Guest room makeover part one

Ever since we moved from our tiny apartment into a real house (with a garage!!), we were dying to begin a long list of projects.  Last weekend we decided to tackle the guest room.  During the move we purchased a new guest mattress, which was really great because we moved in the house a week and a half before our furniture could be delivered.  It was also good because our old guest mattress was really old, stained, and the box springs had major holes in them.  YUCK!  Along with the mattress we purchased a simple metal bed frame with the intention of making some sort of really cool headboard.  We looked for something neat at the cool architectural salvage store in town, and found some interesting gates and fence pieces.  We ultimately decided that we couldn't deal a with rusty 100 pound iron fence as a headboard.  We thought about building a wooden headboard, but finally decided we should go the upholstered route.  

We started out with 3/4 inch plywood cut down to the width of the bed and the tallest height we could fit in our car. Tyler then cut a notch on either side of the top of the headboard (with his new jig saw) so it wouldn't be square and boring.   

Then he attached legs to the backside of the headboard so we could connect the headboard to the bed frame instead of the wall.   

Here is a photo of one of the notches on the top of the headboard. 

We did a fit check to make sure we were totally happy before upholstering. The blue painters tape on the wall was how we decided what shape/size to make the headboard. We had fun taping up all sorts of designs, until we found the perfect shape. 

We glued 1 inch foam to the front of the board and then wrapped the foam with two sheets of quilt batting. 

Here is an up close view of the stapled batting.  

Next we very carefully stapled on the fabric. We picked a fun, bold pattern because we usually have neutral walls.  

Ta Da! Here is the finished product.  Well, nearly finished.  Tyler still needs to attach the legs to the bed frame and I am undecided about the green comforter.  The guest room make over is far from finished, but we are really happy with this first project.  Look for more changes over the next month!