At Home With The Hansens: {Custom Headboard: A Labor of Love}

The last time we chatted about our Master bedroom, it looked a little something like this:

And our list of to-dos still looked like this:

Replace ceiling fan
Purchase and possibly refinish nightstands
Upgrade to a Cal King bed
Get a full size mirror (like this one)
Eventually put up crown molding
Build a headboard

I'm so excited to share that a good chunk of that list has been checked off! This weekend my awesome hubby completed our headboard, which means that our to-do list now looks like this:

~~Replace ceiling fan~~
Purchase and possibly refinish nightstands (Found what we want and ready to purchase)
Upgrade to a Cal King bed (Currently in the market)
~~Get a full size mirror (like this one)~~
Eventually put up crown molding
~~Build a headboard~~
~~Build/purchase closet organizer~~

Obviously we have made other small changes here and there over the course of a year, but this project has definitely been the most drastic improvement to our room so far! We're quite smitten with the turn out and amazed at what a big difference it makes in the overall feel of our bedroom. But before I go on with the details and a brief tutorial, here she is in all her glory:

You might be wondering why we made it so wide and the answer is that we made it to fit a Cal-King bed that we are currently in the market to purchase - Yay!!! With that upgrade, there will be about a foot of headboard on each side. Of course that is our personal preference, but you could certainly cut it down to your desired width.

We really wanted the headboard to be a dominant element in our bedroom as we've chosen to keep our room simple with minimal furniture. I really love the rich tones and masculine/rustic balance this addition gives our space!

All-in-all, this was a fairly simple and inexpensive project. More than anything it required time, which these days is quite precious around here, so I consider this a labor of love from my husband!

I have put together a short step-by-step for this project below if you are interested (I apologize that I don't have any pictures of the process so please feel free to ask if anything is unclear or you have questions!)

Materials:
Eight 8 ft. Pine boards cut to the size you desire $4/each
Three 6 ft support boards $3/each
Sand Paper: 80 & 150 grit Already had
Steel wool: 000 (an alternative would be 220 grit sand paper) $2
Stain: Minwax Wood Finish in Red Oak 215 $7.50 for 1 Qt.
Polyurethane:Satin finish (You could also use a Polycrylic) $15
Pack of disposable sponge brushes $4
3/4 in. brad nails and 2 1/2 in. finish nails Already had

Tools Used:
Palm sander
Nail gun

Step 1: Distressing For multiple reasons, we opted to start with new pine boards and distress them ourselves. Starting with eight 8 ft. boards, my husband went to town using various methods to stress the boards. Some of which included: pounding the boards with a double-thick bag of nails and screws, creating marks with drill bits, burn marks, making grooves with a chisel and screw driver etc. This process requires a lot of experimentation so don't be afraid of a little trial & error. Our goal was for each board to be unique so there was no right or wrong method. Once you have distressed the boards to your liking, you want to sand down all of the corners and any rough edges, first with the 80 grit and then the 150 grit sand paper.

Step 2: Staining Once you have sanded the boards, you will need to wipe them down with a damp cloth to remove any dust and particles. Also make sure that your work space is cleaned up well. You probably want to test a small area that has been sanded down first to make sure you like the stain. After you are sure about the stain color and you have mixed it well, apply one coat to the boards. Because we wanted some variation to our boards, we wiped the stain after applying for a lighter effect on a few boards, while leaving the stain on the other for a darker look. This is really up to you and how dark you want your finish. Allow the stain at least 24 hours to dry.

Step 3: Durability Once the stain is completely dry you are going to apply the polyurethane coats, allowing at least 24 hours in between for each coat to dry. You will want to apply a minimum of 2 coats for durability. Once each coat is dry and before reapplying, sand down the boards with your steel wool or 220 grit sand paper.

Step 4: Assembly After you have decided the order you want to boards to be assembled, you are ready to attach them to your three support boards. You will want to place two of the support boards so they are a few inches smaller than the width of your bed and place the third board in the center of them. When your stained boards are laid out evenly cross-ways on the support boards, begin nailing each board in place using the shorter brad nails. Once they are all attached, position your headboard in place and attach to the wall with the longer finish nails in the bottom of each support board. We also placed a few at the top of the headboard for additional support, using a small spacer board in the gap to account for the baseboard.