West Elm’s Window Headboard Knock Off Tutorial

West Elm’s Window Headboard Knock Off Tutorial 

by Michelle

Are you in love with West Elm? I am.  Are you not in love with their prices?  Yeah, same here.
I’m Michelle from Decor and the Dog and I’m very excited to be guest posting on Remodelaholic today. My husband and I built our second home 3 years ago. We did a lot of the work ourselves which allowed us to build our dream home without breaking the bank. (You can take a peek here.) We recently started blogging about our DIY decorating/home improvement adventures.

One of those adventures includes building a headboard for our master bedroom.

We were inspired by West Elm’s Window Headboard.

The $299.00 plus $60.00 shipping price tag was less inspiring.

We decided we were going to build this headboard for a lot less.  How hard could it be?

Six hours and $57.06 we ended up with our copy cat version…

How can you make your own copy cat?

Purchase your supplies…

• Lumber: $18.40
  • One 2x4x8'
  • Four 2x3x8'
  • Five 1x2x8' (we purchased 1 extra)
• Paint: $10.97 (1 quart Olympic Zero VOC in white, semi-gloss)
• Pocket hole screws: $3.98 (#100 1 1/4")
• Pocket hole jig: $19.98 (Kreg) 
• We already had/borrowed: the primer, miter saw, clamps, rollers, 90 degree angle, screw driver

Cut the lumber.  Cuts for a King size bed can be found here. Queen size cuts can be found here.

Lay out the lumber in the shape of the headboard as a dry fit. Put the good sides of the lumber (the sides you want to show) face down. Mark the back sides so you know which side to drill the pocket hole into:

Drill pocket holes using the Kreg jig:

Screw headboard together.  This is where math and a right angle are handy.  I, obviously, was not involved in this step.  I was doing useful things...like lamp shopping.

Once the headboard is screwed together, sand until smooth.  Pay special attention to the corners and places where the wood connects.  Wood filler can be used if there are any gaps.

After sanding, prime (1 coat) and paint (we used 2 coats).  Painting was actually the most time consuming part of this project.  There are a lot of nooks and crannies but that’s what it’s makes it so beautiful, right?  Just keep reminding yourself of that thought…

(Unlike some other DIY blogs, I show you the pretty and the ugly….like the dog food dish and newspaper taking over our mudroom…)

Attach to your bed frame using bolts, nuts, and washers (we used some we dug up in our basement) that are long enough to go through the wood and attach to your bed frame.

Enjoy your inexpensive headboard!  You can take that extra money you saved and purchase West Elm’s parachute duvet because you feel slightly bad (only slightly) for copying their headboard design.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Ike hopes you’ll stop by Decor and the Dog to see what other projects we are working on.  Our summer plans include a West Elm inspired bed frame, crown molding, landscaping, and a mudroom make-over!