Tufted Headboard DIY – Build it Yourself using Peg Board

How to build a custom tufted headboard! I’ve had lots of questions over the years about how I built the tufted headboard in our master bedroom. Unfortunately I built it years before I even had the blog so I had no pictures of the process. Its really lasted a long time considering its not only white but has been through two moves with me and spent over a year in storage. Its well past its prime though and no amount of scrubbing is going to get it back to what it once was. Not to mention it has several tears from the moves and getting beat up in storage.

With our remodel of our master bedroom in full swing it only made sense to reupholster it.

Out of all the fabrics I’ve had to choose over the years this one was probably the hardest. (I’m still on the fence but its definitely an upgrade from how our headboard was looking before.)

I always head to Amazon for fabric ideas and (almost) always choose a tablecloth for my fabric.

We joke about us not being able to have “nice things” around here but its really not that far fetched. If I have the choice of an easy-to-clean fabric then that’s what I go with no matter what the application!

I ended up going with a white again but, this time, it has a pretty damask pattern within the cloth. I was going to go a lot more bold but we’re already adding a lot more character and patterns to this space so I thought I would err on the side of caution!

(A comforter or curtains or rugs are a lot easier to change out than having to reupholster a whole headboard if we hated the fabric…)

WAY back when I first built this tufted headboard I had run into the brilliant idea online to use pegboard instead of plywood to save time not having to drill holes.

I had a full sheet of pegboard cut down to six feet long and then in half lengthwise leaving me with two pieces at 2×6 feet.

I overlapped them for sturdiness and screwed them together.

From there I grabbed my batting and used another tip I read online. I cut out DEEP and large holes for wherever I planned to place a button so they would thoroughly sink in and create big tufts.

One plus in using another white fabric was that I could safely REUSE the old buttons I had already covered without it being obvious.

Having at least one more pair of hands when tackling a project like this helps SO much!

I used thick string doubled over, a large upholstery needle and a heavy duty hand stapler.

A tip I’ve learned over our numerous tufting and upholstery projects in the past is to do one tuft at a time, working your way down either from one side or one end to the other, and get those buttons and tufts looking like you want first before stapling the fabric down to the back.

I pulled the buttons tight and secured them using a second big button by simply threading it through and tying it. Its MUCH easier to work with this kind of project with it flipped over so you’ve got the weight of the entire thing helping get the fabric snug.

We adjusted the headboard as we went, taking our time, doing one tuft / button at a time.

Then we went back around the entire headboard getting the fabric snug, securing it to the back with staples and then cutting off the excess.

In no time at all we were done with our “new” tufted headboard!

Initially I had purchased a “French cleat” to hang this project but ended up replacing it with these literal gate handles. They work just fine!

The cost of the whole project is around $80 depending on your fabric and batting choices.

At first I was on the fence with the whole look of it but its definitely grown on me! I like how its so white it almost comes across as blue and I think that works up here better than the other fabric.

Big difference!

(Just ignore the corbels above the headboard lol I was in the middle of also getting the new book shelf done simultaneously with this project.)