Brady’s DIY Channel Tufted Headboard

Hey folks, it’s Brady here today on the blog. Don’t worry, Em is still in charge. She is busy moving into her house while I bring you a fun DIY for your weekend (since I know you all are DYING for another project especially right before the holidays, because we all have so much spare time). I am assuming at this point you all know who I am but just in case you are new or have been ignoring me politely up to this point, let’s take a quick look at my living room, bathroom, and kitchen progress. Things are definitely coming along in my apartment and although there is still lots more to do (in my opinion) we are making some big steps towards it being finished. When it came time to tackle my bedroom I casually kept putting it off as I was just tired, uninspired, and not quite ready for another project on my plate. But, when Sapira by Leesa reached out about teaming up to share with you their new luxury hybrid mattress I said, “why not?” and happily obliged because it gave me the perfect excuse to upgrade my bedroom AND my sad sleeping situation. Besides, you spend a third of your life in bed, so it was definitely time to for me to find a high-quality mattress that I love to sleep on.

I am a very happy man now (as you can see by the look on my face when the new mattress came out of the box) but it was not always that way, for years I had a hand-me-down mattress that was hard, old, and probably doing nothing for me comfort or health wise. For some reason I even packed it up and trekked it with me from Salt Lake City to LA when I moved here 5 years (insane I know). Looking back now, I am asking myself why it took me so long to get a replacement but I realized that it is because mattresses’ and the buying process are intimidating. If you do make it to a store you have to deal with pushy salesmen and gross plastic pillow covers, and if you order from a big box store or online they usually don’t have any sort of guarantee or easy way to return if you don’t like the mattress. This is where Sapira has changed the game. Just like with their Leesa mattress, they have streamlined the process and the mattress which means you just go online, pick your size and within a few days it arrives at your front door all ready for you to unpack and try it out with their 100 day trial period. Be sure to use the code: EMILYHENDERSON100 when you checkout to get $100 off your mattress purchase. Talk about an easy way to bring a little bit of luxury into your bedroom before the holidays.

Speaking of easy, before you all freak out because this headboard looks like A LOT of work, rest assured that it truly is just a few steps and so easy once you break it down. When we went to shoot it, Tessa (the photographer) even said, “wait, that is it? That is how you made that headboard? It is so easy!” So, let’s get into it – an EASY DIY channel tufted headboard.

Here is what you will need for the headboard –

Fabric: I went with an olive green velvet that I sourced online, but you really can go with any fabric as long as it is upholstery weight. I love this velvet though, as it’s so soft and really easy to clean.

Scissors: My friend gave me these fancy ones, but your everyday house scissors will do just as good of a job at cutting through the fabric and batting.

Wood: I went with 6″ wide by 1″ thick by 12′ long common wood board. You can definitely get it in shorter lengths or have them cut it down at the store for you depending on how long you want your headboard to be. I cut mine down to the exact length of my wall which was around 11′.

Staple Gun: Any staple gun will work for this. If you want to get efficient then you can even go with an automatic model.

Wood Screws: Just traditional wood screws that are not longer than the depth of your wood board, so that they don’t poke through. I went with 3/4″ length.

Screwdriver/Drill: You will use this for putting it all together. I prefer a drill but a handheld screwdriver works just as well and will definitely build those arm muscles we are all striving for with swimsuit season quickly approaching.

Strap Tie: The ones that I used were 27″ and I used them to join all of my panels together.

Batting: Depending on how long your headboard is you will need enough yardage to wrap around each panel. I used 4 yards total so that it would cover the length of my boards. This might make more sense after you see the photos.

Half Round Foam: I went with these 6″ diameter bolsters which I had the company slice down the center. They can do it all for you at the factory and ship to you which makes it very easy. Their foam comes in lengths of 72″ so if your headboard is going to be longer than that you can just butt two of them up together (end to end) to extend the length.

Creating the channel tufted panels:

Step 1: Once you have your panels cut down to your desired length you will lay the fabric face down, then the batting, then the half round foam, and finally the wood piece.

Step 2: To make sure you have enough fabric to cover around the back of your wood, pull it tight on either side and adjust where your wood/foam is on the piece so that you can cover it completely. Once you figure out how much fabric this takes you can cut the rest of your fabric down to that specific width. I cut mine down to 18″ wide which was plenty to cover each panel.

Step 3: Staple one side all the way down trying to keep it all straight as you go. Once you get to the end, switch to the opposite side, pulling it tight as you go so that you have a clean ripple free finished panel on the other side.

Step 4: For your corners you will want to fold both sides in and then the bottom up to cover everything, just how you would with a gift you are wrapping. Then staple that piece down. You don’t have to be too careful with this as no one will see the back of your piece.

Creating the picture ledge: this is a totally optional step, but on my headboard I wanted to create a little ledge on the top of it which made it stand out from the wall a bit so that I could lean art, or even a put vase or books up there.

Step 1: Lay your fabric face down and then your wood on top.

Step 2: Similar to what you did before fold over the fabric and staple down one side and then switch to the other.

Step 3: Fold over the corner and staple.

Step 4: As I am writing this I realized that we totally forgot to include this angle bracket in the “what you will need section” –  so make sure you pick up some of these if you intend on adding the ledge to your headboard. I attached 4 total to my ledge – which was plenty to hold it to my panels.

Now it is time to put it all together! This process (like the rest) is really quite simple.

Step 1: You will join all of your channel tufted panels together with your strap tie. Make sure to line up the ends of your panels so that when it is all put together you don’t have any sticking out further than others.

Step 2: Once all your panels are together you will finish it off with your ledge by screwing that onto the top panel.

And that is about it! Easy – peasy right? Or have I completely lost you? If I haven’t, here’s ONE last (optional) idea. I ended up taking it a step further and upholstering my boxspring so that the entire bed had a finished and custom look.

Here is what you will need for the upholstered box spring:

Box Spring: Most boxsprings will work for this as long as they have a wood frame on them so that you can staple the fabric onto it. If you don’t have a wood frame then you could always hot glue the fabric down.

Staple Gun

Scissors

Fabric: I had enough left over from my headboard to do wrap the boxspring as it only requires a few yards of 12″ wide fabric.

Step 1: You will want to start by adding a little piece of fabric to your corners. This will serve as the backdrop for your pretty folded corner pieces so that it creates a little pleat and looks finished.

Step 2: Make sure your fabric piece covers at least 4 inches of each side from the corner and then staple it down, pulling tight as you go.

Step 3: To create the simple pleated corners you will take another piece of fabric that is long enough to cover one length of your box spring and fold over one end a few inches.

Step 4: Then just pull it up and staple it all the way down.

Now that we have the headboard installed it’s time to bring the new Sapira Mattress in which was definitely the most fun part of the entire process. The boxed mattress trend has been around for a while as I am sure you have seen, but Leesa (who we have worked with before for Scott’s guest bedroom, and my guest bedroom), has recently introduced their newest brand Sapira. Sapira is the first true luxury hybrid mattress that has been engineered to compress and ship in a box, which means that the perfect combination of both premium pocket springs and several layers of high performance foam is just a click away. So for those of you who love springs and weren’t ready to try an all foam mattress this new hybrid brings you the best of both worlds. Each mattress has over one thousand springs built into it which helps to cradle you while you sleep and if you have someone else in the bed with you it means they won’t wake you up while they toss and turn all night (game changer). They are also made in the USA, have complimentary shipping, and offer a 100-night risk free trial. Which means you can sleep on it from Jan to March and if the mattress isn’t for you (which I highly doubt will happen) then they will gladly refund you and arrange for a complimentary pick up.

I have been sleeping on mine for about a week now and I am loving it. It is just the right amount of firmness and cushion, and the quality is far above anything else I have seen. They also offer a white glove service to come and pick up your old mattress and open up your new one, but I DO recommend doing it yourself. I mean how fun is this 🙂

Once we had the mattress in it was time to make and style the bed as I was ready for a nap. The color of the headboard really serves as the main (and only) color in the room, so I wanted to keep everything else pretty neutral and paired back and play a lot with texture. I started with the simple relaxed roman shades in a white linen that I had custom made to fit the oddly sized windows and I love the way they let the light in ever so slightly but still give me the privacy I need for my bedroom. On the floor I put this vintage Moroccan rug from Esmali Rugs, it is lower pile than most of the Moroccan rugs you are seeing on the market now and I love that it allows for high traffic without getting all piled down and dirty. They have a massive selection of them and I also just learned that each rug pattern is actually a written message and you can get them read to you by a rug translator. Maybe in my next life I can just hang out with rugs all day as they speak their messages to me?

For the bedding I wanted to keep it fresh and light so I went with all white linen bedding as I love the way that it feels and how soft it gets wash after wash. Then on top of it I layered this waffle throw which Tessa tried to steal on her way out. It rippled so effortlessly and is so insanely soft and cozy it makes the perfect throw to have at the foot of your bed or to drape across a chair.

Then to top it all off and add some more layered texture I added this Moroccan pom pom throw which brought in a graphic modern stripe, but didn’t compete as it was in the same neutral color palette as everything else in the room.

Moving on over to the nightstand area, the art is all vintage that I picked up from the flea market, and to echo the black from the art I brought in that wood based black lamp and the small ceramic vessel with an abstract black stripe. Oh, and because I love to pretend I read at night rather than catch up on garbage television I threw in a book I’ve had on my reading list for months now with a pair of reading glasses (just pretend that that top drawer is not filled with remotes and HDMI cords for my electronics).