A new bed for a teenage boy

Alba Avram Mayıs 16, 2022

My youngest son Lee and I have been on a journey of re-creating his bedroom space. Picking up thousands of Lego bricks was the first step. Second was a trip to IKEA, where Lee chose the Brimnes bed. The Brimnes headboard is sold separately, but Lee wanted an upholstered headboard. That suited me fine; I knew I could make one.

First I bought a sheet of 3/4" plywood, which cost me about $13.00. I would have gone with a thinner (and cheaper) board, but this headboard is for a queen-sized bed, and I was afraid a thinner board might bend and warp. The nice man at Home Depot cut the board 62" long for me; the 48" width was perfect.

At home, I used a dinner plate as a template to mark the corners,

then rounded them off with my jigsaw. Super-simple cut.

Then my son helped me carry the board into the bedroom. I think it's easiest to build an upholstered headboard in the room where it's going to be used.

I hot-glued an old mattress topper to the plywood. As you can see, the foam doesn't cover the entire board, but that doesn't matter--only the top part needs to be padded. I used scissors to cut off the excess foam from the sides and corners. I've heard that an electric knife also works well for this purpose. My foam was easy to cut with scissors, though.

On the floor of his room, I spread out the fabric with which I covered the headboard, wrong side up. (Lee wanted a solid red headboard. I found it hard to find fabric that was quite what he wanted, but we found a quilt at Target that was just right. It cost $35.) I centered the board, foam side down, on top of the fabric.

Then I simply pulled and stapled and pulled and stapled all the way around the board. A word to the wise: at first, use just a few staples to hold your fabric in place. That way, if you need to shift position of your board at all, you don't have too many staples to remove. Also, be sure you have plenty of fabric to go around your curved corners. You may need to cut out some of the fullness in the corners on the back of your board. But plenty of fabric will allow you to keep the wrinkles on the back of the board where they won't be seen; your sides and front will lie smooth. Keep pulling your fabric taut and stapling until you're satisfied with the way the fabric lies.

Next comes the best part. I simply slid the headboard into its place at the head of the bed, them scooted the bed up against the headboard. No mounting, no cleats, no nothing--the weight of the bed holds the headboard securely against the wall.

And here's the finished product:

See why I love the Brimnes bed? Just look at these drawers! Lots of storage space for Lego bricks.

While I was at it, I made a valance for Lee's window out of cheerful fabric. I had some left over, so I think I'll make some throw pillows for his bed or perhaps a couple of floor pillows. I think it all goes well with the LEGO wall art I created for Lee last year.

Notice the bed doesn't have a fancy duvet or coverlet or bedspread. This is the room of a 14-year-old boy. All he cares about is having a blanket with which to cover up; he certainly doesn't want a fancy bed treatment that he needs to straighten up every morning. And that's fine with me. I put cute bedspreads on his bed back when he was little boy. Some day, when he has a home of his own, there will likely be a pretty bedspread on his bed again. For now, that's not the most important thing in life.