I am no longer actively blogging here at "Taking Time To Create", but I'd love for you to join me at my new blog: "Taking Time In The City". I hope to see you soon!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Patchwork Headboard {Tutorial}

 
I'm so, so excited to share this with you! When I pinned this headboard a long time ago, it was one of those "it'd be cool, but we probably won't actually do it" kind of pins. Well, this past weekend, we actually did it!
I love the colors!
I love the coordination with the new bedding.
Like a quilt, it's certainly not perfect, but that's another thing that makes it great!
Love, love, love it!

It's relatively easy to make. The most difficult thing is using the staple gun! You can handle that, right? You could even do it in more subtle colors. Imagine some neutral tones or all solid fabric. Sounds pretty too!

Note: these instructions are for a queen size bed. 
Here's what you'll need:
  • 2 sheets of plywood (4ft x8 ft is what we bought I believe; the original post says to use 1/4 inch but we used 3/8 inch).
  • Some type of saw (a table saw will probably work best)
  • High density foam (I bought 3 1/2 yards measuring 2 ft across)
  • Quilt batting (I used extra-loft; I bought the crib size-45"x60"-and it wasn't quite enough, so you may want to buy bigger unless you have some left over from another project like I did)
  • Spray adhesive (I used this)
  • Fabric (I had a yard for each of my four colors/patterns)
    • Update 12/28/12: I actually had a yard and 1/3 of two of my fabrics and 1 yard of the other two fabrics. Thanks to a commentor below for catching that mistake!
  • Scissors 
  • Staple gun and staples (you don't want your staples to be too long or it will be harder to get them to sink into the wood)
  • Heavy duty tape
  • Drill & screws (be sure your screws are long enough to attach both layers of plywood to each other but won't go all the way through to the other side)
  • Ring hooks (at least 2)

Cut one sheet of plywood to measure 60"x40" You could even do less than 40 on the second measurement if you need to. My plywood ended up showing a little on the bottom.

Cut 40 8"x8" pieces of plywood.

Thanks so my husband and dad for cutting all the plywood for me!

Cut 40 8"x8" pieces of foam.

Cut 40 8"x8" pieces of batting.

Cut 40 12"x12" pieces of fabric.

And now the real fun begins!
Assemble your patchwork pieces: 
1) Start with a piece of 8"x8" inch plywood 

2) Glue a piece of foam on top of that (just enough so it doesn't slide around). Make sure the foam's not overlapping too much-you can trim it if need be.

3) Add the batting. You can glue this a little too.

4) Place the three layers face down on a piece of 12"x12" fabric that is right side down

5) Pull the fabric over the edge of the wood and tight on one side.

6) Staple the fabric to the wood in the middle of that side

7) Repeat steps 5 & 6 for all four sides making sure not to pull too tightly

8) Pull the fabric up tight (but not too tight) and staple close to both corners on 1 side of the wood

9) On one corner of the same side fold the fabric sort of like a present and pull it up over the edge of the wood

10) Staple the fold in place. Repeat Steps 9 & 10 for the other corner on this side

11) Repeat steps 8-10 for the side opposite the one you just completed.

12) On the remaining two sides, pull the fabric tight and over the edge of the wood until the fabric is smooth on the side. Staple in place.

You should have something that looks like this:

Repeat that process until you have 40 patchwork pieces.

Arrange your pieces in the pattern you'd like. I went for a random look. Normally, I go for order and patterns and things being all lined up, but this was an adventure, so random it was!

I managed to not take pictures of the next steps...oops! Let me know if you have questions, but I'll try to explain.

Flip all your pieces face down while maintaining your pattern (I put a sheet down so I was sure they wouldn't get dirty). Line up the pieces carefully (we lined up the wood edges) and tape them together.

Place your large piece of plywood over the patchwork pieces and screw them together at 8 inch intervals so that you get a screw in each patchwork piece.

Attach your ring hooks.

Hang that baby on the wall!
And enjoy your new headboard!



I'm linking at these great parties:
Mondays: Sweet Sharing Monday *  The Girl Creative * Destination: Cutesy Monday * What's In The Gunny Sack * Etcetorize * Made by you Monday*Make It Yourself Monday*Mop It Up Mondays*Make The Scene Monday*Make It Pretty Monday*
Tuesdays: Riverton Housewives Roundup *  Show Me What You Got * Tuesday Time Out  * Tasteful Tuesdays * 
Wednesdays: Super Link Party * Show & Share * {Wow Me} Wednesday *From Dream To Reality*Create & Share*What I Whipped Up Wednesday*What We Wore & Made Wednesday*The Creative Spark Wednesdays* Milk & Cuddles*Made By Me Wednesdays*
Thursday: Pin'Inspirational Thursday Recipe Roundup *A Crafty Soiriee * Creative Thursday *Taylor House Thursday*Transformation Thursday*Hookin Up With HoH*Creative Juice Thursday*Live Laugh Linky Thursday* Link Party Thursday*Taking A Time Out Thursday*
Fridays: Delicately Constructed Fridays * Flaunt It Friday * Financial Friday Link Up  *Friday Fun Party* Friday Flair*Pity Party*Frugal Friday*Friday Favorites*Weekend Craft Soiree*
Saturdays: Strut Your Stuff Saturday * Once Upon A Weekend * Sharing Saturday * Dare To Share Saturday * Craft, Create and Inspire * A Pinteresting Party*
Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday * It's Overflowing Sunday Party  * Cooking & Crafts Party

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44 comments:

  1. I love this! Definitely going to give it a try. Thanks for the tutorial!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! You'll have to send me pictures if you make one of your own. :-)

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  2. I love this!!!! It's so pretty!
    Thanks for sharing with my Super Link Party! :-)

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  3. Holy cute, this turned out perfect! Love how it could match any color scheme... now to pick some colors!

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  4. Looks fabulous and I love the fabrics you used!

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  5. Things looks really great! A lot of work I'm sure, but it's awesome!

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  6. Great job! You should link this up at my first LINK PARTY also!

    http://www.thecreativeorchard.blogspot.com/2012/08/tutorial-link-party.html

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'll be sure to link this one up too. :-)

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  7. Erin, this turned out so, so cute! I love the random pattern and I absolutely love the cheery color combination. I am very impressed. Have a great weekend!
    Blessings,
    Nici

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  8. This is beautiful! The fabrics are gorgeous :)

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  9. the headboard looks fantastic!

    I would like to let you know about a new Craft Party,

    I would love to see your creations linked up with Crafty Tuesday

    Every week I will choose few tutorials and they will be featured on my blog and my facebook, twitter and pinterest page

    I hope to see you link up

    http://blueberrycraftandhobbytime.blogspot.ie/

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  10. CONGRATS!!! You have been featured at The DIY Dreamer.. From Dream To Reality! Come on over and grab your featured button. You deserve it :)
    http://thediydreamer.blogspot.ca/2012/09/from-dream-to-reality-linky-party-32.html

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  11. What a great idea! It turned out beautiful. Megan

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  12. I love it. Well done, what a lot of work. Linking over from DIY dreamer

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  13. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful headboard on A Crafty Soiree! This week kicks off our September Celebration, marking a year of weekly Crafty Soiree parties. I'm excited to let you know you're project will be featured in this week's party post along with a giveaway from Shabby Apple! Please come and check out your feature, it will be up tonight after midnight EST.

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  14. This is such a neat headboard! You have a lot of patience to put it all together!

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  15. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! Did I mention that I LOVE this! I'm so going to do this in my daughter's room. I love the color scheme you chose too. Great tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing at Creative Thursday. Have a wonderful week Erin.

    Michelle

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  16. What an adorable idea! Super cute!
    Pinning also!
    Hugs, Jen @ frazzled5

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  17. Hey Erin.
    Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving the sweet comment about Lee's caramel frosting. My FIL doesn't really care for chocolate either. I think that is why this is his favorite frosting. It is really good on white or yellow cake too. Have a great weekend!
    Blessings,
    Nici

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  18. Wow, that is a super huge project to finish! It turned out awesome. How did you hang it? Is it very heavy? Thanks for sharing at Etcetorize this week~

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  19. These are ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you can link them up at my trendy tuesday going on RIGHT now!! ;) http://www.sweetlittlegals.com

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  20. This is a fantastic project Erin. I am spotlighting it tomorrow morning. :) Have a nice day.

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  21. Wow.. this is awesome!! I'm pinning this right away! Thanks for sharing the how too:D

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  22. I love this headboard. Thank you so much for sharing with Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party last week. This weeks Link Party is opened at
    http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2012/09/reeses-smore-brownies-and-wednesdays.html
    from Wednesday until Sunday.
    Hope to see you there.
    Debi Bolocofsky
    Adorned From Above
    www.adornedfromabove.com

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  23. Wow! This is so beautiful and impressive! Thanks so much for linking up to our Pinteresting Link Party!

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  24. Hi! Just popped in from The Dedicated House. This is such a COOL idea!! :) I love it! xo

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  25. Thank you for linking up last week @ craft, create and inspire linky party

    Your awesome project is featured this week :) please grab an I have been featured button..

    Hope you can stop by this week and share your projects with us

    Claire @ Polkadot pretties x

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  26. this is amazing! great job! looks fabulous ;)

    ana@carpe_diem

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  27. That's amazing, love it! Come check out my new crafty blog, just started it- eek!

    http://yellowtintedlife.wordpress.com/

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  28. Question about the fabric amount from a fabric novice, you said you used 4 yards of fabric. I'm thinking a yard of fabric is 3ft x 3ft giving you 9 sq ft in each yard. 4 yards at 9sq ft per yard is only 36 squares yet you say you had 40...can you help me understand so I get the right of fabric??

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Shasty,
      Thank you for finding that mistake! You are correct that you could only get 9 squares from a yard of fabric. I went back and counted my squares, so I could figure out what I did...I actually had about a yard and a third of the orange fabric, because there are 12 orange squares. The white fabric was wider that fabric typically is, so I was about to get 10 squares out of that. There are 9 squares of the green and yellow fabrics, so I only had a yard of those.

      So the long and short of it is that you'll need to get a yard and a third of each fabric if you want the same number of squares for each color. Fabric typically measures 45 inches across (some is even wider at 60 inches across), so a yard and a third will typically give you 45x48 inches...more than enough to cut ten squares.

      Thanks, again for finding that mistake!

      Delete
  29. Cute project! (I found your blog by clicking a link, but noticed the address is spelled incorrectly on the photo, just wanted to let you know!)

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  30. How did you attach these to the wall?/board?

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    Replies
    1. All the pieces are attached to a piece of plywood using screws. Then we attached ring hooks to the plywood to hang the whole thing on the wall. We moved about ten months ago, and some of the squares were coming loose, so we just screwed the whole thing to the wall and reattached the loose pieces using some heavy duty double-sided tape. Sorry, for the delayed response. If you have any more questions, please email me at takingtimeinthecity@gmail.com as I no longer actively blog here. Thanks for the question!

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I am no longer actively blogging here at Taking Time To Create, so if you have a specific question, please email me at takingtimeinthecity@gmail.com. Thanks so much for stopping by!