Country Style Picket Fence Headboard – A Do it Yourself Guide

I personally love the style and look of a country picket fence around my house outside. How unique would it be though to bring that look into your bedroom? With a little creativity and a little handyman(woman) skills it would be quite easy to duplicate the look of a picket fence as the headboard to your bed. I think this would make a great idea for a little girls room, or even a guest bedroom. To make a picket fence headboard you are going to gather up the following supplies:

Saw
2 Fence Posts
Tape Measure
Fence Pickets
Wood Screws
Wood Glue
Finishing Nails
Screwdriver
Wood Glue
Sand Paper
White Paint or another color of your choice

1. The first thing you should do is measure the width of the bed using your tape measure. To create a more framed look you should add about six inches to the measurement on both sides.

2. Next determine the height you want the tallest picket (the center one) to be. This height will be varying depending on the size of bed you are creating a headboard for.

3. Once you’ve determined the desired height of the center picket you want to use your saw and cut the first fence picket to that. You will then want to cut each consecutive picket a little shorter than the one before, moving out on both sides of the center picket. So in actuality, except for the center picket you will be cutting two pickets of equal length to be placed on each side.

4. After all the different sized pickets have been cut, you will want to use your sand paper and smooth out all the rough edges. No one wants to accidentally scrap their hand while they are in bed on their headboard!

5. Now you want to lay out all your pickets in the order they need to be in, not leaving more than four inches between each picket for safety reasons.

6. Next take three more pieces of the fence pickets and cut them to the width of the entire headboard fence. These will be used as the backbone for the fence and should be placed in a “Z” pattern.

7. Now once you’re happy with the spacing and measurements you want to glue these backbone pieces onto your fence pickets using your wood glue. It is very important to make sure that each picket fence piece gets glue on it and gets glued to each of the three backbones.

8. Once these backbones are glued you will want to nail finishing nails into the backbones to ensure everything stays in place while the wood glue dries. I would wait 24 hours for the glue to dry before you proceed onto the next step.

9. Now that you have your finished picket fence headboard, and you have given it ample time to dry, you now need to attach it to the two fence posts to bring the look together. You will want to place each fence post at each end of your picket fence gate and secure with wood screws using your screw driver.

10. Once everything is screwed in and secured it is now time to paint! I would give your fence a good couple coats of paint, especially if you are choosing a light color like white.

11. After your paint has completely dried it’s now time to install your headboard to your bed. You can either attach the headboard directly to the wall with some more screws, or you can attach it directly to your bed frame. It is really up to you. Another option would be to just rest it against the wall and use your bed to stabilize it.

By following these eleven easy steps you can accomplish a beautiful picket fence headboard in the course of a few days, perfect for a weekend project! All your friends will be surprised that you did this completely by yourself in a matter of days. Good luck!