Tedious Tinkering: Diamond Tufted Nailhead Headboard

WOW, its cold today.-5 degrees with a windchill of -17! I'm super glad my car wouldn't start this morning for two reasons, I didn't have to take my kids out in this arctic freeze and I got to use today to finish a project that's been on my to-do list for over a year now.

Let me start by saying that I love diamond tufting. It might be a phase but it's a long one for me. I would tuft my underwear if I could figure out how ha!

Materials for this project:

5ft x 4ft piece of plywood (for a queen bed)
3 yds 1" foam (27" wide)
2 yds 8oz batting (because it was 90" wide)
staple gun and staples
hammer
jig saw
drill and drill bit
string
buttons
scissors
nail head upholstery trim
spray adhesive
fabric of your choice

First things first, cut the plywood. I chose a portman design. Who knew there were so many options?

The first thing you'll need to do is find the center point of your plywood, in this case 2 1/2 feet. Measure 10 inches down from the center point and mark the spot.

I used a simple piece of ribbon and a marker to make my circle. I held the end of the ribbon on the mark and tied the other end to a marker. From there I just traced around in a full circle.

Draw a line the length of the board at the 10 inch mark (or wherever you decide to make, depending how large you want your circle). For the corners i used a trash can lid and traced because it was faster and I had one handy. But, you can always use your ribbon again, shorten the length and trace a quarter circle from the corners.

Time to cut it out! While it may be frigid cold today, yesterday was a whopping 35 degrees! So I was comfortable in the garage. I used a simple jig saw and cut around my marks

Easy peasy! Don't mind our catch-all garage. Its a giant mess.

Now you'll need to figure out where you want the holes for the tufting. I wanted to leave about 3 inches all around for my nail head, I marked that off first. I chose to make a 6 inch grid by marking out 6 inches across and down, then drew vertical/horizontal lines at each mark. This creates 6 inch squares and I marked the center point of each square. After getting all this done, I realized I was going to have a LOT of button tufts, too many for my taste. So, I ignored my grid all together opting to mark every other squares center point for my tufts. Confused? Here's a diagram.

Then, I asked my husband to help me out drilling the holes. He's got longer arms, and better leverage for those center holes.

I constantly complain about how often I have to sweep and mop my dining room floor. Yesterday, before I got the wild hair to start this project, I swept and mopped. Then I did this:

Yep, I brought it inside. Insta-mess but oh well. I threw the foam over the plywood and cut out the shape leaving the 3" gap I talked about earlier. Then I used some Elmers spray adhesive to secure the foam to the board.

Throw over the batting and cut off the excess.

*The batting will need to be the size of the entire board*

Add your fabric on top of that. Cut around again, this time BIGGER than your board by 3-4 inches all around.

Next I had my husband get under the "tent" as Tay-Tay called it and push up through each hole with a pen. I was hovering over top and marked the point of the pen with a black dot on the fabric.

Using a pair of scissors I carefully cut a tiny "x" at each dot. Too big and your buttons will slip right through. Then I lifted the fabric at each dot and cut through the foam and batting below until I could feel the holes underneath. This part stinks-your hands will be sore.

Now you can start with your buttons. I tripled up standard sewing string in 18 inch lengths. I fed the string through one side of my button and back down through the other then tied the ends into a knot. I used a drill bit to push the knotted end of the string through each hole but you can use whatever works for you. You can get really long upholstery needles for this purpose but at $13.99 each I decided to improvise. :)

When your buttons are all in you can start to secure them. You'll want to work from the middle out wards alternating lines. Do one line across, skip the row below and then do the next row from the inside out. When you get those all done go back in to do the centers, this will give it the best "diamond" appearance. if you work one way row by row the tufts will be too tight and won't show any crease.

To secure a button pull the strings tight, you might need someone to push/hold the button on the opposite side. Staple the string 3-4 times alternating direction and for added strength use a hammer to pound the staples into the board. This makes sure the buttons don't get loose.

When you're done with this you'll start to pull the fabric around the edges. Start at the top and work your way down tugging and securing every 3 inches or so. you may need to cut strips around the curved edges to get a smooth finish. Corners are tricky but pulling and securing short strips around the corners give you a snug fit.

The last step is to add the nail head trim. I am SOOOO glad I found this product or I might have been nailing until next winter.

It's basically a long strand of trim and every 5th head has a hole that you hammer a tack through. This stuff was only $22 and the boxes of individual tacks would have cost me $32 PLUS 1000 hours and a huge headache.

I simply ran the bead along the edge of the headboard securing it as I went. This stuff is bendable too so I used one long strand on the whole headboard and twisted it off at the end.