Headboard made from Salvaged Shutters
- By Joan
- January 4, 2016
- 24 Comments
Welcome back and Happy New Year! I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions. Frankly, I have very little willpower and who can say no to chocolate.
That being said, I love January. January is the time I work on all those projects I’ve putting off because of the holidays. To organize all those closets and storage rooms I’ve let get out of hand. New projects and new ideas await because this is 2016!
So, coming soon will be my storage room which right now looks like a hoarder lives in there, and my youngest son’s room. He’s been wanting a new paint color and a new desk for quite some time. Hopefully, if I put this in writing then I’ll have to do it…sort of like a New Year’s resolution…though I’m still hanging onto my chocolate.
It must have been July when my brother first showed up on my doorstep with a huge pile of these fantastic interior wood shutters. I immediately knew that I wanted to make a headboard. The only problem was, I didn’t need a headboard.
Don’t despair if you don’t have shutters, an old paneled wood door will give a similar look.
At some point, I found that my oldest son and his wife were on the lookout for a new headboard for their guest room. If I just happened to make one, what size would it be? Queen.
Way back in August I shared with you my first project made from these shutters, a mortise lock shelf.
The shelf went together really quickly but the headboard took a bit more planning and was put on the back burner for a while. I finally got busy gathering supplies by mid-November and by the time I was finished it turned into a great Christmas present.
Start your headboard by laying it out flat. A queen headboard needs to be about 5ft wide. There is a little wiggle room…the headboard could easily have an extra inch, more or less, on each side.
With 2 sets of 3 shutters and 2 4×4’s, my headboard wasn’t quite wide enough, I needed one more panel.
Removing a hinge on a shutter this old, is a project itself. Paint remover didn’t even bubble, so out came the dremel with it’s cutting tool. I was able to cut through the layers of paint to make a new groove for a flat head screwdriver.
With the added panel, the new width of my headboard was 5′ 1 1/2″. Ready to assemble.
Four lengths of 1×4 were cut to the exact width of the new headboard. The 1×4’s were placed so that they cover the ends of the shutters but not any of the recessed detail on both sides of the headboard.
This is a side view. The 1×4’s were glued and nailed into place with finishing nails.
4×4’s were cut. You would think I would cut the 4×4’s to the height I wanted the headboard but you would be wrong…since this was a gift I wanted the headboard to be able to fit into my son’s SUV so he could get it home, a five foot high headboard would never fit. These 4×4’s were cut to 43″. I cut two more 4×4’s, 16″ to extend the legs. When my son gets the headboard into his home, he can chop off the leg extensions to whatever length he wishes to fit his bed.
To attach the 4×4’s to the bed, 6 inch bolts were screwed into the sides. The bolts were screwed into the headboard where the 1×4 overlaps the shutters (look at the side view above). Predrill and screw the bolts where there are 3 layers of wood avoiding the empty space.
I cut a 1×6 top shelf 6 inches longer (3 inches on each side) than the width of the headboard. Nail into place.
Underneath the top shelf is a small piece of crown molding, cut and nailed into place.
Because the crown molding is sitting on top of the 4×4’s, there is a small gap underneath….
…which is filled in with one more small piece of quarter round molding.
Fill in any gaps with paintable caulking and any nail holes with wood putty.
To attach my leg extensions, I drilled a hole for a dowel and glued it to just the extension side of the leg. Another matching hole was drilled on the headboard (don’t glue the dowel to the headboard side).
Since I had this molding sitting around, I mitered the edges and nailed it onto my leg extensions.
When the extension slides on, the molding hides the cut in the 4×4.
The nail holes and edges were sanded and ready for painting. The headboard then got 2 coats of an interior semi gloss white paint.
I don’t know if you can tell, but for a little added strength, I screwed 2 more wood screws in each corner thru the 1×4’s and into the 4×4’s.
All finished and still sitting in my living room. I think my son and daughter-in-law really like it, but when it came time to leave it was either the headboard or the dog. For some reason, they chose their dog.
If the headboard ever finds its way to its new home, I’ll be sure to take pictures.
Update: When I wrote this, there were no pictures of the headboard in it’s new home it sat in my living room for 2 more weeks, the post has since been updated.
More headboard inspiration….(the second one uses an exterior shutter)
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- Twin Headboard
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- Upcycled Shutter Headboard
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- Roofing Tin Shingle Headboard
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- Headboard from Old Shutters
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- This End Up Loft bed gets a makeover
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- Use a Mantel as a Headboard
Shared at Metamorphosis Monday, Inspire me Tuesday, Trash 2 Treasure Tuesday,
Be Inspired Tuesday, Home Decor and More, Wow us Wednesdays,
Talk of the Town, DIY like a Boss, Handmade Hangout Party,
Funky Junk Party Junk, DIY Sunday Showcase,
That DIY Party, Silver Pennies Sundays, Amaze me Monday,
Friday Furniture Fix, Link Party Palooza, Fab Friday Link Party,
Bewitchin Projects Block Party, Two Uses Tuesday
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We do love it! It’s perfect for our guest room (or maybe for our room instead)
Very nice, I’ll take it if they don’t want it. Love your ingenious design for the leg extensions!
WOW! Your headboard is amazing! Love, love, love it.
I have shutter envy! What a great headboard project. It’s gorgeous. I’m sure your guests will love it!
Joan,
I love how you solved all the problems along the way. The shutter headboard is beautiful!
What a great gift.
gail
Oh my gosh – this turned out amazing !!!
Now I want to get in MY storage room – which also looks like a hoarder’s room lol
Thanks for sharing !
Happy New Year !
Those shutters turned headboard look great…wow!
Thanks so much for sharing at AMAZE ME MONDAY!
Blessings,
Cindy
It’s Beautiful!
I love upcycling things like this. I almost cried the day my husband revealed he burned a bunch of old farmhouse doors before he realized they were popular!
You did a great job.
And you’re still married 🙂 ? That is so sad, right now I have a headboard made from an old door, a coffee table from half of a door and later this week I’ll be sharing a sliding door made from an old door. New doors just can’t compare to the old workmanship.
Oh, NO!!! I would have died…or maybe he would have. I’ll bet he almost cried when he found out they were probably worth a fortune, too. 🙁
Wow, I love that! We have a desk made from an old door (a really big desk with 2 computers on it), and an old door in the garage that I’m going to use for our headboard. We also have a headboard in the bedroom upstairs that I made from two old windows that I got from a resale store. I LOVE old doors. You need to use that or sell it. You could make a lot of money from that. 😉
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Good job sis. You created such a great re-use for those shutters. I think old wood panels look so cool. Next project: blanket chest out of old paneled doors!
I love this so much! I love the look of the shutters- and the headboard turned out perfectly! Thanks for linking up at the Handmade Hangout- I’ll be featuring this today on my blog when the new linky goes live at 6pm ET. I hope you’ll stop by and link up again!
[…] became a coffee table that I shared here at My Repurposed Life, some of the shutters turned into a headboard and 8 of the spindles are now legs for a couple of side tables. There have been more projects, […]
Well done! How cool that your brother showed up with them? I want a surprise like that from my brother!!!! LOL And, I’m with you on the chocolate thing! 🙂 I do love to organize come January!! Thanks again for linking up!
[…] created. What do you think? I love when people take old unwanted things and make something new. Scavenger Chic shares a tutorial on how to make a headboard out of old shutters and it is brilliant: I think this […]
[…] Scavenger Chic’s Headboard Made from Salvaged Shutters […]
What an incredible headboard Joan! I love that you were able to use the salvaged shutters. I will be sharing this on the Recreated Designs Facebook page this coming Monday. Thank you so much for linking it up to the Bewitchin’ Projects Block Party last week. Hugs, Lisa
It was so excited reading into this project’s details. Looks amazing and very well put together, who would have thought that you can make a bed head board out of shutters!!?? You sure opened my mind of the versatility of old shutters and old doors. I’d love to make one of this since I have three beds with only the bed frame. I do have to ask two questions: no need to glue or screw together the shutters? Also when placed your head board what is holding it up, stable steady? So it stays in place.
The shutters are not attached to each other, they are glued and nailed directly to the 1×4’s which keeps everything in place. The 4×4 posts are resting directly on the floor and the weight of the bed keeps it from falling over. If you don’t think it’s stable enough you could insert a screw thru the headboard directly into the wall or use the holes in the ends of the bedframes to attach screws into the headboard. Good luck. Make sure you check out my other headboard ideas before you decide on your final design.
If u live close to Ft Worth me will take home. ?It is SOOOO beautiful. U could sell for a lot of money ?
[…] became a coffee table that I shared here at My Repurposed Life, some of the shutters turned into a headboard and 8 of the spindles are now legs for a couple of side tables. There have been more […]