DIY Headboard

Finished my first upholstery project few days ago (yes, there will be more)! I am so happy with how it turned out that I thought I would post the tutorial. Here is the finished product:

The fabric is more coral than red-my camera wasn't picking up the color very well.

 How it started. I bought this beauty on Craigslist for $50. Way better then having to cut the plywood myself and cover it with batting and I was in love with the shape!

 I bought my fabric at Joann and it was on sale for $10 a yard. A steal compared to the $50 fabric I was previously eyeing. This frame is a double bed (60 x 60) so I bought 2 yards since the fabric was an outdoor upholstery fabric it was 58 inches wide. 

I first laid the fabric out on a sheet and ironed it, then laid the frame on top making sure that there were no waves underneath. Then I cut around the shape of the frame leaving about 5 inches. 

 Using mine and my husband's muscles and smoothing skills we stapled with a staple gun about every inch starting from the bottom and working around one side. 

 This would be a cinch if the headboard were square, but with the curves it took a lot longer to pull and make it tight. Also, since I picked a fabric with a pattern it was much harder making sure the lines and squares were even and centered. Again, much easier if you pick a solid color fabric. In this picture I moved into the kitchen to see it in better light and then I trimmed the extra fabric of the back.
I could have stopped here and I do love the simplicity of it but I knew I wanted to add nailheads. You can buy the individual nailheads or what I bought the nailhead trim kits, because it was more cost effective and much easier to obtain a straight line rather than nailing in one at a time.

 I bought a nickel trim kit that was 10 yards (with shipping $25) because it was about the same cost as the 5 yard kit. So I have over 5 yards left over for my next project. With the trim kit you are to nail down every 5th one, but the nails weren't holding because the padding was too thick. So with instead I used tacky glue that I already had and then nailed down every 5th one with a longer nailhead. (Hope you don't have to face that) After measuring it out, we decided it was easier to just eyeball it bent the trim all the way around the frame. Make sure you do all of this with the headboard on a the ground (a clean ground that is).

I still need to trim and glue the edges on the bottom in this picture, but you get the idea. 

I roughly spent $90 on a double bed frame that would normally cost at least $300 and it was fun to do on my own. I can't wait to see what it looks like in my little girl's new room! Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!