I have been wanting to create a new headboard for our bed ever since I finished my king sized rag quilt.

It has been a long time coming, but we finally created one!  (I say “we” because Matt was largely involved.  My projects often involve him.  What an awesome man.)

I love how it turned out and I can’t wait to hang it in our room!!  Would you like how I came up with this piece?  Stayed tuned!  First off, I did lots and lots of scouting on Pinterest for inspiration.  Out of everything I saw, here are four of my favorite boards…

I love the simplicity of this look with the sweet branches.  I thought the stained wood would look good with my bright quilt too.

I loved the way “love” was painted with the stain look, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted it to be such a bold piece.

I loved the way this “love” was painted smaller, but then it seemed like “not enough” for my taste.

So, I was a mess wanting something “simple” and yet “striking”.

I loved this rustic door and “love” mix.  We looked for a while and couldn’t find an old door for cheap.  Junk places realize what they have and price crazy old doors starting at $100?  You can buy new doors cheaper.  I didn’t want to pay that (cheap I know!), and I didn’t have an old barn in the back yard that I could “stumble” across such a treasure.

We have been getting caught up on How I Met Your Mother.  Amazing show if you have not watched it!  Every time I saw Marshall and Lilly’s bed, I wanted it.  I loved the bold color.

I ultimately decided I am a “color” kind of person.  Why not have a fun headboard to go with a fun bed quilt!?!  So, this is what I came up with…

I mixed the simple branches with the word “love” on top of a fun color.  I love the result!  The only thing is my room is currently painted green.

This beauty totally clashes.  🙂  Hence, it gave us another “project”.  We have already bought the paint.  My room is getting a makeover little by little!

Would you like do to this too?  Here are the steps…

We bought six boards at Home Depot – (4) 1×6 and (2) 1×4 .  I laid them out in the order I wanted.  I didn’t want the two smaller boards together.

We measured and trimmed off some of the ends.  We wanted our headboard to be about 80 inches long once we were done.  We cut the boards a little shorter than that, since they are overlapping each other to create the overall 80 inches in length.

We then chiseled, chipped, sanded and hammered to create a rustic, ripped look on the ends of the boards.

Our boys love “project days” and jump right in on their own creations!

Reagan loves all the commotion and everyone hanging out.  It is a blast these days.

Once the boards were roughed up we laid them back down and drew a chalk line, so we would know how to line them back up while attaching them.

Matt attached them with lots of screws and wood glue.  We don’t want any part of this falling on us during the night.

Here is where I got to start playing.  All that hard labor stuff led to the fun stuff.  Life.  I painted a light coat of my teal blue.  Don’t worry about covering it evenly.  It makes sanding later much easier!

I then used a burnt orange acrylic paint to paint the word “love”.

I then painted the branches in a creme acrylic.  This is where I left it for a couple of days.  I had to decide if I liked it, by staring at it.  This occasional walk by and stare session was to make sure I didn’t want to add or subtract anything.

This can be the hard part for an impatient craft-er like me, but it is so valuable.  There would be nothing worse than to totally finish this project and not love it by always “regretting” one step.

I decided I loved it, so I sanded it down.  I wanted the newly painted touches to look more rough like the teal background.

Don’t you love seeing how we work outside in our car port in these pictures?!  My professional wood working brother is usually right there with us, which we take full advantage off to ask all our questions.

Next, it was time to stain!  I love this step.  It’s so quick, yet the effects are huge!

Doesn’t the stain just finish it off?  Check out the sanded image verse the stain image up close…

It makes it look complete in my book.  I can’t wait to hang this up above my beautiful bed!

Up next, we have to paint our room.  This weekend’s project, Matt???

Thank you so much for checking out my Friday Project Spotlight!  I hoped you enjoyed seeing how we created our headboard, and you might be inspired to try it yourself!

We had all the materials except for the wood which was about $50.  Cheap for a headboard!

Let me know if you have any questions we can help you with!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

I linked this project up at:  One Project Closer and The Ugly Duckling.