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Pool Noodle Headboard


We recently redid my daughter's room, and switched her daybed with built-ins into a regular bed. So now she needs a headboard. I've seen upholstered pool noodle headboards done a few different times and it looked to good to be true. It can't be that easy and come out looking that great - can it?

a girls bedroom with pink curtains and ivy string lights

Materials:

  • Pool Noodles

  • Backer Board

  • Fabric

  • Adhesive

  • Staple Gun


The first step is to have a backer board, which you can easily buy from any home improvement store. Okay, admittedly I I was trying to accomplish a few different things here, but we have so much scrap wood lying around that I really wanted to reuse it rather than throw it away - you can see my scrap wood art project here for reference. I also wanted a vey specific height, so I used a piece of cardboard cut to size and then hot glued the scrap wood pieces to it so I'd have the perfect size backer board.

a piece of cardboard glued to pieces of scrap wood to make a headboard

Now on to the noodling! Calculate how many noodles you'll need depending on the size of the headboard. Measure and divide in half.

a pool noodle being measured to find the center point

Once you mark the center of the noodle, slice it in half. I used a sharp kitchen knife and it worked perfectly.

a pool noodle being cut in half lengthwise

The next step is to attach the half noodles to the backer board. I've seen this done with spray adhesive, and I did try that, but I found hot glue to work so much better. One point of caution - make sure your glue gun is set to low temp as to not melt the noodles.

a woman hot gluing pool noodles to a large piece of cardboard to make a headboard

After the noodles are attached, it's time to upholster it. I purchased some stretch grey velvet fabric, which I would NOT recommend. In order not to have any bunching, you need to pull one side tightly while attaching the other side. It just added an extra step and I had to learn from my mistakes as I went along. I also saw this step done with spray adhesive but I went back to old faithful - my hot glue gun. It adheres to fabric so well, it's become my go to for upholstering. I put a line of glue in between two noodles, put the fabric over it (while pulling one side tight) and used a ruler to push the fabric all the way down.

a woman covering pool noodles with velvet fabric to make a headboard

a woman covering pool noodles with velvet fabric to make a headboard

Once I was (finally) done with gluing the fabric, I flipped it over and used a staple gun to attach it to the back side.

a woman stapling velvet fabric to the back of a headboard made from pool noodlesm coardboar

Okay, this one actually came out better than I thought. It's so lightweight that attaching it to the wall was a breeze! I actually used Command velcro picture hanging strips. My daughter absolutely loves it, and at the end of the day, if your kids are happy, what else really matters?

a headboard made from pool noodles



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