DIY Pottery Barn Raleigh Headboard

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My friend Sue asked me to help her update her bedroom recently.  She wasn't exactly sure what she wanted but knew she wanted something with clean lines and something fairly neutral so she could easily change linens without much hassel.  She also knew she wanted all white bedding.  We decided to hit some of our favorite stores for inspiration. When we saw the Raleigh Upholstered Camelback Headboard with Nailhead Trim, we both fell in love.  When we looked at the price tag we both choked.  For a california king, it would run $1399.00 with the linen we loved and then you had to tack on a 10% tax and a shipping charge of $150. YIKES!  We decided that was way out of our budget.  We looked at a lot of other beds and the Raliegh headboard just kept nagging at us.  Soooooo, we decided to build it.  Looking at the photographs and specifications in their catalog, we drew up our own plans and started gathering supplies.  The Pottery Barn headoard is VERY substantial.  If you've seen it in person, you'll know what I'm talking about.  Its almost 5 feet tall and nearly 5 inches thick.  We drew our plans so our finished bed would be exactly the same size as thiers. 

We found an upholstery fabric that looked and felt identical to the Raleigh upholstery at Hancock Fabric in the home dec section. The wrong side of the fabric actually looked most like PB headboard so we used that side.  We Bought the fabric when it was on sale 50% off.  The nail head was pretty hard to find.  We wanted to use the same oversized 1" nails they had used and finally found them at Bailey's Upholstery Supply in Tucson.  The nail heads we used go by the brand name "DADS." We also bought most of our upholstery supplies there including foam, spray adhesive and batting. It was much cheaper to buy it there (wholesaler - you do have to pay tax if you don't use a tax ID #) than it was to buy it at a fabric store. 

We drew up plans and went to work.  It was actually much easier than we thought it would be.  It turned out beautifully and looks identical to the real thing.  We built a california king but also modified and have included plans for other sizes.

Pottery Barn Raleigh Upholstered Headboard with Nailhead Trim

Wood Supplies

A: 1/2 inch 5-ply plywood

California King: 44” x 72”

Quantity: 2

Notes: Don’t worry if there are shallow cracks in the plywood as long as they don’t go all the way through the wood. That is why we got a 5 ply--because it is 5 times stronger.

B: 1/2 inch 5-ply plywood

California King: 12” x 72”

Quantity: 2

C: 1 x 4 pine board

California King: 65”

Quantity: 1

D: 1 x 10 pine board

California King: 72”

Quantity: 2

Notes: This is one 6 foot board. No cuts needed.

E: 1 x 4 pine board

California King: 56”

Quantity: 4

2 feet. Our feet are 4.5 inches long. The design is called “Tulip Bun” Z

Other Needed Supplies

Wood Glue

Wood Screws

Drill

Jigsaw

Table saw (if you aren't having your large plywood sheets cut at the store - if you are, you don't need table saw)

Power saw (I used my compound miter saw, there are are no angled cuts at all so a chop saw or miter saw would also work fine)

Sharpie to mark pieces

Measuring tape

One inch thick upholstery foam

batting

upholstery

spray adhesive

electric staple gun with staples

1" nail heads for the trim (known as D.A.D.D.S - can be found online or from Bailey's Upholstery Supply in Tucson)

Rubber mallet for the nail head trim (do NOT use a regular metal hammer or you'll ruin them)

Valspar Oil Rubbed Bronze spraypaint for the feet

Notes on cutting wood: I always have Lowe's or Home Depot cut my plywood sheets.  The sheets are so large they can get pretty hard for me to control well enough to safely run them thru my table saw.  Plus, I have a major fear of table saws (watched my dad lose fingers in one when I was a kid).  I'd rather just have them cut it.  Most of the time my Lowe's will do the first few cuts free and then I think they charge around 30 cents per cut after that.  I will gladly pay a dollar or less to be able to fit the lumber in the back of my car (as well as keep all ten fingers).  If you don't have saws, there aren't a lot of cuts and it wouldn't cost more than a few dollars to just have them make all of your cuts. If you're really nice, sometimes they won't charge you anything to make your cuts.  You would still need to buy or borrow a jigsaw if you wanted to do the camelback top.  Jigsaws are fairly inexpensive. I think mine was less than $50.  Its just a little Black & Decker and its worked perfectly for me.  I use it all the time. If you wanted keep your cost down or make it as simple as possible, you could build the square Raliegh headboard and bypass the jigsaw all together.

Drawing the arch

This is one of the hardest parts. We found a 60” round table and used it to get a good slope. We only drew the slope on half of the wood. Then we cut the arch with a jigsaw. We took the piece off of the cut wood and traced it on the other half of the wood. Then we cut the arch. This part took us longer than it should have. You can use our template if you want or you can be artistic and create your own. It is helpful to use something to help you get a good curve.

This is a serious headboard

Because we wanted a substantial headboard, ours is 4 pieces of wood thick. Yes four. So we have two arches cut from the 12’ ply pieces. Then we needed to jigsaw the large pieces to match the curve.