This headboard was extremely easy to build especially for my first time. I built the whole thing myself out of pine, which I purchased new, but you could easily use reclaimed wood. I borrowed a saw, and some saw horses from our family friend and got set up in the back yard. It took me about 2 hours building with a hammer. I finished it with two coats of oil based stain and one coat of polyurethane satin finish as suggested on Nicole's blog Create and Delegate.
First Time Building Advice!
I have never built anything in my life except for a little airplane out of scraps with my grandpa when I was seven. I'm crafty and I knew it would be a learning process. Some of the things I learned may be obvious to some but new to me!
- Measure twice and cut once! I took this mantra as a challenge and made every cut perfect, except the last one! I was so excited to be done and I lifted up the last piece only to see that I cut it a foot short. Luckily my neighbor had a scrap 2x4.
- Cutting straight: My saving grace during this project was a simple square and clamps. You clamp down the square just up against your guard on your saw so that all you have to do is push through the cut up against the straight edge!
- Glue: Dried glue will not stain (you can paint over it). Looking back this is very obvious but I didn't think about until I saw spots on my headboard that didn't take to the stain. I had to sand the area and re-stain the spots. So be careful with your glue and make sure you clean it up before it dries.
- Wood Filler: You only need to use wood filler if you use a nail gun. Naively I used wood filler to "cover my nail holes" as directed in by Anna, but my nail heads were flush with the wood because I used a hammer. I had to sand it all off.
- Beat It: Pick something rustic or "distressed" for your first build so if you are not so good with a hammer it adds to the look :)
Happy Building!
