DIY Barn Door Headboard: DONE

DIY Barn Door Headboard: DONE

Today’s post is all about the final details, and the big reveal! You could scroll down to the end just to see the finished product, but really, that’s pretty much cheating. I urge you to start at the beginning. The payoff will be worth it, I promise.

Last time we talked about the headboard, I was installing the legs to the back of the door. If you remember, those legs would go from the floor to the crossbeam which would sit on top of them. I wanted to make sure the bottom of the headboard was sitting on something as well. The height we wanted for the headboard left the bottom 12.5 inches off the ground, so I cut three pieces of 2×4 to that height. I then stood the headboard on those, and bolted those shorter 2x4s to the longer ones.

And in addition to bolting those two boards together, I also bolted them to the bedframe. So the headboard sits on 3 short 2x4s, which are bolted to 3 long 2x4s, which are screwed into the headboard, and also supporting the crossbeam at the top. It sounds complicated, but it works.

Now that it’s standing, we’re pretty much done, except for one final detail. The original door had this really old handle on it. It was covered in rust. Every time Kerry touched it I suggested she get a tetanus shot. Any rational person would have said to just throw the handle out. So, naturally, we needed it to be a part of our headboard. It had been attached to the lower part of the door that we cut off, so we unscrewed it from that, and screwed it into the part we were still using.

And with that, the headboard is… DONE! It’s been a lot of work but we are so, so incredibly happy with the result.

We recently upgraded to a king size bed, which was a good idea. I think the headboard is the perfect size for this bed — and it would have looked way too big on our old queen bed. The only issue now is … our pillows look kind of small. But that just gives us a reason to go back to IKEA, right? (Our IKEA pillows are the comfiest we’ve ever had).

Here’s our bedroom before:

And here it is now, Trixie approved:

We are so excited. It’s been really fun working on it. We’ve learned a lot, and more than anything, it’s gotten us really excited about starting even more projects.

For the whole headboard story: Day 1 was all about getting rid of scrap wood and extra nails; Day 2 had us cleaning 100 years of dirt; Day 3 was the start of sanding; on Day 4 we cut off the bottom; Day 5 had us install the crossbeam and legs.