Tufted. A love story.

Materials: Rykene Ikea full size bed.

Description: We wanted to jazz up an existing Rykene bed in guest room of our recently purchased home. I had done a little bit of research on tufting and found a great tutorial for making tufted headboards. Using a pegboard and some 3 inch foam, I laid out a pattern of tufts.

Using pegboard was the most ingenious idea! After figuring out where I wanted the tufts, I cut through the foam (a little larger than my button size) so the tufts would be very deep.

I used gorilla glue to hold the foam to my peg board and laid a layer of batting on top. Then I draped my fabric (we used a really crazy pattern -- we wanted BIG change in that room) over that to center the pattern on the headboard.

We made fabric covered buttons using a little kit (sold at fabric stores) using a bright terracotta color. Using upholstery grade thread, and starting in the center/top of my headboard, I sewed from front to back with a super long needle... this is where it gets a bit tricky.

Holding the button securely in front I pulled the thread super tight through the hole in the back and stapled it in various directions to hold the tension. Moving equally outward from the first tuft, I continued this until I had a whole row. I started the second row the same way and gently pulled the fabric into diamond shapes around the buttons.

Once the whole thing was tufted, I pulled the fabric around the bottom of the pegboard and stapled it securely on the back. Then I attached the pegboard to the Rykene bed with a couple of wood screws to hold it tight against the frame. Starting again at the top/center of the headboard I pulled the fabric over the frame of the bed and stapled it snugly.

I continued the same method as before, moving evenly from the center outward. I folded the corners of the fabric neatly and finished the headboard stapling the fabric around the sides. The back doesn't look TOO neat (but I figured no one is ever going to see it -- and I could always put a piece of thin wood back there to cover it eventually)

We are so incredibly happy with how this turned out. It was certainly a labor of love. My hands were killing me while tufting (the upholstery thread is unforgiving against your hands!) I am also glad we opted for a really funky fabric. We found our at Joann's in their home fabric section using a 50% coupon! Hooray for good deals!

The duvet, curtains and rug are also from Ikea! We like how unique this looks and still gives of a clean/modern vibe. We've struggled a bit with our new house (it's a 110 year old colonial) because our style is very mid-century, but our old house wants something cozy too!

See more of the tufted headboard.

~ Niamh, Philadelphia