DIY wood fabric headboard Made with Structural Steel.

Check out the newest addition to my bedroom! All thanks to a trip to Ikea over the weekend where I spotted this fab new wood-look fabric. I’ve wanted a headboard for my room for ages now and have had to rack my brain for a rent-friendly idea which didn’t involve screwing it to the wall.

I actually only picked up a metre of this fabric on Saturday as I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. Naturally as soon as I got home I decided on a bed head and had to have it in my life immediately, so a quick boyfriend food bribe later and back off to Ikea we went.

I love those moments when you are really excited about a new DIY project and you can’t wait to get it finished! I was like a loopy kid jacked up on sugar. I had some polyester pin board left over from a previous headboard project flop, so the process was crazy simple. If you have some sheets of MDF this would also work a charm and I’d recommend gluing a layer of padding or extra fabric to soften it up a tad before putting the wood fabric in place.

  • Lisel Fabric from Ikea (I have a king bed so bought 2.5 metres)
  • Polyester pin board (also known as acoustic board – I got mine from Bunnings) or sheets of MDF to fit the width of your bed.
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Tape
  • Staple Gun

First step – Measure out your headboard width and cut your wood or pin board to size. I went just 10cm wider than my bed, so 5cm either side. The pinboard I purchased was 1200 x 800mm so I left the height as is and trimmed the width of each board.

Step 2 – Iron your fabric

Step 3 – Measure and draw a straight line down the top of your headboard wood/pinboard on the back. Use this line to check your fabric design is straight. The wood design has a nicely annoying pattern with vertical lines so it’s important it lines up well when finished or your headboard is going to look a wee bit drunk

Step 4 – Tape your fabric down in place, keeping it a little taught.

Step 5 – Now you can get to work with the staple gun. Start at the top over your taped section. Be sure to keep it nice and straight and staple around 5cm from the edge, every 10cm or so.

Step 6 – After the top is secure, start on a top corner and work your way down a side.  Pull it tight before each staple and watch that the design looks straight.

Step 6 – Now you can staple the bottom edge. Be sure to really give it a good pull and make it nice and tight. Then do the same with the final edge.

Step 7 – Pop it behind your bed! The mattress itself is enough to hold it in place fine and I just left it resting on the floor, but if you’re keen to secure it properly you could use some 3M velcro back strips too which are also rent-friendly as they peel write off. We found 2 suppliers for the structural steel, check out the Austeel website and Simons steel website.

Has a real Scando feel don’t you think?