FJELLSE Headboard

Materials: FJELLSE full bed, stain, piece of pine, L brackets, drill, screws, screwdriver

Description: I needed a bed, was on a budget and hated everything on Craigslist. For under $100 I got a bed a like that I think looks great.

The FJELLSE full bed was on sale for only $49. I picked it up and skipped the $20 slats and got a free box spring from Craigslist.

The headboard with the bed is ugly in my opinion and so I wanted to cover it up. I saw some hacks for this style of bed, but most of them were padded headboards. I wanted something rustic. Originally I was going to purchase several planks of wood and stack them on top of each other. I found a 2'x 8'x1/4" piece of wood at Home Depot and had them cut it down from 8' to a couple inches under 6' which would be the length of the bed. This piece was $27.99 and listed as "shelving" on my receipt, though it was just in the general lumber area.

We also purchased to packages of L brackets to use to affix the headboard to the bed. You can see how we did in the photo. My dad was also concerned about it holding and adding a screw on each side through the posts of the bed.

In terms of assembly, we assembled the bed like the instructions, only adding the piece of wood to the bed at the beginning after we assembled the headboard. We had measured the box spring and mattress to know how much higher on the headboard to place the lumber too (about 12" with a standard 9" box spring).

The unfinished pine also screams IKEA so that also needed fixing (note: I originally tried using a spray on stain. Horrible. Wound up using old stain we already had that had a finish to it. Would have saved about $20 had this goof-up not occurred!). This was also done days before we assembled as it took awhile to dry with the rain. We also didn't bother staining the parts that wouldn't show, like the midbeam.

I feel like the end product doesn't look IKEA at all!

~ Sharon, Long Beach, CA

Upholstered IKEA Fjellse

Materials: Fjellse bed, staple gun, mattress pad topper, fabric

Description: I wanted to create a substantial guest bed on a major budget. I began with the IKEA Fjellse bed, cut up an inexpensive foam mattress pad topper, stapled it to the backside of the frame, and stapled fabric over it. The fabric I used was an IKEA curtain panel that was leftover from another room. I think it definitely upgraded the very cheap looking bed!

See more of the upholstered IKEA Fjellse bed.

~ Amanda, Michigan

Turn your blah Fjellse into a FAB upholstered bed

Materials: Fjellse bedframe (double)

Description: Now that I'm living like a grown up after college, it's time for my sleeping situation to look the part too. So although the Fjellse bedframe has great bones (solid pine, not particleboard!) and the price at $50 cannot be beat, it's just a bit too plain and cheapie-college looking for my taste. Although I could just slap on some nice paint and call it a day, my inner interior decorator really really wanted a luxe upholstered bed ever since I laid eyes on them.

Here's how to do it too:

1) Prepare your wood to be painted and primed by wiping it clean and filling in any grooves in the wood knots with wood filler. Sand down the wood filler when dry.

2) Apply 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of latex paint allowing enough time to dry between coats. I used Martha Stewart Living in Sharkey Grey.

3) Build the wood frame add on to increase the height of the headboard. Use 2 inch wood screws to attach the 3 pieces of wood like so. You only need one screw on each side. For more strength, add some wood glue between the joints:

4) Now attach the plywood to the frame you just built using 1 1/4 inch wood screws. Attach that to the bedframe by screwing the plywood to the Fjellse frame using more 1 1/4 inch wood screws. Attach mending plates to strengthen the joint between the add on and the Fjellse frame. It should look like this:

5) Next, attach your foam by stapling it into the plywood at the bottom edge of the headboard and then stretch the foam over the top edge and staple onto the back of the headboard. Do the same with the quilt batting. Make sure to pull everything taughtly and evenly before stapling so you'll get nice smooth edges. When you're done, it'll look like this:

6) Lastly, align and staple your fabric onto the headboard pulling taughtly. Make sure your fabric is straight if you're using a print and take your time on this part to make sure everything looks smooth and professional.

Now you're done and your Fjellse is looking fantastic! :) If you wanna see more pictures or are confused about any steps, see my blog post where I talk about it more extensively.

See more of the DIY upholstered bed.

~ Trinh, New York

From FJELLSE to FAB!

Materials: FJELLSE

Description: Have you guys seen this amazing hack? Not mine, wish it were.

 before

 after

See more of the upholstered bed.

~ Lauren, Austin, TX