How to Reupholster a Headboard with a Curtain Panel

There are so many ways to update your headboard. You could paint it or do a total makeover by re-upholstering a headboard. It’s a fairly easy process and you can get creative by using the fabric of your choice, or a curtain panel like I used on this headboard! Today, I’m sharing How to Upholster a Headboard with a Curtain!

Do you remember when I shared this insta pic earlier this month?

Well, I was in the midst of the guestroom revamp and I decided it was time to bust out the steamer and get my new HomeGoods curtain panels ready to roll…because they were going up…but not on the windows…on the headboard.

UPHOLSTERING A HEADBOARD FOR THE GUESTROOM

I happened to be out shopping at HG one day, totally odd, I know, and I came across this great set of curtain panels. I thought the deep yellow might just be a lovely match to the golden yellow in my cane chair fabric, so I picked up 2 sets and headed home to check it out.

They were just that…a perfect color match and I decided I really liked the bold geometric pattern paired with the soft, but bold floral print. The curtains sat around for a little while among all of my other random finds for the room until one day, my friend, Haley and I were playing around with fabric swatches for pillow ensembles.

We sort of laid the curtain panel over the front of the dark wood & leather headboard to get a feel for the contrast of prints and patterns and we realized it might just make the perfect headboard covering!

 THE HEADBOARD BEFORE 

It magically worked out that one curtain panel was just the right size to be stretched across the headboard to upholster it in its entirety. I let it sit with scotch tape holding it to the headboard for a couple of weeks, until I got out my supplies one Saturday morning and knew it was time to just do it.

Yes, it was time to put my DIY skills to the test and try my hand at upholstering a headboard!

So today, I will do my best to walk you through the steps I took to create this look – a custom headboard reupholstered with a curtain panel!!

SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR UPHOLSTERING A HEADBOARD

• fabric [or curtains panels in my case]
• foam batting
• staple gun
• push pins
• upholstery nails
• tack hammer 
• needlenose pliers

DIRECTIONS FOR UPHOLSTERING A HEADBOARD

1. I knew the panel was going to fit, so I didn’t take the time to measure anything. First, put furniture gliders under the front corners of the bed so we could push the bed out from the wall in order to give me some work space.
2. Next, I grabbed a large piece of batting from my stash to use underneath the curtain panel. I had a very large piece and after draping it over the headboard, I cut off some of the excess from the edges.

3. I pulled the top down first.4. And then I pulled and wrapped the sides back.
5. Finally added a staple to the corner  using this staple gun.
6. I randomly placed staples across the top and sides just to secure the batting enough so it wouldn’t become loose. I tried not to place too many staples into the batting so I wouldn’t end up re-stapling over top.

Here is the view from the front of the headboard…
7. Next, I spread the curtain panel out on the floor and cut of the grommets to make it easier to attach to the headboard. I didn’t want the metal to get in the way while inserting the staples.
8. Then, I draped the curtain over the headboard and used push-pins to hold it in place, after lining up the pattern straight and evenly across the top & sides.

9. After that, I began stapling away and soon realized my staples were coming out like this…
So I removed several of the bad ones with needle-nose pliers…
…And got out my tack hammer (similar here) from upholstery class.

I used it over and over again while reupholstering my chair.

It was a pretty nice little investment.The awesome part about using tacks versus staples, is that you can tap them in just enough to hold your fabric (or curtain panel) in place, but you can easily pull out the tack with your fingers if you need to maneuver your fabric. Removing tight staples is a much more labor-intensive & time consuming process.

Trust me.
10. Then I tapped in tacks alongside the right & left sides of the headboard as well as the top.
I ended up doing all tacks (no staples) across the top because I found I had to tweak the fabric here and there in to order to ensure the pattern was straight across the top edge of the headboard when looking at it from the front.
I tapped the tacks in about every 4 – 6 inches across the top and then when I was sure the curtain pattern was evenly lined up on the front of the headboard, I used the tack hammer to drive the tacks further into the wood.

I wanted the tacks to hold the batting & curtain panel in place, but I also wanted to ensure the tacks were in deep enough to not scratch the wall once I pushed the bed back in place.

That is pretty much it!

It took me approximately 1 hour to upholster the headboard and I loooove how it turned out.

It is more permanent, than temporary, but it does not have to stay forever if I don’t want it to. Did I mention the pair of curtain panels was only $19.99. Totally beats upholstery fabric, even at 50% off at Joann’s.

Here are a few more shots of the finished headboard project and you can see the full reveal post here! Like this look?! You can check out the guestroom source list here.

What do you think? Do you think you can tackle upholstering a headboard in one of your own bedrooms?

Would you consider using a curtain panel to upholster a headboard?

New pillows…a lampshade…the possibilities are endless! Thanks for joining me here today and I hope you’ll visit again soon 🙂