DIY Vintage Door Headboard

Since I moved out of my parents house at age 19, I have always wanted a headboard.  When I was younger I couldn't afford a proper headboard, so I improvised with various decorator ideas that I saw in a magazine or on HGTV.  Remember shows like Design On A Dime, and Trading Spaces... those were the days!  Sorry, got distracted!  Anyhoo, later when I could afford a headboard I could never make up my mind what kind of headboard I wanted.  Did I want to wait and buy a complete matching bedroom suite?  Did I want something more eclectic? Metal... wood?  Oh yeah, in addition to being distracted I am often also indecisive.

Here is where I should mention that in recent years I have discovered building salvage places like Habitat For Humanity ReStore and a fondness for upcycling.  With that said, I saw a headboard idea using an old vintage paneled door and 4x4's... Genius!  I had seen many old doors while salvage shopping and knew that I would finally get a headboard, I would build that headboard, and that it would be FABULOUS!

This project also marks a first in our household... it was the first of my projects that my husband took an interest in participating in.  I don't know if he was bored that day waiting for the next expansion pack of WoW, or just worried I would create a monstrosity that he would have to look at each night before closing his eyes... or perhaps it was 50 Shades that inspired him to take an interest in our new headboard.  Whatever the case we had a great time building it and are thrilled with the way it turned out.

This is the before of my beautiful old door.  The door cost me $18.  Since the door was labeled to potentially contain lead paint I decided to strip off all of the old paint layers.  Once stripped down to the wood I did a light sanding.

Next I measured the width of my metal bed frame. I subtracted the total width of the 4x4 boards I used for posts to determine how long I needed the door to be.  I wanted the panels to be centered so I had to cut off part of the door at both ends to achieve the proper width for the bed when attached to the posts.  I attached the door to the posts by using 2 L-brackets on each post attached to the back side of the door.  We drilled holes through the 4x4 posts to so that we could attach it to the metal bed frame with bolts.  (Sorry I didn't think to take pictures of all these steps)  We found some fence post footers  in the deck supply section of Home depot for cheap, inverted them and screwed them in to the top of the 4x4 posts to finish off, then primed and painted 3 coats of rich red semi-gloss.

Here is the final product...

After over 20 years of plain box springs and mattress we finally have a headboard... and we made it ourselves! :-)