Can I recover and 'tuft' an existing headboard?

louisvillebride21

My husband has this awful paisley headboard from the 70s/80s. I LOVE the shape of it, it looks like something I'd get from West Elm. So, we currently have it covered with a fairly nice comforter and it looks just fine. Well, we're moving and just got some really great bedding. I'd like to recover the headboard again, this time in grey and have some tufts. Would I need to strip everything down to bare plywood (what I'm assuming is under there) and do the batting and covering all over again, or can I tuft through the current batting, awful paisley and then the new fabric?

 

 

TheWop

I would think that you can just replace the fabric.  My friend and I were just talking about this.  However, it being 30 years old, you might want to replace the foam and batting to start fresh.  It shouldn't be that hard.  There are tons of tutorials out there for making your own tufted headboard.  You would just skip the wood cutting step because you already have what you need.  Maybe start taking off the current fabric and see what kind of condition everything is in? 

Magdala9

Tufting through an existing bed frame (unstripped) can be difficult because you don't know what's underneath the fabric.  You don't want to tuft directly on a join (if the wood is joined).  Stripping off the existing fabric and assessing what's underneath is a great idea

louisvillebride21

I'll give that a shot then. I just have this fear that once I take the existing stuff off, it's going to crumble to saw dust! 

floridakat

I think it would be easier to start with a fresh sheet of plywood than to strip this one down. I'd be tempted to try to cover it as-is (if your new fabric will completely obscure the existing fabric). Just drill through it for your buttons; if it doesn't work, it doesn't work!

lanyac

Centsational Girl posted this on her blog about it:

http://www.cre8tivedesignsinc.com/2012/03/tutorial-on-how-to-make-the-tufted-headboard/

I'm not sure if that's exactly what you're going for, but it seemed easy enough!