Evolution of a Bed: Headboard & Pillows

Meet our bed.

Meet our bed one month ago. And while you’re meeting it, don’t pretend you aren’t wondering when we moved into a college dorm room.

Seriously, all that’s missing is a shower basket and the lingering scent of the dining hall and a poster of a kitten in a teacup.

In true college-budget fashion, we built the headboard for under $50. The velvet fabric was $8 for two yards on clearance at Joann’s, the wood is really crappy 3/4” plywood that was around $18 a sheet, the batting was on sale, $8 for a giant roll at Joann’s, and the faux nailhead trim was also from Joann’s: 5 yards regularly for $19.99, but only $12 with a 40% off coupon.

What’s that? You want a close-up of that sleeping kitten? Okay.

We didn’t follow a specific tutorial, but Kelly has a good one if you’re looking for a step-by-step upholstered headboard process. Overall, it was one of our easiest projects yet. Rick is somehow a professional at curved upholstery and so he upholstered the whole thing single-handedly in about the time it took me to get ready for church a couple of Sundays ago. Seriously, I went into the bathroom seeing plywood and came out seeing velvet. And the addition of the faux nailhead trim took us maybe 30 minutes max. It was seriously so easy to use.

Enlisting a cat is not necessary.

I measured one inch from the edge of the headboard, Rick held the trim in place, I held the nail in place with pliers, and Rick hammered it in. It would have been significantly more difficult if we hadn’t been helping each other and I had been, say, taking photos of cats while Rick was hard at work.

You can tell it isn’t the real deal from up close, but that’s okay with me.

The fabric for the accent pillow is Jaclyn Smith Clarinet Heritage, also from my BFF Joann. It is regularly $44.99 a yard, which is a bit steep for me, but the colors were perfect so who am I to say no? I got it for 60% off and only needed half a yard, so that plus the batting to stuff inside of it made the whole pillow cost about $20.

And if you thought the college bed “before” was pretty darn ugg (just getting my vocabulary ready for the teenagers I will be reacquainted with in less than 2 weeks…) remember what that half of the room looked like when we bought the house?

If you have a few hours with nothing better to do, you can read about the whole de-closeting, de-birding, de-carpeting, de-texturing process here.

Have you used faux nailhead trim? What did you decorate your college dorm room with? Who wants to crack “You might be a cat lady if…” jokes at my expense? Go ahead. I can take it.

***Linking up to Thrifty Décor Chick, Serenity Now, The Shabby Creek Cottage and Embracing Change!***