A close friend of mine had an old barn that collapsed recently and she let us have some of the barn wood. We were so lucky to be given this rustic jem because it’s not easy to come by.
I decided to re-purpose the distressed wood into an amazing king size headboard that would become a statement piece for our master bedroom. I put my husband to work on this one and he taught me some of his carpentry skills. Here is how we did it:
Step 1: Determine Your Dimensions
Since our king size bed measured out to be 76 inches wide we knew we wanted our headboard to measure that to a minimum. We also wanted this to be tall and act as a focal point for the bedroom, so we measured it to be 5′ ft from the top of our mattress.
Step 2: Cut the Pieces
We cut each vertical board to 5′ ft tall and laid them out to our width. They ended up coming out to about 80” in for the width so we left it a few inches wider on each side than the bed.
We also cut the top pieces to size making a frame around the corners (horizontal pieces were cut to 80” wide, vertical pieces were cut to 35″ and placed in-between two horizontal boards). Then we cut an additional vertical board to 35″ and added that to the center of the frame. Notice in the photo, my husband laying down this board. The tricky part was getting the two angled boards to cut at the right angle for a tight fit.
Step 3: Finish the Boards with a Clear Coat
To help preserve the beauty of the naturally distressed boards you will need to seal the cracked paint. To do this, we used a clear coat of Polycrylic. There are some variations if you want a matte or glossy finish. I chose to use a semi-gloss and applied two thick coats allowing adequate dry time in-between.
Step 4: Screw Boards Together
After you’ve finished all the boards and they are completely dry, you can arrange them back into place. Start by screwing down the entire frame making sure each board gets attached to the frame. Then align the angled boards and screw those down.
Step 5: Finish the Headboard
Now you should have something that looks similar to this. To finish this project off, you can add one last coat of clear finish to the entire face of the headboard.
Step 6: Add Hardware
We decided to spray paint our hardware hinges a black so they would stand out more. Then we added these rustic lamps to the face of the headboard.
Here is the end result….
tristarakow.com 