You do not have to buy an upholstered headboard to make your bed look more fashionable. You can easily make one yourself. All you need is a tape measure, paper to make a pattern, plywood, sandpaper, saw, upholstery foam, decorative fabric, a stapes gun, cording, braid and any trim you desire to make it look nice.
Your first step is to measure the bed and decide how wide and tall you want the headboard to be and what shape you want it to be. The most attractive headboards are equal to or slightly wider than the width of the mattress. When it comes to how tall it should be they tend to look the most balanced with about eight inches of headboard rising above the pillows leaning against it.
To decide on a shape cut different ones out of paper and simply position it against the bed. It should be quite evident to you what might look best. Some people like a plain rectangle shape and others might like a head board with rounded corners or a beveled top.
Once you have decided on a shape you can use the paper as a pattern to cut a shape out of plywood using a power saw. You can then lightly sand around the outer edges of the plywood headboard with sandpaper. Cut a sheet of foam to the size of the wood frame and then secure it in place with tacks and spray adhesive. You can then cover the layer of foam with upholstery batting that is two or three inches thicker than the wood. This layer is then covered with plain sheeting and then wrapped in the outer layer of decorative fabric you have chosen. The fabric is stapled to the back of the headboard so that it is smooth.
It is not necessary but you can also staple a plain lining to the back of the headboard to hide raw hem edges. You can trim the top edge of the headboard with cording or ribbon. Some people even quilt the headboard with buttons so that areas of it puff out. It is easy to get really creative and attach all kinds of ornate details to your headboard if you think it looks good. You can also use any fabric you want including patent leather, satin or vinyl.
Most home made headboards can be stabilized behind the bed but you can also attach legs to it if you want it to be freestanding.
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How to Decorate A Kid’s Room With Pre-School Crafts
Finger-painting is where it is at when it comes to preschool crafts. All you need is bowls or shallow plates filled with different colors of water-based paint. The child, who is hopefully wearing old clothes, is then allowed to dip his or her palm print in paint and press it onto a piece of paper. Spreading a piece of plastic on the floor and table areas is also recommended whenever you are dealing with finger-painted preschool crafts.
A child’s painted handprint pressed onto a heart shaped piece of paper is one of the simplest gifts that a preschooler can give to a family. Another popular version of this preschool craft is to have the preschool press his or her palm into a slab of wet clay. The clay is then left to dry, painted and presented as a plaque to mom, grandma or whoever else would cherish such a personal and heartfelt gift for Christmas, Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. At Christmas, single handprints can be dangled from the Christmas tree and used as decorations.
Among the most popular of preschool Easter crafts is the hand-printed daisy. This consists of a number of children placing their palm prints onto a large piece of paper in a circular fashion so the end result resembles the petals of a large flower. Another version of this preschool craft project is to allow the preschools to place their handprint on a large piece of construction paper. These multi-colored handprints are then cut out and placed in a circle around a pie plate or similar object to create a large daisy. This daisy preschool craft project is also sometimes called “The Circle of Friends.”
Favorite Halloween preschool crafts include cutting out eyes out of a sheet to make a ghost costume and decorating pumpkins with big magic markers to create scary faces. Preschoolers can also be encouraged to create their own monsters using a bit of glue and shapes (such a teeth and scary eyes) precut from construction paper or felt.
For Easter, you and the kids can decorate hard-boiled eggs to resemble chicks, lambs and cartoon characters using markers, construction paper and cotton balls. This is one of the more entertaining preschool crafts, especially if you pass the same egg around to several children who have markers or paints and ask each to add a detail to the egg creature.
Homemade bookmarks and cards, colored with crayons markers, make great Mother’s day and Valentine’s day crafts. Photographs of the kids, pasted on the front of the homemade card turn this heartfelt preschool craft into a charming gift.
There is no lack of inspiration for preschool crafts on the Internet. All you have to do to find scores of ideas for preschool crafts is type words like preschool crafts or easy preschool crafts into your search engine and you will most certainly find a project that is sure to engage the imagination and creative talents of your preschooler.