Saturday, January 16, 2010

Tufting Out a Headboard

John and I both like to read before bed but without a headboard to lean against we were always ending up in a pillow battle... whoever took longer brushing their teeth would usually hop in bed only to find that their pillow had been confiscated by the other and used for extra "head propping". So my fiance built a beautiful headboard covered in chocolate brown microsuede fabric and gave it to me for Christmas (he now has more upholstering experience than I do). It's nice and tall and super comfortable to lean against. We decided that tufting it would make the wonderful addition to our room even better... so guess how we spent last Tuesday night? Tufting. When some friends called that night to see what we were up to there was a slight misunderstanding when I said we were "tufting our headboard"... apparently tufting and testing sound a lot a like over the phone, heh heh. Anywho... here are a few pictures and tips in case anyone else out there is tired of stacking pillows against a bare wall just to get their bookworm lean on.

First we bought 10 "Half Ball Cover Buttons" and covered them with leftover fabric (the same fabric that the headboard was covered with). That part was fairly simple... cut the fabric into circles, wrap it around the smooth top portion of the button, and snap on the back of the button. We then threaded wire trough a little hook on the back of the buttons; the wire goes through a hole in the headboard and is then wrapped tightly around a screw just underneath the hole. This holds the button down nice and tight and makes a little tuft. We then took some measurements, decided where we wanted the buttons to be, and marked spots all along the back of the headboard. John then drilled holes where the spots were (from the back of the headboard straight through to the front). Just be sure to hold the fabric tight and drill slowly as you poke through the fabric.The only problem we really encountered was getting the wire to go all the way from one side to the other without getting caught up in all the padding. It kept bending before it made it all the way through to the other side. This step probably would have been easier if we had drilled bigger holes (note to self). BUT we rigged a little tunnel system that helped guide the wire. We tried a regular straw but that we too big so we used a straw from a juice box which just barely fit. It was much easier to thread the juice box straw from one hole to the other than it was the wire... so all we had to do was place the straw and then fish the wire through it. (can you see it in these pictures?)

We repeated the juice-box-straw-threading-wire-technique 10 times and voila!!We have a comfy cozy spot to read before we hit the hay.

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