How to Make a Floor to Ceiling Bed Headboard with Old Doors
I found 5 bifold doors at the thrift store and am going to show you how I made a headboard with the doors.
It seems like a long time since I posted a decorating project. I guess it had to do with the holidays that they all went on the back burner while I posted about Christmas decor.
Now that it is January and I am getting back into the swing of things, it is time to start fresh and get back to what I started back in the early fall.
I am going start with my bedroom. You may remember that the refresh for the room all began with throw pillows. Do you remember when I posted the happy hubby decorating trick? It was removing all the throw pillows I had on the bed. It took me a while to get used to it, but I have to admit, I like it. The clean un-cluttered look of the bed made the paint on the wall and the bed hanging look dingy. I decided to rip the old bed hanging down one Sunday morning and got to work to refresh the room.
Today I have the tutorial on how I created the headboard using bi-fold doors.
BEFORE
When I thought about what kind of headboard the bed and room needed, I wanted it to be rather grand again like the fabric hangings that I previously had. I needed it to be ceiling to floor so it filled the wall and would become the focal point of the room. It also needed to visually balance the shelves that are on the opposite wall in the room, and lastly I wanted it to be simple – no fuss and little maintenance. The fabric bed hangings always needed to be cleaned, pressed and put up again. With the new headboard, cleaning it is a breeze.
This is what the wall looked like after I removed the fabric bed hanging. I found the doors at my local Habitat for Humanity. I bought 3 a few years ago to make a folding screen you see in the corner. I decided to take it apart so I could use the 3 doors.
I needed two more doors so the headboard would be as wide as the bed. The first 3 were $ 7 a piece. The 2 new ones were only $3.00 a piece. They were on sale the day I went. What a deal!
I reused the crown molding from the bed hanging that used to be above the bed.
How to Make a Bed Headboard Using Doors
supplies needed:
- Paneled doors – I used narrow bi-fold size, but any width will do. You want to have enough so that when placed side by side they will be as wide as the bed or a few inches wider
- 1″ x 2″ or 2″ x 4″ piece of lumber cut to the width of the bed
- Crown molding – the length will be determined by the width of your bed.
- Wood screws
- Spackle or wood fill and knife to spread it
- Primer/Paint – I used Valspar Bistro White in semi-gloss
- Paint brush
- Sandpaper
- Measuring tape
- Miter saw for crown molding
- Bubble level
- Screwdriver
- Pencil
- Optional: jigsaw
1. The amount of doors you will need will depend on how wide your bed is. I needed 5 bi-fold style for a King size bed. The door panel design was not the same on my doors, but they were all the same height. I arranged them in a way that makes the panel design symmetrical. If you can find hollow core doors, it will be much easier to hang them as they will be lighter. Two of my doors were solid and very heavy.
2. I created the headboard to go all the way to the ceiling. To do this I needed to add a 1″ x 2″ piece of lumber horizontally on the wall with wood screws so the bottom of the doors could rest on it for support. To figure out where to place it, I subtracted the height of the door from the height of the room. The difference is where I placed the board.
(The thin boards you see in the photo were placed under sections of my 1″ x 2″ that were slightly warped. I didn’t feel like running out to the lumber store to get a new board so I just added the thin boards behind the horizontal 1″ x 2″s to ensure a solid base. They won’t be seen once the bed is pushed back against the wall. My 1″ x 2″ was already cut up to the sizes you see. You do not have to do this – one long 1″ x 2″ or 2″ x 4″ is fine. I just was using what I already had on hand – I made the it work for my needs.)
3. Mark where the studs are in the wall. Place the marks under the horizontal 1″ x 2″ board so you can see them once the doors are up.
4. Find the center of the wall and mark this under the horizontal board and the ceiling to use a centering guide. Use a piece of painter’s tape to make the mark, so you don’t make any pencil marks on your ceiling and wall.
5. Start by placing the center board first, then work out to each side. Each door was placed on the horizontal board and then screwed into the wall in two places (top and bottom of door) and into studs. We counter sank the screws and covered the screw heads with Spackle/wood filler. I also filled the holes where the doorknobs used to be on the doors. Once it was dry, I sanded the areas smooth with 100 grit sandpaper.
6. We used a jigsaw to cut out the corner of the end door so it did not cover the electrical outlet. ( *** the thin boards I mentioned above – you don’t need)
Nice and neat. Once the bed and night table are back in place you won’t see this.
7. I used the crown molding from the previous bed hanging. It is screwed right into the top of the doors.
8. I used white caulk to fill in any gaps and also along the top of the crown molding. I then primed and painted everything with Valspar Bistro White in semi-gloss.
A very inexpensive way to make a statement in a bedroom. The doors cost me $27 total. I had the crown molding, but that would have cost about $20 if I needed to buy a new piece. Add in the cost of the paint and the headboard costs under $50 to make.
I really, really like it. It is solid and easy to prop a pillow against to lean on when reading in bed. Now I have to paint the walls. They are going to be a slightly lighter blue than they are now. I have all the paint and supplies ready for that undertaking and now just need to do it.
You can find the other updates I have done in the room so far in these posts:
How to Update Shiny Brass Lamps
Dresser Makeover with Poet’s Paint and Embellished Knobs with Buttons
