One Room Challenge - Week Two, in which I build a headboard

It's week two of the One Room Challenge (you can read more about my first week and the beginning of my project here)

This week we painted the room. I chose a warm moody gray that reads blue-green depending on the light and the time of day. The color is an HGTV Home for Sherwin Williams color from Lowe's called Silvermist. It's the perfect background for all of the colors and textures that I'll be introducing to the room.

This week I also built a headboard to attach to the metal bed frame. I've added a tutorial below in case you'd like to build one too. I was lucky enough to be able to construct the entire thing of wood that we already had leftover from other projects (score!) but I'm including all of the wood on the materials list if you need to purchase yours. Not everyone has a huge pile of leftover wood just hanging around waiting to be used. Left outside, causing the neighbors and passersby to gossip. Count your blessings if you don't and bop over to the lumberyard to buy your wood! It should cost less than $75 total, which is a steal for a queen-sized headboard.

Materials:

• Four pieces of 1" x 4" x 6' pine boards
• Two pieces of 1/2" x 1.25" x 8' pine moulding strips
• One package of thin tongue and groove pine paneling (Lowe's sells a package of six 8' boards for about $17)
• Kreg jig (you could join the wood pieces other ways, but this is MUCH easier!)
• Kreg screws (I used 1.25" coarse thread screws)
• Walnut (medium brown) and Kona (almost black) stain
• Nails, a hammer, and a nail set, or a nail gun
• Sandpaper
• Wood glue
• Water-based polyurethane and a foam brush
• Bolts and nuts that will fit through the holes on your bed frame
• Drill and a drill bit the same size as the bolts
• Wrench

I determined that I wanted the headboard to be 48" tall and 60" wide to fit a queen size bed frame. I cut two of the 1" x 4" x 6' pine boards to 48" long for the sides of the headboard. I saved the ends (just shy of 24" each) for the inner braces. I cut the other two 1" x 4" x 6' pine boards to 54" long for the top and lower pieces of the headboard. I laid everything out on the floor of the garage to check the size and scale.

I used the Kreg jig to make the joining holes in each of the pieces of wood, and then attached the frame together with the Kreg screws. The advantages of the Kreg jig joints are speed, ease, and the tightness of the joints. I'm a fan!

Once the frame was assembled, I cut the tongue and groove paneling boards to 54" long each. Save the leftover ends to piece the length of the very bottom rows, which won't show because they'll be below the mattress edge and the pillows. Starting at the top and keeping all of the edges flush, begin nailing the paneling boards to the frame of the headboard. I used a nail gun but you could use fine nails, a hammer, and a nail set to recessed the nail heads for a cleaner finish. If you use the same paneling boards that I did, you'll notice that I used them upside down, that is, the back of the boards is what I used facing front. I loved the smaller grooves on this side of the wood (and this wood was leftover from another project so the fronts were already painted - see a peek of it below).

I carefully nailed into the grooves so the nail holes wouldn't be as noticeable.

Once the paneling was nailed on, I took the headboard outside for an all-over sanding to prepare it for staining.

The first coat of stain was much too light, so I ended up mixing two cans of stain together to get a darker, richer color.

Once the stain was dry, I measured and cut the 1/2" x 1.25" x 8' pine moulding strips to fit around the two sides and the top of the headboard, mitering the corners. Before I attached the strips to the headboard I stained them with a dark, almost black, Kona stain and let them dry.

Once the strips were dry, I added a bead of wood glue to the top of the headboard, positioned the top strip in place and nailed it. I repeated this with both the left and right sides. The back of each moulding strip was flush with the back of the headboard so the front edge protruded forward of the front of the headboard, forming a nice frame.

Once the headboard was completely assembled I coated it with three coats of water-based polyurethane, sanding between each coat.

I lined the headboard up against the metal bed frame and marked the holes on the wood.

I drilled holes where I made the marks large enough that the bolts would go through. I attached the headboard to the metal bed frame with three nuts and bolts on each leg and tightened them with a wrench. I threaded the bolts through the wood leg first so the head of the bolt was on the back of the leg and the nut was on the inside of the metal frame. This enables the headboard to sit flush against the wall without the bolt ends gouging the wall or getting in the way. It did make it a little trickier to tighten the nuts down, especially the ones below the box spring. Picture me on my stomach on the floor, with not enough light under the bed, tightening those nuts by feel. Copious cursing in several languages helped.

A shot of the back of the headboard - the paneling was leftover from a planked feature wall that I built in my clients' dining room! I used the planks on the headboard on the reverse side because I liked the grooved detail. It's fun having that surprise in the back of the headboard and it's even more fun that I used leftover wood to make it.

Here's the headboard attached to the bed frame, in place in the room. I love the colors and how clean and modern it looks!

And here's a sneak peek at the new headboard with the pillows - I couldn't resist seeing how it all looks together. I'll go into more depth about the room's textiles in another week.

I just heard that the rug arrived. I found an amazing deal on the CB2 website (6' x 9' rugs are harder to find than 5' x 8' so the hunt was extensive) but the rug was backordered, so it's a relief to know that it's arrived. Trying to pull this room together, between building things and waiting for things ordered to arrive, in six short weeks is nerve wracking!