The online craft and decor community is full of amazing ideas for making your own, affordable headboard. So you shouldn’t be surprised that it’s the latest on our list of 30 decor ideas in 30 days for under $30.
It’s been a decade since I’ve had a headboard purchased at a store. I made one years ago from some
clearance fabric and batting stretched around a piece of plywood and mounted to the wall.
The one I have now was handcrafted quickly and cheaply by my woodworker husband out of pine and some faux leather panels from Lowes. It didn’t fall under our $30 threshold but it’s an example of what you can do by yourself.
The headboard (at right) in my guest room, though, definitely fits our 30 decor ideas in 30 days for under $30 criteria. It’s a wooden screen that had been in my Mom’s house for years, got passed down to me so I could hide my cat’s litter box and then become a headboard when my husband and I redecorated the room.
I just painted it black (regular readers will notice a theme there), mounted it to the wall, and voila: A headboard for about $10!
But even if you don’t already have a screen or other piece of appropriate furniture to repurpose into a headboard, you still have lots of under $30 options.
Here are some suggestions:
Hang a curtain, blanket or fabric as a headboard
The example at right is from Apartment Therapy. You can get the same look with an inexpensive or recycled curtain rod and some clearance bin fabric. Don’t like the color or finish of the rod? Just spray paint it to match your decor.
You could also try some sheers, Buy two or three panels for fullness and hang them from a cheap rod.
You can get two 59-inch sheer voile panels for $15.98 from Sears plus the Ashby curtain rod for $6.99, also from Sears.
That’s about $23 for a soft and flowy “headboard” to give your room a little drama. White sheers would look especially good in front of a bright wall.
Paint a headboard on the wall
Try painting a rectangle, some stripes or a shape on the wall like Melissa K. did in her tiny apartment in New York City. See the photo from Apartment Therapy at left.
Melissa opted to paint a traditionally-shaped, black headboard on the wall, rather than take up space with a real one.
Good Housekeeping offers a stencil (see above right) to paint your own headboard.
You’d only need a quart of paint for headboards like these so you do could this project for under $15!
Use a hollow-core door
Paint the door with stripes or polka dots or some other design using masking tape or stencils. Then hang it horizontally on the wall for a queen bed or vertically for a twin bed.
I found a JELD-WEN door for $20 and a Martha Stewart Living Interior Designer Sampler Pack – which includes 14 sample paints! – for $9.98 at Home Depot. See both above. That means for just under $30, you can have quite a colorful headboard!
You can see a similar idea below in this room from BHG. In this case, a closet door is used to make the headboard.
Use a decal or wallpaper
There are plenty of affordable decals and wallpapers online and in stores now that could be used to make a headboard.
I found this gorgeous decal on Etsy at the Qinqin Decal shop for $24.99. It comes in 10 different colors and several sizes.
Other ideas
Of course, you could try upholstering a headboard, although that’s a little hard to accomplish for under $30.
Or you could find an old headboard at a thrift store and give it a new paint job.
Finally, you could find an old door, gate or fence at a garage sale or flea market, clean it up or give it a new paint job and hang it all behind the bed. Instant headboard.
