Upholstered Headboards for the Triple Bunk Bed

Good design is in the details. And I believe good design does not waste. When we moved into this house one year ago I attempted to convert our dining chair habit to benches so the children would take up less space.

Nice idea, but uncomfortable! I think dining benches are usually wider than picnic table benches. The cushions have languished in random spots this past year.

We also had a IKEA Billy Bookcase that was put together one too many times that embarrassingly died of a heart attack our yard sale in April. I decided to use the sides to make upholstered headboards for the kiddos. They had a notch at the bottom to accommodate baseboards (in its life as a bookcase) so my husband cut them down to make them even all the way down. You can use any solid board for this project, wood or mdf. I just chose to use what we have on hand.

After removing the old fabric from the cushsions, I laid the foam on the ground and, using a pencil, traced where it would need to be cut.

Do you have any kitchen tools that only come out at Thanksgiving? I’ve used our electric knife way more frequently for cutting foam than cutting turkey. Regular scissors won’t cut it, you’ll need an electric knife.

I laid the freshly cut foam on the ground and draped the old quilting batting over to trim off the excess.

Ordinarily I’m a sloppy diy’er (my projects just photograph well). Here I decided to take the extra investment time and staple the batting on before the fabric. I did a variation on a hotel corner, tucking in whatever I needed to.

This step was totally worth it. I did not have to worry about each item sliding around as I worked with the fabric.

First I created my daughter’s headboard by laying down the fabric on the ground. At the fabric store I asked the clerk to cut 1/2 yard pieces for me. So I did not need to measure or cut at all for this project.

After my daughter’s I went on to my son’s. His fabric is upholstery fabric and laid very nicely while I tucked and stapled.

Immediately I asked my daughter to test out the finished project.

My plan is to add an eye hook to the back on each end and loop some cord around the posts of the bed to keep it in place. This will make them easily interchangeable when the kids move up in the world (i.e. my baby starts using the bottom bunk).

Right now the top bunk is a play area.

This project was super easy and took less than an hour to complete two headboards. The only problem is that immediately my son rejected his and pushed it on the ground. It’ll be on the top bunk until I figure that one out. But we must always be flexible when decorating for children!