Reversible Headboard Slipcover

We made a padded headboard awhile ago with an old sheet, using a tutorial much like this one. We would just swap out different quilts and coverlets, by pinning it using safety pins.  But as part of our bedroom makeover, I wanted a more permanent solution. So I rummaged in my fabric stash for some cool fabric. I found a cool (I know it's trendy) grey chevron and a piece of my daughter's dorm room curtain.  I thought I could create a reversible headboard slipcover using both pieces. It was really easy. I thought I could just slip this cover over, but I had to add in a zipper to make the slipcover fit nice and tight.

Before

After

After - reversed

1. Gather your supplies: two large pieces of fabric, and one piece of contrasting fabric (I used yellow), scissors, pins, measuring tape, sewing machine, 16" or longer zipper, and thread.

2. Measure the length and width of your headboard, and add one inch to the width and length. For example, if your headboard is 80 length x 36 width, you would have 81 x 37.  Using these dimensions, cut from each piece of large fabric. If you want, you can finish the bottom of each piece, but I didn't because it doesn't show.

Get off of there!

3. Measure the depth of your headboard, and add one inch.  For example, my headboard was approximately 3 inches deep, so I need strips that were four inches wide. So cut strips from your contrasting fabric 4 inches wide, sew the strips together so you have one long strip that is at least as long as two widths and one length of your headboard.

Contrasting yellow

4. To sew the strip to one of side of your headboard fabric, pin rights sides together, starting at the bottom of one edge of the width, along one side of the length, and then back down to the other width. I don't like to use pins, so I didn't, I just lined up the fabric and sewed, contrasting fabric on the top. When you get to the corner, make sure your sewing machine needle is down at the corner, turn the fabric to 90 degrees, where you would start along the length, clip the contrasting fabric from the raw edge towards the needle. Bunch up all the contrasting fabric on the left, but make sure the raw edge is almost lined up with the headboard fabric, then sew, trying not to pleat the contrasting fabric. Keep sewing all the way around.

5. Now attach the other large piece, and place where the zipper will go (the bottom of one side of the headboard fabric). Now sew the contrasting fabric to the other side of the headboard, but don't go all the way down to the last part. Just to the zipper.  Now sew in your zipper. (I am not great at it, so just look up a tutorial that will work for you). As you can see from my pictures, I had to unpick and resew in the zipper.

Zipper when chevron side is forward.

Zipper when teal side is forward.

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Bedroom Makeover

Our bedroom has never really functioned well, especially the bedside tables. We have a lot of books, so we had two low bookcases for tables. They worked great for storing books; but the tops were too narrow for lamps, jewelry, magazines, clocks, reading glasses, etc. So at our garage sale, we got rid of them, without anything to replace them. We just knew we didn't want them anymore. So this is what our bedroom looked like: with books piled up against the wall, a lamp on top of a stack of books, basically a mess. This is a before photo. I intentionally didn't make the bed, which is similar to a person's face for a before picture of plastic surgery. They are rarely smiling. So my bed isn't smiling. We made the plain padded head board from an old sheet to drape quilts on, and then safety pinned them in place, but it looked too feminine and a bit dated.

Before

So, since I like to be as efficient as possible, I made a list of all the things we needed our bedside tables for: reading, storing books/magazines/etc, storing jewelry, writing, charging phones/tablets, last minute work stuff (checking email before going to bed or making tomorrow's to do list), etc.  So that means we needed desks. Desks? Yes, desks. They provided everything we needed as well as making our bedroom a little more practical with another quiet place for working, writing, and reading. 

After

The Bed

I kept the head board, but I covered it with some scrap fabric I had around (tutorial coming). I know that the chevron pattern is pretty trendy right now, but I had a large piece that would work just fine. The black pillows are from Ikea, but I made the other pillows: the pocket yellow trimmed grey ones (tutorial blog coming soon), blue with black stripes, and the yo-yo black pillow (leftover from Zoe's dorm room). The coverlet, quilt and bed skirt are from Target.

The Desks

The desks I bought from Overstock.com. They look vintage, the top is glass, so it's easy to clean. When I made them I actually reversed the top, since it wasn't as shiny as the other side.  The lamps are from Ikea. I also got a little magazine storage bin for Scott's side, as he likes to go through his magazines at night: New Yorker, Bicycling, and Believer. The chairs are from Target. 

Most of the baskets/boxes are empty. I fill them up with items from my closet that I don't wear anymore so it's convenient to send off to Goodwill.

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