Tufted Headboard Tutorial from Mallory and Savannah of Classy Clutter

I am really excited to have Mallory and Savannah here to share their amazing tufted headboard tutorial with you! They are both extremely talented, and Mallory was one of the first bloggers I "met" when I started blogging, she was extremely supportive, just when I needed it. They also have a really great linky party every Saturday, so be sure to check it out! Here's Mallory and Savannah, I'm sure you'll love them!



Hello Commoner's Castle Readers! We're Mallory and Savannah, the author's of the DIY/Home blog, Classy Clutter.  We are beyond thrilled to be over at Lauren's blog sharing a post with you today! We hope you enjoy our post and we'd love to have you stop by our blog!

While I was in Arizona over the Christmas break, Savannah and I tackled a few projects! Of course! It's pretty much our favorite thing to do when we are together! That and going out for sushi ;) One project we really wanted to get done was her youngest daughter's bed. Her (almost) two year old little angel was done with her baby crib and needed a big girl bed! Savannah knew exactly what she wanted but she was a little nervous to tackle it herself. It was definitely a two person job but turned out to be a really fun project!

Savannah had an adorable twin bed that she found at a local thrift store for a steal. Most people would look at it and think... "great lines, cute bed, I'll paint it and it'll be fantastic!" well... that would be true BUT Savannah wanted to take it one step further! She wanted a white girly bed with a soft lime green upholstery and some killer cute colorful buttons! Not a tall order or anything.. ;)

First, we made a template of where we wanted the upholstery.  We used butcher paper and taped it to the bed frame.

Then we measured and marked where we wanted the tufts and buttons to be.

Next, we drew straight lines from each point to get an idea of where the folds in the tufts would be.

Next, we removed the template from the headboard and I traced and marked the foam while Savannah painted the headboard a gorgeous creamy white! 

I laid the butcher paper template on the foam (we used 2" upholstery foam from the fabric store) and traced in with a sharpie. (Yes, a purple one!) 

Then, we cut around the traced edge of the foam using a serrated knife. We also poked holes in the tuft markings.  (didn't get a pic of this step! Sorry!)

Next, we re-taped the template to the bed, after the paint dried. Then, we drilled holes in the headboard using the template tuft markings as a guide. 

Then, we made 17 fabric covered buttons for the tufting. They were so stinkin' cute! Totally worth the sore thumbs! You can get these button kits at a fabric store. We got hers at JoAnn's Fabrics.

Next, the upholstering began! We used spray adhesive to attach the 2" foam piece to the headboard. Then we stapled a large piece of batting over the foam. We used a staple gun for the upholstery. 

Then, we trimmed the excess batting and we used some clamps to hold the upholstery fabric in place so we could begin the tufting process.

TIP: Do you tufting before you staple. If you staple the fabric first, your tufting may look too tight. We wanted nice deep tufts so we did not want to pull the fabric tight until the very end!

We used a long upholstery needle and upholstery thread. Start from the back fof the headboard and feed your needle through to the front, through the fabric.  Attach the button and run the needle back through to the back of the headboard and staple the remaining thread securely to the back. Make sure to pull the needle really tight to get really deep tufts!

The back should look like this when you're done with this step.

Next, we stapled the fabric to the headboard and trimmed the excess. 

Lookin' good! But we've got one more important step! Piping! 

Finally, we started making our own piping so it would match the green fabric. We already knew how to make piping but if you need help, here is a great tutorial. Click here. 

Then, hot glue your piping around the raw edges and TA-DA!!! DONE! 

Here's an up close picture of the piping and tufting...

We were so excited to tackle a project together since we haven't been able to do that in about 6 months! BAH! Sad huh!? It couldn't have turned out any better! We are a team and our team work always pays off! We both are in love with little Millie's bed! Savannah is working her tail off to get the rest of Millie's nursery turned into her big girl room!

Thanks so much for having us Lauren! We'd love for ya'll to stop by our blog and say hello!

Are you ready to tackle your next project yet?? Head over to Classy Clutter for more furniture and home decor inspiration!

Mallory and Savannah are best friends and the brains behind Classy Clutter, a one-stop shop for all things creative with a focus on Furniture and Home Décor. Both are moms with a mission for being creative on the cheap!  Mallory is a full-time mom of two little boys and a student.  She runs her Etsy Shop –Heartfelt Designs and Photography Business from her home in New York. Savannah is a cosmetologist at an Arizona salon called Hair Do and keeps busy doing furniture, crafts and activities with her two little girls!  Classy Clutter keeps them connected from NY to AZ! Classy Clutter is your place for inspiration, tips and tutorials!  Please hop over and check us out!  We’d love to have you!

Thanks so much ladies! This is an A-MA-ZING project, and I'm so glad you shared it here!

Tufted Bench Tutorial

This project is probably one of the biggest transformations I've done so far. It is certainly a trash to treasure piece.

This is what it looks like today-

This is what it looked like for the past 10 years-

I knew from the time I bought it that I was going to recover the seat, but it took me a VERY long time to actually get it completed. I had started recovering it, but only got as far as stapling the two long sides, and that was about ten years ago. It sat in my Mom's basement forever, and then in the shed. 

It finally got pulled out, and was ready to be made over.

This project would also work great on an old coffee table with a removable top.

I started with an upholstery weight leopard print fabric from my stash, and a scrap of brown dupioni silk for the buttons and piping. I thought it would go well with the finish of the frame. I thought about painting the frame, but I like the crackles, and touches of gold it has, and it would have taken forever to strip that thing down to a paintable state.

The first thing I did was make my covered buttons, if you've never done this before here's a quick photo tutorial. Let me know if you have any questions. There are instructions on the package, and it's really pretty simple.

FYI: I used two layers of the fabric since it was on the thin side. I didn't want any of the metal base showing through. This also added extra texture. 

I was also really intentional about where I cut my circles from the fabric, I wanted to include the little nubs and irregularities.

After I was finished with the buttons I decided how I wanted to arrange them the bench. I used my ruler, and marked dots on my foam with a sharpie. (I used 2 inch foam)

I used a sharp knife to stab through the foam and I did it in both directions to from an X across the dot. This made it much easier for the button to recess into the hole when I put them on later. I considered cutting holes, but figured this would be less noticeable if I made a mistake, or wanted to change the placement later.

Once I had my slits cut I put my foam in place on top of the wooden seat, and poked my sharpie through the holes in the foam to mark for drilling.

I drilled!  :)

Time to do the tufting!

I used spray glue to attach the foam to the wood. Make sure your holes line up!

Thread your needle. I highly recommend using a 4 or 5 inch needle, but this was what I had, and somehow I made it work.

Stick it up through the hole in the bottom of the wood, and through your foam.

Slide your button on.

Pull the needle back down through the hole, pushing the button as far into the hole as you would like it to go. I like deep tufts!

Staple your thread onto the wood on the bottom. Keep going until it is very tight!

(I like to make an X with my staples, the top one helps push the bottom one even tighter over the thread)

Keep repeating those steps until all your holes are done! You might need to take a break, because this can be brutal on your fingers.

Fiddle with the diamond shaped folds and buttons until you are happy with how it looks.

Now you need to staple the bottom into place.

You want all the folds to go straight out from the buttons to the back of the board. These folds will not form on there own, you need to guide them.

Staple directly on the fold so that it will stay in place. I needed about one staple in between every fold for it to hold together nicely, but this will vary depending on the distance between your tufts, and the type of fabric you're using.

The corners can be tricky. Just wrap them around and when you like how they look staple them!

I originally folded my fabric away from the corners, but right before I added the piping I ripped it apart and folded it toward the corner for a more streamlined look.

Once you have the bottom all cleaned up it's time to add the piping.

I bought regular 3/8" piping at the fabric store, and measured around the bench to see how much I would need. (I added about 8 extra inches just in case) I cut the silk in 3" strips, on the bias (diagonally), and then wrapped the cording, and sewed it as close as possible to the piping.

I used my hot glue gun to apply it, and started gluing on the middle of the back side.

I continued gluing in 6-8 inch sections until I got to the end. 

When I reached the end I cut my piping, with 1-2 inches extra, and glued it down. I trimmed it some more, glued the end, and added a staple for extra stability. I added a few staples around the whole thing.

I flipped it all over, made sure it was perfectly in place, and screwed the top back on to the base!

YAY! A new piece of furniture that was 100% free for me! I had everything I needed around the house, and I couldn't be happier with it!

I just love the curves of the legs, and the crackly patina.

I just need to add that I had the hardest time taking pictures of it, when I was finally finished. My bedroom was a total mess, and every shot I took, had either clothes, tools or wood in it. Oh well, I got it done, and I love it! That's all that matters in the end!

Do you ever have to try to work around messes when trying to take pictures of your projects. I really hope I'm not the only one! 

Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing

Before we even bought our house we knew that the first project we wanted to tackle was the kitchen cabinets. We knew that if we waited until we moved in that we would have a whole bunch of food and kitchen supplies in our way, so we wanted to get it done before hand. 

Here's a sneak peek of how they look today!

Our first step was taking all the cabinet doors off, we numbered all the doors inside the well of the hinges, and covered them with tape. Then we started prepping them for paint. 

First, they got a good sanding with a palm sander. Then we wiped them down with a rag, followed by a tack cloth, to make sure there wasn't any lingering dust. Unfortunately I don't have photos of a lot of this because we were in the middle of our move, and I was a bit scatter-brained!

Since we were mid-project anyway, we decided to rip out that stainless steel back splash while we were at it, and I am so glad we did. To find out more about what we did to replace it, check out this post.

Once the cabinets were sanded and cleaned they were ready to be primed. We set up a temporary spray booth in our living room. In this photo you can see the construction paper on the floor, and just how crazy things were in the month between closing and moving in. We covered the opening between the dining room and living room in plastic, and sprayed everything in the opposite corner of the room. We covered the doors on this wall too, we left the walls uncovered, because we knew they were the next thing that would be getting painted.

First, we sprayed on Sherwin Williams Adhesion Primer, and when that was dry we brushed an oil based primer over any spots that bled through. We sanded everything smooth with a 220 grit sandpaper, then did a final coat of the adhesion primer. We followed the second coat with a very light sanding to make sure everything was silky smooth.

We let the cabinets sit with the final coat of primer for two or three days to make sure that nothing else was going to bleed through. We wanted to play it safe since the cabinets were original to the house (1991), and we weren't sure how much grease and oil they were exposed to over the years.

Then, it was finally time to start painting them! WOO-HOO!!! We painted the doors with Sherwin Williams ProClassic® Interior Acrylic Latex in Satin. We decided we liked the look of a white wall cabinet, and a slightly darker base cabinet, so we used Twinkle (SW 7135)- white with a slight touch of blue to it on the wall cabinets, and Zircon (SW 7667)- a light shade of gray on the base cabinets.  

We used the same colors on the faces and insides of the cabinets, that we did on the doors, but we only needed one coat of primer and two of paint. 

REMEMBER!!! When spraying, tape and plastic are your friend. Tape off any doorways into the room, tape off everything that isn't getting painted, if you don't there WILL be some kind of spatter or paint residue on it!

We sprayed the doors, faces, and insides of the cabinets with a professional sprayer that Mike borrowed from work, (if you need one check your local construction rental places, or just pick up one that is meant for homeowners, we recently got one at harbor freight for under $30!) we did two coats, allowing plenty of time in between for drying. When the were dry we left them a few more days to fully cure before they were hung.

We were so thrilled when they were fully cured and ready to be hung! 

Here's the before photo, you can see how far our kitchen has come! 

It's not all that noticeable in this picture, but a lot of the poly was beginning to peel off the doors, and they were looking very "eighties orange."

and...

the after!!

 We love our "new" cabinets SO much, and are really glad that we painted them. This was definitely the longest and most daunting task we have done in our home, but it was totally worth it. It would have cost thousands to replace the cabinets, but we spent under $200 on our supplies. 

Things I will do different next time

• Instead of spraying the faces and insides of the cabinets, I will probably do it with a foam roller. These are much less noticeable than the doors, and a lot harder to paint with a sprayer. I would roll them purely because of the convenience and the less mess factor.
• I think I will stick to an oil based primer and paint for everything next time. (We haven't had any problems with our finish, it looks just as great as it did in December, but I don't know how long it will last)
• I will use a more significantly different color difference between the base and wall cabinets. I was going for something not so subtle. 

Here's a few more pictures for you to enjoy!

This is the view from our breakfast nook. Make sure you take in the wonder that is that lightning bolt on our ceiling. It will be gone, gone, gone in the next few weeks. I originally wanted to take it out right a way, but Mike want's to try to reuse the track lighting, so it was put on hold. UGH!!! Can't wait for it to be gone!

We added the knobs a little over a month ago, I love how they add some fun color to the space!

edit: We still haven't chosen a paint color for the walls in here, whenever I think I've finally settled on something I see another inspiring picture on pinterest, and I change my mind. Ugh! Part of the whole paint dilemma is that the kitchen has a chair rail. I know I want to do wither beadboard or picture frame moulding below the chair rail, and that part will be white, but that just makes it more difficult because I have to find something that will look good with that. 

What color would you choose?

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below or email me!