How To: DIY a Wood Block Headboard.

Hey hey hey, ladies and gents, the DIY wood block headboard is done!  It's up and looking all sharp and modern on the wall and I'm doing a little butt wiggle dance in my seat as I write this!  Woo hoo!

Well, carefully wiggling as I slipped on the stairs last week, fell down, went boom on my butt and have the world's biggest most rainbow-y bruise on it.  Yeowch, no fun.  But!  (ha ha, no pun intended) On a positive note, despite flailing like a maniac, I did not spill a lick of paint out of the container in my hand!  Priorities, my friend.

Right, but you're here to find out about our modern swanky DIY wood block headboard, not read about my rainbow rear end.

So, where did my inspiration come from?  On the ol' Pinterests eons ago, I pinned some cool wood block stuff.  I'd seen the blocks as floors and drooled all over myself then too.  The thought crossed my mind to do squares for the pantry floor but, I didn't want to repeat myself.  This headboard was one of the first things Mike and I talked about and agreed upon, the whole design shebang.  Ahem, over a year and a half ago.  Cough.  Anywhoo......

Thankfully I hadn't built it as Mike decided Finn needed a king sized bed just before Christmas last year.  So the stalling waiting panned out.  Whew.

Here's my supply list, in no particular order:

• 1 sheet 3/8" plywood, cut to size at the store, $15
• 2 4"x4" wood posts, 8' long each, $8.77 per
• 2 tubes Liquid Nails*, $4
• Watco Danish Oil, Black Walnut*, $13
• 1 can oil-based Varathane spray polyurethane, satin*, $6
• Lots o' 80 grit sandpaper,* $10
• Varathane wood conditioner*, $10
• Chip brushes,* $2.75
• Clean rags

What was the total cost, sans tax, then?  About $78.29.

That's right.  Less than eighty bucks for a custom headboard.  Cha-ching!  Nice.

Yes, we have silly sheets.  We're silly people.

Now, there are a million different design-y ways to do this, depending on your desired results.  What I wanted?  Blocks of various depths randomly placed but linear, darker in tone with minimal sheen.

Start with the math first; figure out your headboard size.  I took a tape measure and measured up the wall while visualizing it in me beady head.  You could use paper or cardboard to mock up a size if you're a need-to-see-it person.

Once you know the size, figure your blocks.  I went with three depths:  1/2", 3/4", and 1" thickness.  After that, calculate the number of blocks needed, then tally up the length of post required based on all that.  Now you can shop!

Despite my valiant attempts at math, I still got nearly everything wrong.  I used to be pretty ok at math stuff too.  Alas.

First, the Home Depot guy cut the wrong size for the plywood backing (I asked for 32x84; I ended up with 30x84).  Then, despite knowing this, Lumber 101 duh, I momentarily forgot that the 4 x 4 is actually 3.5 x 3.5.  I guess that's why there was that ridiculous lawsuit about truth in labeling or whatever it was -- nominal versus actual dimensions.  Eye roll.  Anyway, I had to trim the plywood to 28" then a smidge off the length despite what my calculator said.  It was wrong.  Wrong wrong wrong.  Heh.

Ok, after the trim, I stained the posts whole trying to be smart so as to save myself from a super messy hassle and the enormous space taker-upper way of staining and wiping each individual cut block's sides.

At first I tried this stain* as it has polyurethane in it already, hoping to combine a step.

Oh!  Look how tidy my workbench was!  Huh.

Buuut, didn't like the color, didn't like the dull flatness, didn't like it.  Bleech.  So I sanded it off then splurged, got Watco oil never having used it before but thought it would give me a more hand-rubbed look and I liked this color best.

Two coats, wipey wipey, here's the result.

Only problem with the Danish Oil is that it's a massive dust collecting vortex so any little touch with dusty dirty gloves or floaties in the air....yeah, slurrrrrp.

I managed though, in case you were worried there for a moment.

So choppy choppy time with my uber super duper spiffy miter saw* that I'm swoony in love with.  (Anybody need anything cut?)  Holy mess but it was fun.  

168 blocks, 56 of each size.  Still!  Did not calculate right on my darn calculator for some whack-a-do reason.  I needed 24 more blocks.  So, oy, right, 64 of each size then.

My saw has a laser line so I measured for length then planted on a painter's tape guide to follow and off I went.  Choppity chop!

Stacks o' blocks.

I test ran a few blocks on the plywood, noticed gaps and thought huh, yeah, seeing bare ply tucked in there will make me insane.  Stain the plywood.  I did the face and edges, and a little on the back side.  The back?  Yeah, I wasn't set on my hanging method so just in case the final choice resulted in the headboard off the wall, I wanted to make sure no bare ply was visible.

All righty. With the blocks cut, I tried the stain and...

Hmph.

...oh, I uh, rats, yeah, that's not what I was going for.  Hm, ok, think.  Think think think.  Oh boy.  Ssssaaanndpaaaper?  Aw dear.  Ok, yup.  Sigh.  Then I researched wood conditioner too as end grain takes stain differently.  Maybe this goo would be perfect.

And it was.  Smelly and fumey but perfect.

After hours and hours and hours and I-am-not-looking-forward-to-our-next-electric-bill hours later, like no joke, five hours, each block was sanded via palm sander.*  Break time! 

Next day I flooded each face with the stinky conditioner, waited a half hour then began the staining.

Whoa.  What a difference.

Again, because it's end grain, wiping made no difference so I let the stain soak in and dry.  I did not flood the surface as directed, rather brushed just enough on as I didn't want to drown the grain in too much color.  I was hoping for one coat but two days later coat one looked a wee chalky so coat two it was.

Finally, assembly time!  Finally! 

A couple splops of Liquid Nails on the back of each block, starting at the top corner and working down along the short edge, the blocks were going on.  I went column by column to manage straightness easier.

A quick dust off with a clean dry brush and it was spray poly time.  I opted for spray because, well, 192 blocks, people.

Workbench gettin' some use now, huh?  :)

Lastly, I enlisted my trusty helper Mike and we hung it on the wall.  Woo hoo!

My original idea was to hang the whole thing with these flush mount brackets.*  But the more I thought about it...more math trying to figure where on the wall and where on the back of the headboard so that it lines up, slides on hassle-free, level and stuff....ha, no thanks, too much math.  And with my track record on this project I didn't want an angry assistant, know what I mean?

My next idea was two of these brackets* which afforded less math but Mike wasn't sold on their abilities.  And honestly?  We both envisioned the headboard completely flush to the wall.

So, we screwed it into the studs.

As you can see above, I left a few blocks unglued and here's where the varying block heights were an extra advantage.  We screwed in from the front and with some self-adhesive Velcro,* I stuck the blocks on over the screws.  This way the whole shebang is removable without looking removable.  Sweet, yah? 

And there it is!  A budget-friendly DIY Wood Block Headboard!

My first ever DIY headboard!  My first ever headboard actually!  That probably seems a foreign concept but eh, that's my life.  Headboardless.

Dammit if this doesn't read like it took me twenty minutes to build this thing, haha!  It took the better part of a coupla hours a day for a week or so.  A lot of nose-picking dry-time waiting.

Not a hard gig, just time-consuming.  Worth the effort.  Worth the effort of reorganizing the basement and building workbenches indeed.  It's like three projects in one!

And here it is in 2021!

Catch up on the goings-ons and updates in the master bedroom by clicking here!

But yeah, wood block headboard DIY!  Checky checky check mark off the list!  Yay!

*The product links with asterisksss are Amazon affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!