DIY Rustic Headboard
I have been wanting to make a pallet headboard for my queen size bed for a very long time. I am obsessed with all of the different ways you can make a pallet project look. It is also one of those projects that you think- Hey! I’ll just find a pallet… and put it together to make a headboard! Well, at least that’s what I thought. I figured it wouldn’t be fair of me not to share the whole journey to the finished product of this DIY Rustic Headboard that I am so very proud of… so here it goes!
This headboard had been on my list of things to do for well over a year. When I decided to move into a new place, I knew it was time to finally make this headboard become reality. I started my search to find a few pallets so that I could begin the process of building this dream project. When I came home one evening from a wedding around 11pm, there was a pallet so nicely laid in the street about 10 houses from mine. I knew if I didn’t promptly walk myself down the street and get that said pallet, it would be history early in the morning by the trash collectors. So, that is exactly what I did, in my heels and pretty dress. It only took me about 20 minutes to get that pallet back to my house. Maybe it was the wine talking when I thought that that was a good idea. PS… Pallet’s are REALLY heavy for one woman with very little upper body strength to carry by herself. They also bite if you hold them the wrong way.. so please be careful if this is the route you choose for your own materials! Fast forward to getting that pallet over to my parents’ house a few days later (I don’t have the tools at my house for these projects and it’s way more fun to involve my parents.) I realize that I can’t get the nails out of the pallet. I would have to literally saw off wherever there was a nail- which would completely defeat the purpose of the type of headboard I wanted to make. So, to the curb that pallet went! Sad. I’m aware. Pallet lesson learned!
Plan B! I went to Lowe’s (love them!) and mix matched 7 pieces of wood. I went through basically all of them to pick which ones I liked the wood grain markings of the most. I have a queen sized bed, so I made my headboard a little over 62” wide. I cut each piece of wood into 2 or 3 pieces. I flipped them around so the wood markings did not look like they were from the same piece of wood. I made a drawing of the wood pieces, so I could play around with where I wanted to make the cuts and how many cuts I wanted in each piece of wood. I will give you the dimensions of mine, but play around with your own! Just don’t forget to account for the width of the blade you’re using to cut the wood. I strongly suggest making all of your inner cuts and then measuring the width of your headboard to make the final cut last. In my case, I made all of the inner cuts and then measured from the left end to 62” (on each piece and made sure it was even on all 7 rows) and cut on the outside of that mark. 
Once all of the rows are cut, it is very important to take the drawing you made and label each row and piece correspondingly. Ex: 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, etc. Before labeling the actual piece of wood, I went through and played with the pieces of wood in each row to decide which way I wanted the piece to lay. Once I made my decision, I labeled the back of each piece of wood so it’s easily put back together at a later date. After labeling the pieces of wood, I thoroughly sanded each piece. I personally only sanded the front and edges of the pieces, but that’s completely up to you. Here is a diagram of my headboard measurements.
Next, it’s time to decide how you want to stain your headboard. I chose to stain the headboard to look like a bunch of different pieces of wood put together, like an actual pallet headboard looks. This is also why I decided to switch around the wood pieces, so the grains were not lining up. I went back to the drawing I made, so that I could write out which stain I wanted on which piece. I used the scrap pieces of the wood to test the stain first. The scraps weren’t sanded, however they still gave me a visual of what the stain would look like on that type of wood. Here are the colors I decided to use for my headboard.
After staining all of the pieces of wood, you will need to choose how you want to attach them to the backing. I chose to use a lightweight thin piece of ply wood and use liquid nails because it allows you 20 minutes to move the wood around before it’s permanent. The headboard has to lay flat for 24 hours after using liquid nails, so keep that in mind when choosing a spot to construct your headboard. I laid all of the pieces out on the backing and glued them one at a time. After they were all secure, I used polyurethane to seal the headboard because not all of the stains I used had sealant in them.
Once the 24 hours had past, I attached two 1×4’s to the back of the headboard with 3 screws (make sure to measure how thick your headboard so the screw doesn’t crack the front of your wood.) Ex: I used 1 1/4 screws because my headboard is a little less than 2” thick from the back of the 1×4. The 1×4’s sit on the floor and go behind the bed to support the headboard (think of a billboard.) The length of the 1×4’s depends entirely on the height of your headboard plus the height from your floor to where the bottom of your headboard hits.
And yes- that is a picture of my dog on my shirt! <3 I hope that this helps you build your dream headboard! I did a lot of research trying to find measurements already made for me and came up short. So- here you go friends! I can’t wait to see your gorgeous creations!!
Supplies Needed:
Chosen wood
Chosen backing for wood pieces
Chosen adhesive
Table Saw or hand saw
Electric hand sander (preferably, but sand paper in general does the job just fine)
Yard stick ruler
Square edge triangle
Pencil
Stain + rag, brush, mineral spirits, polyurethane
Drill
Screwdriver and screws
Special thanks to my wonderful parents! I could not have made this headboard without their help! Lowe’s, Home Depot and Ace Hardware and their many many helpful employee’s!
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