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IKEA HACKS – What a transformation! I will show you how to make an upholstered headboard and how to turn an old IKEA malm bed into a completely new one.

It’s time to share my newest piece in our bedroom, one of those Ikea hacks: the Malm bed.

Last year we decided to do a master bedroom makeover. The current design that we are changing is about six years old.
I have changed the duvet cover a few times but did not make any other significant changes.

Now we are ready for a whole new look!

This is our “before” picture.

We really loved the black, brown and orange mix in our bedroom, but you know,
…when you see the same design for so long you kind of get bored with it.

WE WANTED SOMETHING

different

fresh

not necessarily new, but new to our eyes

…Maybe some mix and match in styles…

elegant -modern – eclectic

Sometime around July last year, I sat down and started planning. I don’t do that often- haha!

{Pssst… I am usually very unorganized with my projects…}

Most of the time, when I start working on a project or a room design, I get inspired by a piece of fabric.

 This yellow, flowery duvet cover was my very first inspiration for our new bedroom. I spotted this lovely cover at Ikea.
They were out of stock a few times when I visited the store, but finally, I was able to put my hands on one, just recently.

I really love the floral and the yellow – white mix.

I created a MOOD BOARD that included all my ideas for our new bedroom design.

 Unfortunately, we never managed to start the bedroom project last year. It became the project to star our new year instead!

We jumped right in and painted our bedroom last weekend. We chose a very beautiful, gray shade. Reading Laura’s post HERE,
on how to choose the right gray, made me decide to go with the REVERE PEWTER.

Just simply beautiful on the wall. I would recommend this color if you are not sure which gray to go with!

…OKAY…

…Now to the headboard project…

I will show you a step by step tutorial, how we made this beautiful upholstered, tufted headboard out of

IKEA MALM BED

IKEA HACKS – DON’T YOU JUST LOVE THEM?

When we purchased our MALM bed set about six years ago, we bought a three piece shelving unit as well.  The shelving unit was placed behind our bed. { See picture below.} It was a perfect addition to our bed set, as it was holding decor items in the bedroom. I really loved it!

I had the idea to take this shelving unit apart, and attach the bigger piece of the shelving unit to the back of the bed, to make the headboard higher. If you don’t have this particular shelving unit, you can simply use a piece of plywood instead.
Visit Alicia’s blog HERE to see how she used plywood for her upholstered headboard.

I just thought it would be a perfect piece because it had the same measurements as the bed lengthwise and thick-wise.

Look at this dramatic change

Are you ready to start your makeover?

THINGS YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE
THIS BEAUTIFUL UPHOLSTERED HEADBOARD:

–  IKEA Shelving unit { this is what I used } or Plywood

– 2 x 4 wood, two longer pieces, about 4′ tall

– Drill and screws

– Staple gun, staples

• – Batting, thick { 2″ }

– Fabric to cover your headboard { per your taste }

– buttons, hot glue gun

First of all, we took apart our shelving unit.

Using the drill, we screwed the 2 x 4 wood pieces onto the back of the bed.

We put one piece of long wood on each side of the bed.

Eww – It doesn’t look beautiful, but this is the back of the bed, and it won’t be visible.

Then we lifted the bigger piece and attached it together with 6-8 screws on each side.

This is how it looked after the two pieces were screwed together.

Beautiful and tall.

We wrapped the batting around the headboard and stapled it to the back of the huge piece. If you would like to have a nice and thick tufted headboard, double the batting. Make sure you pull the batting out completely straight on each side.

Once this step is done, you can add your fabric.

I chose white for my project. I am not sure what is with me and white  lately, but lots of times I am leaning towards white when it comes to color choices…Hmmm..

{If I could just turn the clock back to a couple of years ago, I would definitely have chosen white kitchen over medium brown. 🙁 }

The nice thing  about this headboard is that if I ever want to change the look of it, I could take off the fabric and staple a new one on.

A new color, a new print, a new fabric choice will provide a whole new look again.

I wrapped the fabric over the batting, pulled the fabric out on each corner to make sure it is not wrinkled, and as the final step,
I stapled it to the back of the board.

We measured 9 spots for the buttons, using a tape measure, counting equal distance from each side.

Then using a staple gun, we stapled each spot { 9 } for the buttons.

We glued each button to the headboard with a hot glue gun.
I was hesitant to glue with a hot glue gun, but I was hoping to see the buttons stay on. They did!

Easy-peasy!

The project was done in a few hours.

My total cost was:

$28

{including batting, fabric, buttons – I already had the rest}

You can not beat that for a new headboard!

I am totally in love with our new look.

It is so different and elegant – and most of all , new to our eyes!

I think it turned out just beautiful.

I will have some other fun projects coming up, so stay tuned to see our whole new bedroom makeover.

Here is the image to PIN FOR LATER to remember for this excellent post

Check out our beautiful, yellow nightstands. They were spray painted to perfection.

And this new Herringbone Stenciled lamp was upcycled in no time

DIY Sunburst Mirror made out of paper

So, what do you say–YAY or NAY??

****update****

So I think it’s time to show you an updated bedroom of mine now. It’s been 2.5 years (we are in 2016, October) since I’ve done this project. Since then I sold my headboard and I built a new one:

 Yeah, the crazy DIY gal I am! 🙂 Check it out!

HOW TO MAKE A TUFTED HEADBOARD

And if you like some other fun DIY projects and IKEA hacks,
here are a few more for ya!

IKEA HACKS – BUILT-IN BILLY BOOKCASE

IKEA HACKS – DIY TV STAND ( IKEA HACK)

IKEA HACKS – DIY RECLAIMED WOOD BUFFET ( IKEA HACK)

IKEA HACKS – IKEA STOOL HACK

WOW! Looking back to some of these projects made me feel ants in my pants to get on some fun DIY now! But first I have to finish my bathroom makeover project for the ORC!

Thank you for reading!

Have a great day!

THIS PROJECT WAS CHOSEN TO participate in

BHG MAKEOVER MADNESS CHALLENGE