Last month, before I debuted our Master Bedroom, I showed you how I retrofitted my Craigslist headboard to be the frame I wanted.
I’m back to walk you through the rest of the tufting but I think we’re going to have to do this in two parts; construction & soft goods. The actual tufting is going to have to be a whole separate post to itself. So, lets start with the construction.
After making a bunch of sawdust, the headboard frame looked like this.
Now I needed to create an inset panel that would be the foundation for the tufting. That inset panel would get tufted and then slip into the frame. The frame & panel would get screwed together and we’d be good to go.
The Making of an Inset Panel
To keep things relatively light, I decided to use pegboard & 1×2’s to make my inset panel. The pegboard comes with a handy 1×1″ grid of holes, which I thought would keep my buttons lined up nicely.
First, I laid the headboard frame down on the pegboard and traced the shape of my inset panel.
Then I roughly cut it out & laid out where the buttons would go with some chalk.
Then, with a jigsaw, I cut out the rest of the pegboard. When you do this, be sure to cut on the INSIDE of the line. You want the inset panel to be slightly smaller than your frame. There needs to be room for the batting & fabric to wrap around the edges.
Obviously the pegboard itself is too flimsy & bendy {technical term} to support all this tufting, so we must make a frame.
To do this, attach 1×2’s around all the edges. With the 3 straight edges, this is relatively straight forward.
Attach the 1×2’s to the outermost edges. Where the frame curves in, cut along the pegboard with a jig saw. Like so –
The final support structure –
Because I marked where the tufts should be on the front side of the panel, I needed to transfer those marks onto the backside of the panel.
It would probably have just been easier to mark the tufts on the back side from the beginning. Live & learn.
My easy-peasy solution was to tape screws into each hole. Then flip the panel over and mark the holes where the screws pop through with a sharpie.
Before we move on to soft goods, pre-drill the holes for attaching the inset panel to your frame. It’s easier to do this now, rather than after the panel is covered with foam, batting, & fabric.
FINALLY! The foundation for my tufting was done. Lets move on to the foam foundation.
Lay the panel on the foam and trace. I used 3″ foam but I think 2″ would have been just fine and cheaper too.
Cut it out. An electric breadknife would really be the best tool to use to cut the foam.}
It required a little piece together but it’ll all be covered in batting, so no one will ever know.
Once your large piece of foam is cut out, mark where the buttons will go with a sharpie. Now grab your closet rod. Yup. Closet Rod.
I chose one that was just as big as my button. With a twisting motion, drill out holes for each button.
Once you’ve got all the holes punched out, adhere the foam to the panel (although, the batting will hold everything in place).
Cover in batting and staple that to your 1×2 frame.
Now go take a nap. Part 3 is where the fun begins.
brickcitylove.com 
Useful! Thanks! I love how the tufting turned out.
Kelly
You had me at nap.
Hm-m-m… Closet rod to punch holes in the foam…
is that an apple I see floating in your sink?? 🙂
BTW LOVE the toilet in the lower right corner of the one outdoor shot. I guess we should get that tile floor down once and for all so we can get it reset where it belongs. Lets make plans to get cracking on that basement after the holiday
Wow! That is intense. So much to think about while you are working on it, I commend you on your brain power!
If I could just clear some place to do some DIY. Love the headboard.
co-signing with Sara
Go on with your bad self! The fact that you did this entire project from start to finish all by yourself impresses the heck out of me. I still can’t get over how amazing this headboard is! It’s absolutely gorgeous!!! And, don’t tell anybody else I said this, but maybe the best homemade one I’ve ever seen!
come back.
oh my gosh I can not believe you did that headboard yourself! it is absolutely one of the most fantastic DIY headboards I have ever seen!
Brilliant plan — peg-board button tufting — absolute genius.
Wow! That headboard is going to look amazing! Great Job! On your next break take time to read some of GlocallyNewark’s blogs, or check out some events that will be hosted in the city we love, Newark http://www.glocallynewark.com
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I absolutely love this! You did an AMAZING job!! And your tutorial is so clear and helpful. I was wondering if you were going to post part 3 of how to finish making the headboard. I’m thinking about attempting one myself.
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Just to clarify…when you made your marks where the tufts will go, the ones where you marked two dots…is that because you want the button to go in between those two holes? Thank you for posting such a thorough tutorial. I’m in the research phase of creating a wingback tufted upholstered headboard and am just recently adding the tufted part because my husband decided he likes the way they look better…I was quite intimidated by the endeavor but am more optimistic now and think it won’t be too hard, but will instead just require more time. Ingenious using pegboard…I never would have thought of that!
I was curious if you ever thought of changing the structure of your website?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect
with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two images.
Maybe you could space it out better?
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