High-Arch Tufted Headboard with Nailhead Trim

Amber, a Knock Off Décor reader without a blog, really wanted a linen headboard for her new king-sized bed. While online prices were of course high, shipping to Canada added another monstrous expense. Amber and her husband decided instead to build their own headboard with deep tufts and nailhead trim and are sharing their steps right here on KOD! Without further ado, I’ll let Amber take it away with the how-to on how she made this beauty!

First, we printed out a copy of our inspiration piece on a transparency sheet and used our projector to draw the pattern on the plywood.

We did this process a second time on a second piece of plywood, however, we made the pattern four inches smaller to sit inset on the back piece. All the plywood was cut out with a jigsaw.

On the back larger piece of plywood, I covered it in fabric only and stapled around the back, then added the two strips of nail head trim around the edges. We used a tiny drill bit to make holes in the wood before tapping in the tack or the tack head snapped off.

On the back of the smaller piece of plywood, we created a grid and made holes at 6″ between each hole for the buttons to create the tufts. I cut four layers of foam from my re-used futon. I laid the plywood on the foam, traced the wood with a Sharpie, and cut the layers with an electric carving knife.

I used spray adhesive and stacked all the foam on the plywood. Then I wrapped and stapled all the foam with polyester batting, also from the re-used futon. From the back, we inserted a long upholstery needle through the hole and marked on the front where each hole had to be made in the foam. I used the scissors and electric knife to dig out some of the foam in each hole.

We then laid the fabric on the batting. With one of us on each side of the board, we used kite string and an upholstery needle pushed through from the back and added the button in the front. Then we pushed the needle back through the foam to the hole in the back, pulled very hard, and stapled the string multiple times on the back.

Once the tufting was complete, we layered the two pieces of the headboard together and screwed it to the studs on the bedroom wall.

Amber was inspired by the York Tufted Headboard from Pottery Barn.

Thank you so much, Amber, for sharing your DIY tufted headboard with us!