bright HOPE: It was a DIY weekend in the Coates home.

Hobby Lobby had a sale (they always have a sale) on fabric. So I took that as an opportunity to do some DIY projects I have been thinking about for a long time :). I absolutely have loved making things for our home since moving to Spring Hill, not only because it saves us a lot of money, but I also really really enjoy doing it. In the next few weeks, I'll give tutorials on some of the things I made this weekend. I hope you're inspired :).

First up - Upholstered headboard for our bedroom (cost approx $35).

What to purchase:
Plywood - I bought it at home depot. I picked the 3/8" thick plywood because it was the cheapest. I had it cut (for free) at Home Depot to 60" by 36" for a queen sized headboard. It cost $11.
Fabric - 2 yards of fabric bought at Hobby Lobby. I think it was $8. I bought the thicker fabric (not sure what it's called) so it would hold up longer.
Foam-I bought the 1" thickness foam from Hobby Lobby. This was the most expensive item. It was $13. I probably should have waited until I had a coupon or until it was on sale, but I am not a very patient person and I really wanted to get it done this weekend. Learn from my mistakes. You can also buy this at JoAnnes and it might be cheaper there.
Hanging Hooks - $3 at Home Depot.

Things I used that we already had: Fabric scissors, glue (I used carpenters glue but I think there are way better choices for something like this... it was all I had and it ended up working ok), drill, hammer, and a power stapler.

Step one:
Glue the foam to the plywood. My foam wasn't quite wide enough (because it was cheaper:), but it was way too long, so I just trimmed the length and used the scraps to fill in the rest. I let the glue dry for about 3o minutes before putting the fabric over it.

Step two - staple the fabric to the back of the headboard. I had about 2-4 inches overlap of fabric. I lined up the fabric how I wanted it (so my pattern wouldn't be crooked), and stappled in the center on each side first, pulling it as tight as I could before stapling. Then I put a staple every couple of inches, pulling the fabric very tight as I stapled.

Step three - Brian put the hooks on the back of it. The wall hooks I used hold 50 pounds each. We put three of them on the headboard, spaced out evenly, about 1/3 of the way down. Then we put hooks on the wall to mount it to. Here is Brian hard at work... and a picture of the hooks we used.