A Child's DIY Chevron Headboard... {Kid's Bedroom}

My youngest child has a new favorite color every day...

So when I spied this fabric at Lens Mill Store in London, I knew it was the punch of color I was hoping to find for his headboard. With red, orange, yellow, green, blue, even brown (which he also claims is a favorite), the fabric represented the ever-changing mind of our spontaneous three-year-old, while still being boyish and something he can grow with. Plus, it doesn't hurt that his mama is a sucker for a killer chevron pattern.

For his headboard, we grabbed a slice of plywood from our nearby Home Depot, which they cut for us (approximately 40" by 40"), and while at Lens Mill Store we also picked up 1" thick batting for cushion.

Our batting ended up being a bit big, so we slimmed it down with a pair of scissors. Then, using Stanley, our staple gun, which we already had on hand (we picked it up at Canadian Tire awhile ago, after winning a $50 gift card with the scratch and save.. we give it the thumbs up!) we pulled tight and secured the batting to the plywood. Beginning at all four corners, and then filling the stretch in between.

It was pretty easy, even little hands got in on the action.

We fired extra staples into the corners where the batting was thick (since it was doubled up).

The fabric portion of our fabric was a bit more tricky. We wanted to be careful to line up our chevron pattern perfectly so that it didn't swerve. This part took two pairs of adult hands, a dose of patience, and extra time, but it was very worth it in the end. Again, we focused on the corners first, pressing in one staple then checking the front to see how our pattern lined up. It was a good technique, especially if you need to remove a staple to adjust the fabric, it would be quite easy.

Like the batting, we trimmed the fabric so there wasn't so much excess. I've kept these scraps of fabric in case I want to use them for another small project in our son's room. For the final step, securing the headboard to the wall, the handyman purchased this two piece set from Home Depot, and the headboard doesn't move a hair.

Here's the bedroom, after brightening it up with Silver Drop paint by Behr and doing a birch tree accent wall (the painters tape gave us a rough idea of what size headboard we'd like):

And now with our little guy's new headboard:

The headboard rests just above the baseboard, and is a good height and position to complement the birch tree accent wall. We all love it. It's even more cushy that I expected it to be. We like that it extends a few inches on either side of the bed, to give this tiny twin bed more oomph. It also grounds the bed, so it doesn't look like it's floating in the corner.

What a great difference from this, a few weeks ago:

We'v gotten a thumbs up from our three year old, which is the greatest compliment! 

As far as cost, the supplies from Home Depot (plywood, hangers) came to about $20, while the supplies from Lens Mill Store came to about $33 ($9.90 for the batting and $23.08 for the fabric). So our homemade headboard was under $60. We certainly splurged a bit on our fabric, but we had the staple gun and staples on hand. We think it was well worth it, especially since it has this family's touch..