Contents

 - Case 1: Creating a headboard with boards

 - Case 2: creating a headboard from a plywood panel

 - Case 3: Creating a headboard with masking tape

A headboard immediately gives a decorative touch to the simplest of bedrooms. Creating it yourself is immensely rewarding and allows for all styles and fantasies.

This handy sheet explains three techniques for making a headboard: the first is reserved for meticulous DIY enthusiasts, the other two require no DIY experience at all.

Materials needed to make a headboard

Wood glue

About $9 per kg

Paper pencil

$0,50

Drill

$2 per drill approximately

Mallet

$4 approx.

Masking tape

Approx. $3×3

Tape measure

From $4.

Plywood panel

$6 per m2

Sandpaper

Approximately $5 per 3 sheets

Acrylic paint

From $5 per L

Drilling machine

From $30.

Wooden planks

According to species and dimensions

Roll

From $5.

Masking tape

$1 per roll

Jigsaw

From $30.

Case 1: Creating a headboard with boards

The manufacturing principle is simple: juxtapose and assemble 8 vertical boards to form a large panel. Once finished, the panel slides between the bed and the wall, wedged by the bed: removable; it leaves no trace if you are a tenant in your home.

For aesthetic work, trunnions are used for invisible assembly, which requires an average level of DIY, or at least extreme care and attention to detail.

2 people are needed for this work.

Materials required

To create a headboard with planks, get:

- 4 planed spruce boards 19 mm thick, 19 cm wide and 2.4 m long, which will allow you to build a headboard 1.20 m high and 1.52 m wide;

Note: if you choose narrower planks, adapt the number of planks to the headboard's desired width.

- trunnions;

- a jigsaw;

- a tape measure;

- sandpaper;

- a black pencil;

- a drill with a centring head;

- wood glue;

- a mallet;

- a paint roller and the paint of your choice.

Saw the boards to the right height

- Using a jigsaw, saw each plank in half to make 8 planks 120 cm high.

- Sand the sawn parts with fine sandpaper.

Note: If you like rough environments, replace the fir planks with formwork planks, which are very economical and produce a pleasing decorative effect.

Assemble the boards with trunnions


- On each panel, mark 2 marks on the edges with a sharp black pencil, 40 cm and 80 cm from the bottom of the board, taking your measurements very precisely with a tape measure:

◦ on the 2 end boards, mark only one edge;

◦ on the 6 other boards, keep the 2 edges.

Using a drill and a wood drill equipped with a centring head, drill a hole with a diameter of 8 mm and a length slightly longer than half a trunnion at each mark, precisely in the centre of the board's thickness. For this step, one person must hold the board on its edge while the second person drills the holes.

- In total, drill 28 holes.

Attention: it is essential to be extremely precise with your measurements and drill your holes straight, holding the drill perfectly perpendicular to the edge.

- Place the first end plank on its undrilled edge and, on the other edge, lightly glue each hole with wood glue.

- Use a mallet to drive a dowel into the bottom of each hole.

- Glue the holes on one edge of the second board.

Push this second plank onto the first plank dowels: make sure that the two planks are perfectly joined by tapping with the mallet on the free edge.

 - In the same way, fit each of the following planks together until the last one: until the end of this step, it is necessary to be 2 people so that one person holds the headboard on its edge while the other assembles the planks.

This post will now continue in part 2 in our next publication by next week. Stay posted, and remember to leave your comments below.