The Brink of Design

Create  a
Floating Head Board:

In looking for a headboard for my small bedroom (maybe my blog should have been called "This Small House"!) I discovered all the headboards were too large for my space. So, I came up with a SIMPLE and CHEAP design that gives my bed the illustion of a headboard.

I went to the fabric store and purchased a quality polyester microfiber fabric. I say "quality" because there are several microfibers out there that are too thin, and will tear if you use them in this type of application. You can use any fabric you want, you just want to make sure that fabric is strong, and can stretch over materials without tearing. The polyester fabric I chose gives the headboard the suede look I was going for. 

I then purchased batting (used for making quilts, and bedspreads) in sheet form to give the headboard dimention, and padding.I chose a high loft (thickness of the batting) to give the headboard extra padding (I wanted something soft for reading in bed!). You can purchase by the cut like me, or by the bag.

I then purchased a pre-cut particle board at a local hardware store.  Its so much easier than having to cut your own. 

Assembling the headboard was SUPER easy. You can do it by yourself, but the hubby gave me a hand. All we used was a staple gun,and stretched the batting around evenly adding a staple as we went to secure the batting on the backside.We made sure that we rounded the edges and made each side equal in thickness. We then did the same thing with the fabric. When we were done the back looked like this:

We then added the hardware to hang the headboard. To obtain that "floating" look we used mirror hardware. As you can see in the picture above, its a thin piece of metal that is slightly bent. This metal attaches to another piece of metal that you hang on the wall:

We centered both pieces, one on the headboard, and one where you want to hang the headboard on the wall. This hardware was the key to the floating design. It allows the headboard to be secure,and hang flat on the wall. It hasn't moved once since we've hung it!  
The final outcome was just what I was looking for!

My next project is to add some color to my bed by using accent pillows...I am also going to add some art to the wall above the headboard...Stay tuned!