How to Make a Channel Tufted Headboard

How To Create A Channel Tufted Headboard

Get a Luxe Look For Less

Sometimes I get an idea in my head for a piece of furniture and I can't find it anywhere.  Or I find a picture of something similar, yet it's about 487 million dollars, and it turns out I only have 387 million dollars, so alas, I can't afford it.  

Life is hard.  Hashtag first world problems. 

That is the story of this headboard.  It was almost four years ago, and I couldn't find a green velvet headboard ANYWHERE.

 It's one of the most commented on item when I post on instagram so I wanted to share how I made it. It's really easy.  If you read all the way down, you can see how I made it with NO SAWS or cutting items (because I don't do saws, because I like all my fingers). 

(You can now find a green velvet headboard lots of places, but if you want a different more unique color- you’re gonna have to make it yourself)

Supplies Things You Need: 

• Boards: Decide what width you want the channels to be, and how high of a headboard.  (If you want to be most cost conscious, do a headboard height that can be cut out of 8 or 12 feed boards evenly (so 4ft/6ft high), as opposed to picking a 5ft tall headboard and having a bunch of 3 ft left over scraps).  

• batting (do not try to do it without the batting)

• 2" foam

• staple gun and LOTS of staples

• french cleat 

• 1x2" boards for back

• drill 

• screws

• Fabric 

How To Steps

1.  Figure out how many boards you need.  I used 1x6's (which are really more like 1x5s) and needed 12 of them, and for our bedroom I needed them to 40” tall.  I went to Home Depot and had them cut the boards for me there.  The signs there say they charge for more than a few cuts, but I've never had an issue with being charged (and even if you are, it's like $0.25 a cut, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than a saw...also less chance of losing fingers)  I also got 1 x 2" cut long enough to go the width of the headboard

2. Next step- Measure out each piece of foam on a board and cut the foam into pieces.  You generally want to make sure the piece of foam is the same size as the board or slightly smaller, or you'll have some overhanging foam bulge (the technical term for it) and it could be more difficult to connect all channels together.  

3. Batting: you're going to need a piece of batting large enough to wrap each piece of foam and board.  Think about wrapping a present, Staple the crap out of the batting. 

4. Fabric:  Once you've got each board wrapped with batting, cut fabric to size to cover each individual board (once again you want to wrap it like a present).  Flip the foam board covered with batting upside down on the fabric (so you can see the staples you just put in) and proceed to wrap board like a present.  Take care when folding the corners at the top, so they're flat and uniform on all the boards, because you'll be able to see them.  Staple away. 

5.  Once you've got all the boards foamed, wrapped in batting and covered in fabric, line them up in the order you want them to be.  Then flip them fabric side down/staple side up on the floor.

6.  You might need help with this step- or you could use some heavy things to hold the boards together. 

You want to take the 1x2's and place them on 2 sections of the headboard- their purpose is to hold all the boards together.  you want the highest one to be about 1/3 of the way down the headboard, and the second about 2/3 of the way down so they're placed evenly. (In the picture above, the level is to imitate how you would attach a 1x2 to the fabric wrapped pieces of wood).

Screw some long enough screws into the wood, so you can connect the two boards (you want the screws long enough to go into the second board and hold the two boards together, but not too long that it's going to poke out the foam in the front...Not a super comfy bed if a screw is hitting you in the head).  

7.  Attach the french cleat onto the back of top 1x2".   Attach other french cleat to wall (do some measuring first to make sure it's in the right spot, and make sure you're using a few studs.  (use a big french cleat with a high weight limit)

8.  Hang headboard on wall.  

9.  Go take a nap in your nice new bed.  

(You’ll notice some of these pictures are from the channel tufted banquette we made recently- you can go to that post to see more info. Both the headboard and banquette were made with same method, but I lost the pictures from when I made the headboard)

Let me know if you have any questions!

Learn How To Create A Kitchen You Love by Painting Your Cabinets

Learn How To Create A Kitchen You Love by Painting Your Cabinets

(No paint sprayer needed)

So you hate your kitchen cabinets and don’t want to spend the money for new ones. 

I get it. 

Painting is a great way to change the whole look of a kitchen without spending a ton of money.  It takes some time and effort, but you can do it well…even WITHOUT a paint sprayer. 

I painted the lower cabinets in the kitchen above for the fall 2020 One Room Challenge and they turned out really well. (Scroll to bottom to see what they looked like before, and some more after pics).

I’ve sprayed kitchen cabinets before & I’ve rolled them.  They both have pros & cons, but this time around I didn’t want to deal with all the spray prep, and I also didn’t have a warm place to do the painting if we were to spray them. 

The thing that makes it possible to roll these is the most amazing paint product to ever hit the market….Benjamin Moore’s Advance line.

No, they’re not paying me (unfortunately). This paint is a latex paint, but levels like an oil. Which means it takes 16 hours to dry (boo!), but gives you the best finish you could ask for as a non-professional (yay!).

Supplies You Need To Paint Your Cabinets

• ziplock bags (for door hardware

• Screwdriver

• Orbital Sander

• 100 Grit, 200-300 grit sandpaper

• Fine grit sanding block

• 4” roller with short nap

• 1-2” Angled paint brush

• Benjamin Moore Advance Primer

• Benjamin Moore Advance Paint (Matte/Satin/Semigloss/High Gloss options)

  • I have used all of these sheens for painting cabinets or furniture, and the only one I don’t like is the satin. For some reason I never like the way it comes out.

Step One: You gotta take the cabinet doors off.

No. Don’t try to do this with the doors on. It’s gonna look bad. Real Bad. Pro tip is put hardware from each door into a ziplock bag and label it with door number. Write the door number in the notch where hardware goes, so you know it won’t be painted over (if you’re spraying cabinets, cover the number with a small piece of painters tape so you know what doors go where)

Step Two: Sand, Sand Sand

This step is the hardest and the worst.  It takes the most time, and if you don’t put the time and effort in, your whole project is gonna look real crappy real soon. 

You have to sand those suckers down and get rid of all the gloss on the cabinets so the paint will stick.  And when I say sand, you need to sand em’ good.  You also have to remember that you want the finish to stay smooth, so don’t sand with 60 grit, or it’s going to gouge out the fronts.  You should start sanding with 100 grit to get all of the initial finish off, and then go to 180-200grit to smooth everything up. 

Use a sanding sponge in the corners and the places that are hard to reach with your sander.  

Plan for the sanding to take you a few hours at the VERY LEAST, if not longer.  Do not skimp on this step.

Step Three: Clean Cabinets

I first vacuum the fronts with my dyson, and then I wipe them down with a soft, damp cloth, and then I vacuum them AGAIN.  Then I run my hands all over them to make sure that A) they’re consistently smooth and B) there is not any dust on them.  (you can also use tack cloth for this, but I prefer a damp rag)

Step Four: Prime Kitchen Cabinets

If you’re fancy, you will drill holes in the bottom of your cabinets door fronts so you can have the sticking up and paint both front and back and same time.  I’m not fancy. 

I used bins in my basement to set the fronts on. 

Remember to start painting the BACK of the cabinet FIRST.  You do this because then you will need to flip them over, and there is always a chance paint is dinged slightly from laying on a new paint job (which is why people suspend them in the air). 

Prime both sides and then let them dry.  We use Benjamin Moore Advanced line to paint, and use the Ben Moore Advanced primer.  If this is the only project you’re doing, then tint the primer to match your final color.  We bought a gallon of the primer in white, because we have a lot of projects we are using it for. 

Step Five: More Sanding

Oh yay!  Use a really smooth grit (200-300grit) to sand the primer. 

Try to get a really really smooth finish, because this will dictate how smooth your final finish is. 

Step Six: Painting Cabinets For Real

Finally the fun part! Remember to start with the back of the cabinets (also will give you some time to practice how to get a smooth finish with the roller). 

I used a 4” roller with a really smooth roller nap that is meant for cabinets and smooth surfaces (ask your local paint store to recommend the best kind). 

The trick to this paint is to try to get the most even surface (ie, don’t do one section of cabinet with a ton of paint, and the other just using what ever is left on the roller).  The paint will do an amazing job of leveling (smooth out), but try to put the same amount of paint with no huge blobs. 

Do not try to suck as much paint out of that roller as you can- on a wall with eggshell, you can roll and roll and use all the paint prior to getting more paint.  If you do that, you will not have a great finish. 

For these cabinets, I used a combination of a 4” roller and a small angled brush to get into the corners and crevices. 

You will need 2-3 coats of your final color. 

Step Seven: More Sanding

If you want to do an extra nice job, you will sand the cabinets between each coat of paint.  I was sort of lazy, so I only sanded them after the primer, and then prior to the 3rd and final coat of paint.  (don’t be lazy like me). 

Step Eight: WAIT FOR 2-3 Weeks

Now the trick is to let the door fronts sit for 2 weeks AT LEAST.  The Benjamin moore paint takes up to 21 days to cure completely, so if you start using them right away, the paint with ding…and chip.  If you wait until it completely hardens, you are much more likely to have a durable finish. 

I had to put the fronts on earlier than I wanted so I could get pictures to finish the One Room Challenge, and they got dinged up pretty bad in that first week.  After another week or so, they’ve been pretty hardy and are still looking good a few months later. 

Let me know if you have any questions and/or how your project goes!

What the kitchen looked like before:

And After:

Week 5 One Room Challenge: Modern Vintage Kitchen in Grand Rapids, MI

Week 5 One Room Challenge: Modern Vintage Kitchen in Grand Rapids, MI

Here I am posting a few days late. We had a client presentation for a big project this week (it’s going to be amazing, and I can’t wait to show it to you…in like 8 months), and that means that our own projects go on the back burner.

see the pretty new windows!??

I can only imagine how long this project would take us if we didn’t have the ORC to give us a kick in the butt.

SO! Week 5! Big things happened this week!.

We had new windows installed! We actually ended up getting new windows throughout the whole house which is exciting since the original ones were literally a hundred years old. Winter will be more enjoyable now.

We also had them remove the window in the kitchen and frame it in. Same for the window in the mudroom. The mudroom won’t be all finished by next thursday as they can’t install the cabinets until thursday….but considering that’s my third room in this seasons one room challenge, I don’t feel too bad about finishing that room late.

My hot tile guy finished up tiling over that wall where the window used to be. He gets to grout this weekend and the tile will be completely finished!

I’ve started working on upholstering for the banquette bench. I’m totally making it up as I go along. No idea how to really upholster for a built in upholstered look, and so I’m winging it with my trusty stapler.

I haven’t decided if I should paint the two doors in the kitchen black or not. I prefer dark doors to white, but 1) I’m not convinced I’ll love it in this room 2) I’m running out of time.

Since I’m running out of time, I thought maybe I would add one more things on my list and paint the mudroom ceiling the color of the kitchen cabinets. It remains to be seen if that actually happens.

I got lulled into thinking “we are almost done, we’ve totally got this!”. And then we made a to-do list last night and I was reminded we still have so much to do in order to have a finished room.

• Grout tile

• Hang shelves on tiled wall (drilling into tile can be a pain in the butt)

• Install new kitchen faucet

• Finish upholstering banquette bench and back (no idea how long this will take)

• paint trim to finish trimming bathroom

• smooth wall to prepare for wallpaper…(we ripped off a chair rail)

• Hang cabinet doors

• Install all cabinet hardware

• Put together Ikea cabinets for mudroom

• Potentially paint mudroom

• maybe paint kitchen doors.

Who wants to come over and do some projets?? Anyone? Bueller??

Don’t forget to check out the progress from the other guest participants in this seasons one room challenge and also some of the super fun stuff that the featured designers are doing!

Built in Bar or Appliance Garage Hack With Ikea & Semihandmade Kitchen Cabinets

Built in Bar or Appliance Garage Using Ikea & Semihandmade Kitchen Cabinets

Have you seen some really sweet appliance garages on Instagram or Pinterest and you want your own but you don’t have 78 million dollars to make it happen? You are in luck friends of mine.

DIY your ultimate dream kitchen

I have finally….after like a year of people asking me on Instagram, gotten around to writing down the instructions to build your own Built in Bar or Appliance garage with Ikea or Semihandmade cabinets or doors.

(You can do all Ikea or combine with Semihandmade- it works the exact same).

Built in Bar with doors closed

Below is what the cabinet looks like from afar with the doors closed.

Instructions to DIY Ikea/Semihandmade Built in Bar or Appliance garage

It’s actually really easy for you to do if your handy or for your contractor to do if your not handy (like myself). Your contractor may complain about doing it…but I’ve given this design to many contractors, and they can figure it out.

You need to get special hinges- the ones that we use are from Accuride- they have all different sizes, so it depends on the size of your doors and the depth of the cabinet will dictate which hinges you will need.

Hinges will take up a few inches of room depth wise (there is a diagram with specific dimensions for each size) so if you have a standard 24” depth kitchen cabinet it is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not go with doors wider than 18” or the doors will poke out too far from cabinet when they are recessed and be in the way.

If you have a deeper cabinet, then do whatever you want that fits in with the specs listed on Accuride’s website.

Appliance Garage Sitting On Counter

The above appliance garage was an Ikea/Semihandmade Combo. The interior box is a modified Ikea Wall Cabinet and the exterior panels and doors are Semihandmade.

It is VERY IMPORTANT to note: this appliance garage is only 15” Deep, yet is 36” wide, which means for the doors to not extend further and be in the way, a space was made past the drywall so the doors could recess further.

The pictures above and below show this countertop appliance garage with the doors closed. It is also important to note, that you will lose a few inches for each side for the door pockets, so you don’t want to have a cabinet with a small width or you won’t have any room for items.

For reference, for the flamingo cabinet that was 30” wide, we had about 24-25” of actual storage space. For the below cabinet that is 36” wide, we had about 30” of actual storage space.

Also, in case you were curious- in the below picture, the cabinet that is sitting on top of appliance garage is just a normal wall cabinet and stacked on top.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of this and I’ll answer below or edit the original post!

Extra Information for Ikea DIY Built in Bar Hack

The glass shelves were from Home Depot, and the wine racks were from Wayfar. Countertop is Silestone Pulsar.

To wallpaper bar, unscrew doors from hinges, wallpaper interior of doors (I used spray adhesive on the doors as they were shiny and I didn’t think wallpaper paste would work). On interior MDF cabinet, I used normal wallpaper paste and wrapped wallpaper around edges.

DIY Wallpaper Home Office Peg Board

DIY Wallpaper Home Office Peg board

Sometimes you just gotta organize a bunch of crap and there aren’t a lot of pretty ways of doing it.

Or maybe a worldwide pandemic happened and you find yourself home schooling and you’re not sure where to put all the art supplies.

Maybe you decided to wallpaper a laundry room and you realize that your kids craft desk being in said laundry room is gonna ruin that really amazing wallpaper you just put up and you have to figure out a way to protect it. (hypothetically speaking, of course)

Maybe you just have some leftover wallpaper and are looking for a project to use it up. 

Or maybe all four as in our case. 

We have this great counterspace/desk area in our laundry room that our oldest uses as her personal craft studio.  Originally it was going to be my desk….guess where I’m not working?  The laundry room. 

I just can’t compete with the stacks of coloring books and piles of glitter glue. 

Ikea to the rescue! I came across the Skardis Pegboard online at Ikea…And thought “self, I could wallpaper that pegboard and make it real pretty”.   So that’s what myself and I did. 

It’s super cheap and super easy. 

Buy however many Skardis pegboards you need (we used 5 panels of the 14”x22”).  Figure out what accessories you want for pegboards.  (they come in white and black which is handy).

Figure out where you want the accessory baskets and clips before you attach wallpaper. 

Trace the outline of the pegboard on the back of the wallpaper.   If you want your wallpaper to line up in a certain fashion, then figure that out when you’re tracing and BEFORE you cut…always before you cut. 

I didn’t care if mine matched up perfectly, but I wanted to make sure there was a yellow bird on each board.

I then sprayed the front of the pegboard and the back of the wallpaper with elmers adhesive spray and stuck it on there. 

Now you can attach pegboard to wall following directions Ikea gives.  Then punch holes in the places you want to hang the accessory pieces (this is why you figure out where you want them first, so you don’t ruin your pretty wallpaper job with needless holes).

Voila! You’ve got yourself a pretty place to organize a bunch of crap!  This could work on a normal pegboard material too- but then you don’t have the pretty accessories for storage from ikea. 

Hex Tile Besta Ikea Console Hack

Hex Tile Ikea Besta Console Hack

I wanted to create something custom and unique that almost anyone could copy without having to have a bunch of skills.  You need some skills, but not a bunch. 

Call it a console, a media cabinet, a buffet, call it whatever you want as long it’s pretty.

To hack this, you don’t need to be an expert wood worker.  For this particular version, you would need to be able to tile…or you would need to be able to pick up the phone and dial a number and find someone to tile it for you, like I did.  

Generic storage unit we had before

If the tile you use is not expensive, and you want a custom look, it is still much cheaper to hire someone than it would be to buy a custom console.  

Other options to give the top a different look is a cool piece of wood or some funky wallpaper. 

How we made this particular console.

• Bought a 70” besta console from ikea. 

• Bought corresponding Ikea doors from semihandmade (the SSS beaded line in white)

• Tiled the top and sides (Tile from Mission Stone & Tile)

The process

In order to keep the tile flat and not have it potentially buckle if the console itself became unlevel, we first put james hardie cement backer board on the top and sides.  (look close at this pic and you can see the screws and cement board- we lost some pics of the process in a deleting accident.)

Then came the tiling part.

Due to the particular tile we picked and some of the small pieces it had, it would’ve been extremely difficult, if not impossible to to miter the edges at a 45 degree angle to have a true waterfall edge.  So we did the next best thing and made sure the pattern lined up.   

We used a black schluter strip in black to edge the tile and hide the cement backer board.

We bought legs from pretty pegs in a fun color.  We started with 4 legs, but with the weight of the tile, we needed to add 4 more legs in the middle so it didn’t sag in the middle.

These legs were the 17” legs from pretty pegs, which we like the look of better, but it made the console a little too tall for the space, and a little more wobbly than we liked considering this was going to be used for kids toys, and we didn’t want the kids to yank a drawer open and topple it over on them. 

If this wasn’t being used by kids a lot, I would’ve felt comfortable keeping them as is.  But since it is being used for kids, and we sort of like our kids most of the time, we figured we didn’t want them to die in a freak furniture accident, so we cut the legs shorter.  (and by we, I mean my husband). 

If pretty pegs doesn’t have a color you like, paint them! They paint really easily!  We bought the first 4 in yellow ochre and then by the time we realized we needed 4 more, they weren’t selling yellow anymore, so I ordered some wood ones, and got a custom match at the paint shop and I can barely even tell which leg is which!

We moved it into our house and set pretty things on top and a bunch of ugly plastic toys inside and called it a day. 

If you have any questions, ask below in the comments!