In this post: Need a headboard for your bed on a budget? Make this reclaimed wood headboard with NEW wood for less than $50 and minimal DIY skills!
Finally decorate your own home – with confidence!
You’re so much closer to a beautifully-decorated home than you think. You just need a little help to get there!
Okay, so truly this is a super easy project. Like almost 1, 2, 3 easy.
ANYONE CAN DO IT!
And it is a total cheat. It’s not reclaimed barn-board at all! Shhh. It uses all new wood. Because let’s face it, reclaimed wood can’t always be found and may not be desirable to use on a headboard.
The only prep work is to decide how big to make the headboard. Since we have a queen bed, we decided on five feet wide by almost six feet tall. That’s about the approximate width of the bed and slightly taller than the width for height.
Table of Contents
Make Your Own Reclaimed Wood Headboard with New Wood!
Supplies
- palm sander
- stud finder
- pencil
- level
- wood (We used twelve 1″x6″x8′ pieces of spruce and had Home Depot cut them all down to 5′ long.)
- 2″ flat head screws
- drill
- lint free rag
- Minwax Special Walnut Stain
Instructions
Step 1: Decide where to put your headboard. Find the studs. Mark vertical lines with a pencil.
Step 2: Sand rough spots and edges off of the boards. This is a headboard, people!
Step 3: Starting at the bottom (@ baseboard or floor), screw the first board to the wall using the stud marks you made in Step 1. Continue stacking the boards one on top of the other and fastening in this way all the way to the top (last) board.
Step 4: In a well ventilated room, and perhaps wearing a mask (trust me, this stuff STINKS when wet!), rub the minwax stain into the wood. Be careful to avoid the drywall around the headboard – tape it off with frog tape or slide a heavy piece of paper between headboard and wall as you stain. I only needed to do one coat, but if you would like it darker feel free to stain again. We also stained this once it was on the wall and slept in another room for a couple of nights. FEEL FREE TO STAIN THE BOARDS AND LET THEM DRY FIRST!
Add a few embellishments if desired, like the love banner below. 
See, didn’t I tell you it was easy?!
And it was inexpensive! Here’s the approximate cost breakdown:
- The wood was $2.97 per 8 foot length. That was the shortest the HD had. Times twelve boards = $36.
- We had the stain. But if you were to buy it I think it’s about $9 for the small container. I used half that. Effectively $4.50.
- I had to buy screws because somehow in our buckets of hardware we had no 2″ flat head screws. Go figure. $6.
So for $46.50 (plus tax depending on where you live) – voila!!!!
More DIY Project Ideas
Any questions? What do you think of our Reclaimed Wood Look Headboard?
PS. We loved the look of this headboard so much that we recreated it when we moved into our current house too! See it here.
