now, since we were (still are) planning to do both nail head trim and tufting I had to think. I wanted the foam to be thin enough to nail the trim into, but I wanted it to be thick enough to make the fabric pucker nicely when we do the tufting. So I settled on the 1" thick. 2" felt way to thick and 1/2" didn't feel like it would work as well for the tufting. I will let you know how that ends up working out!

Besides that, everything was as simple as can be. Lay the ply wood on the floor, cut foam to the proper shape, and attach with spray adhesive. Later, lay the batting out and place the headboard {face down} on top of it. Pull the batting taught over it and stapple to the back . To keep things simple we pre-cut the batting around the legs before bending it back and stappling!


Later still, (and after hours of ironing) spread the fabric out and place the headboard {face down}on top of it. Pull the fabric taugh and stapple to the back.

And here is a picture of the {almost} finished product

As I mentioned earlier, we still have yet to attach the nail head trim and do the tufting. I have heard about a few different techniques for the tufting, so we plan to try them both out on a sample before going to town on the real thing! Anyway, I thought that maybe putting up some pictures and letting y'all know what we have going on now might help give me some motivation to continue our project!