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DIY Foam Headboard

We recently upgraded to a king size bed. After two pregnancies in a queen, I knew I needed more space for the last three months. Plus, I like to cuddle, but not sleep and cuddle. I don't like to touch when sleeping, so I wanted more space between us. (Sounds so unromantic, but we really do love each other).

Our queen mattress was a hand-me-down from Zane's college roommate's parents, so we had been sleeping on it for nearly 10 years, and who knows how old it was when Zane inherited it. Gross.

We visited a mattress store and were hopeless about ever affording to upgrade. King mattresses are minimum $1000. I researched beds that ship to you folded up in boxes, like you get from Ikea. Sleep Like the Dead was a great resource because it has a bajillion unbiased reviews. We ended up getting a mattress and platform frame from Amazon for a fraction of the cost of a mattress store mattress.

Platform frames are pretty nice, because you don't need a box spring and there are several more inches of storage space under the bed. Win!

Our mattress: Zinus memory foam
Our platform frame: Zinus 14''
We also needed headboard brackets, which had mixed reviews, but we had no trouble with them.

We've been sleeping on this bed for several months and are very happy with it.

Let's get to the headboard. Our bed is under a window, and when we sold our queen bed frame, we were without a headboard for months. I apparently liked sitting up in bed, because I went through withdrawals for a little while, not sure where to use my laptop. (I'm currently writing at the kitchen table, so I obviously adjusted).

I knew I would want to breastfeed #3 comfortably in bed, so project headboard began.


We measured our bed, the height to the top of the mattress and the height I wanted the headboard, and did our calculations.

We bought a $30 piece of MDF board and a 2''x4'' from Lowes. They cut the board for us to 78x26'' and cut the 2x4'' in half to give us two 48'' long pieces.

In retrospect, I would have gone with 76'' or 77'' long because it does hang off the edge of the bed a little. I would also have done 20'' or even shorter. Our headboard is very tall at 26''.

Since everything was cut at Lowes, we only had to assemble at home. Zane screwed the board into the 2x4's.


We had a queen size memory foam topper with no queen mattress anymore, so I cut two pieces at 26'' wide. It is already 78'' long. I think we bought this for $70 on Amazon a while ago, so it was good to repurpose it.



We carried the board into the bedroom and set it next to the headboard brackets to mark where the holes needed to be. Then we carried it back to the garage, and Zane drilled holes for the bolts.



I used Gorilla Glue to glue down the bottom layer of foam. Zane got a nice shot of my 33 week baby belly.


We spot-glued the top layer of foam.



We used one of our old queen flat sheets to secure the foam onto the board.



I always wanted to have a staple gun, and we finally got to use it for this project.



We screwed on the headboard and slept with it for a few nights before I could finish a prettier cover. The nights without a pretty cover had me second-guessing the project. I looked pretty shabby, but after I finished the cover, I was happy with our decision.

This fabric was formerly the curtains in our bedroom, but I love it more as a headboard cover.


Someday I'll get prettier pillows and a fluffy bedspread, but for now, we're very happy with our new headboard. It's super comfy and I love the bright colors with our mismatched pillow cases.

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