Upholster your headboard with woven canvas

After a year of waking up in the middle of the night because my 3-year-old had hit his head on his Fjellse headboard AGAIN, I decided to take matters into my own hands and fix the situation. Three rolls of autumn orange canvas, a staple gun, scissors and the IKEA Fjellse bed (Tarva would work as well) and voilà! This is a super easy project that anyone with an open wood headboard like the IKEA Fjellse, Neiden or Tarva can do.

Upholster your headboard with woven canvas

Read the full article.

What you’ll need:
  • IKEA Fjellse, Neiden or Tarva bed frame
  • Staple Gun
  • Staples (I used 3/8 inch but 5/16 would be fine as well)
  • Canvas rolls, your favorite width and color (I used 3 rolls of 1.25 inch in Autumn Orange)
  • Good scissors
  • Four 2-inch screws and a drill (optional)
What you’ll do:

STEP 1

(This is optional, but a good idea if you intend to make this a functional headboard and not just eye candy.) Pre-drill above or below the IKEA provided bolts and secure the top and bottom frame boards with screws so that the board won’t move when the canvas adds tension.

Upholster your headboard with woven canvas

STEP 2

Staple the end of the canvas to the back of the bottom board, pull over the top of the frame, tighten and staple to the back. Put a little body weight into it and use 2-3 staples on both the top and the bottom. Cut the canvas below the staples so that you can’t see the ends from the front of the bed. Repeat at even increments (I just eyeballed the spacing) all the way across until it looks like this:

Upholster your headboard with woven canvas

STEP 3

Start from the top left (or right if that’s your jam) and staple one end. You will need to pre-cut strips this time to weave the canvas. Pull the strip over and under all the way across. If you started under, make sure the next strip goes over first. Just think back to paper weaving in elementary school. Repeat until you are below where the mattress will sit.

Upholster your headboard with woven canvas

STEP 4
Admire your sweet new headboard!

Watch our video tutorial on the hack.

~ by Lara Wilhelm