Headboard facelift

With the trunk project on hold until I get the tung oil + citrus solvent, I was itching to get something else done off my mental to do list.  (Something relatively quick and easy)  One of the ideas floating around in my head was to add some nailhead trim to our headboard, which I have been seeing everywhere lately. 

In the stores:

West Elm's Nailhead Upholstered Headboard ($449)

Crate and Barrel's Colette Bed ($1699)

Around the blogs:

A lovely curvy version from Centsational Girl:

A great example of double rows of trim from Casa Sugar:

I already had the rectangular upholstered headboard I made a while back, so all I needed to do was add the nailheads.  While I really like the double rows in the picture right above, our headboard is pretty small, so I wasn't sure if it was going to work.  I figured I would start with the outside row and then evaluate if I wanted to do the inside row.   

The hardest thing about this project was finding the trim.   Centsational Girl recommended getting it online from Beacon Fabrics, which would have worked, but I was feeling impatient and didn't want to wait for something to get shipped to me.   Ironically, the only place in town that I could find it was Rockler Woodworking, a specialty woodworking store that I had originally found when looking for tung oil stuff.  I got two packs of their 6 ft nail strips for $15, and I was in business.  Here I am part way through the first side, and already loving it:

These are not individual nailheads, but a strip where every 5th nailhead is a hole that you tap an actual nail into using a rubber mallet.  Way easier than doing them one by one.  I didn't even take the headboard down, just supported it with my other hand as I was banging into it. (Our headboard is attached to the bed, not the wall, as many are.  If yours is attached to the wall, I would recommend taking it down) Here is the finished product:

Not perfect, but not half bad.   Here is a comparison from before the nailheads:

(really old picture - notice the carpet?) And after:

It was really the touch I needed to define the headboard and make it feel finished.  And as much as I love the double row look, I think our headboard is just too small for that.  So there it is - quick, easy, cheap, and DONE.  My favorite type of project!