Making a Tufted Headboard and Footboard for Your Van

DIY Van Help

You know how some projects are tough and time consuming but totally worth it? This is one of them. In our house, we had a beautiful velvet, tufted king-sized bed. The look and feel of the headboard was luxurious, and we loved it. Since we knew we would be selling that bed when we moved into the van, we wanted to create that same feeling in our bed inside the van.

Our bed height is at the bottom of the rear window cavities so these cavities are the location of the headboard and footboard. We filled these cavities with insulation; 1” of Polyiso and then inserted the headboard and footboard. 

Here is how we created the headboard and footboard: 

Materials

Makes 2 headboard/footboards size: roughly 53 5/8″ by 25 ½”

Steps

  1. Choose an upholstery fabric that suits your style. We chose a light grey velvet fabric. Acquire roughly 5 yards of fabric. We had a little extra but better to have too much than not enough. Don’t forget to watch for sales, fabric can be expensive.
  1. Create buttons to match or have someone make them. We decided to make them ourselves, but we have read online you can get them made for a similar price. So next time we will look into that option before making them again. We used a Dritz Craft Cover Button Kit with Tools. The instructions are fairly easy to follow but we had to use a clamp to aid in clamping the jig closed. We had a hard time closing the buttons by hand. This was probably because of our fabric choice. We also applied a small drop of gorilla glue to ensure the buttons stayed closed.
  1. Thread about 8-12 inches of upholstery thread through the loop on the back side of the buttons. Tie a knot to the back of the button, but make sure it leaves two roughly equal length strands of thread that will both be pulled through the plywood panel. 
  2. Create a template from foam board to fit the window cutout cavity. There are various ways to make templates, but we usually use a compass to scribe a line onto the foam board. Here is an article discussing how to scribe lines with a compass. We also used two pieces of foam board: one for the left side of the cutout, and one for the right side of the cutout.
  3. Using the template from step 3, cut the ¼” plywood to fit inside the window cutout cavity. Sand all edges smooth to the touch.
  1. Drill holes in a triangular grid pattern with 7″ between each adjacent hole, like the pattern shown below. The holes need to be large enough to easily insert the needle but smaller than the width of the ⅜” staples. The larger you make the hole, the easier it will be to find when tufting. A 3/16” drill size will be large enough to thread the needle through, but small enough that you can staple over the hole with a ⅜” width staple. We used a smaller drill bit, which will be shown in the photos, but it was tough at times to locate the hole using the upholstery needle.
  1. Cut the 2″ foam to the same shape as the plywood. Use thinner foam if you want your bed to be longer.
  2. Use spray adhesive to attach the foam to the plywood. This keeps the foam in place while working on the tufts.
  3. Using a small knife, cut out small holes through the foam at the drilled holes.This will make the tufts go deeper, for a more dramatic effect.
  4. Attach the batting over the foam and plywood using ¼” staples in the back of the board. The batting should be taut but not too tight. Try not to bunch the fabric when stapling; the ¼” staples may not grip and the headboard needs to rest as flat as possible in the cavity. Not a problem normal DIY headboard makers have. Trim away excess material from the back of the headboard.
  5. Place the upholstery fabric over the batting, making sure to leave plenty of material near the edges so that you have material for tufting and can staple it to the back once the tufting is finished.
  6. Prepare the first button by threading the two strands through the upholstery needle. Make sure you loop over enough thread so that it will not pull out of the needle while inserting through the fabric and foam.
  7. Now for the fun part. Starting in one corner, with the upholstery fabric draped over, insert your first button in the hole using the threaded needle. Put a staple directly over the hole, making sure that the two threads are on opposite sides of the staple. Pull tight but not all the way. Arrange the tufted look by creasing the fabric in 4 corners. Pull all the way tight and tie a knot over the staple on the back of the headboard.
  1. Continue to the next hole and button. Ensure the fabric is not too loose or tight between buttons. We did one full row before continuing to the next row. 
  1. Once all tufts have been completed, staple the upholstery fabric to the back of the headboard in the same manner as the batting. It is important to continue the tufts around the corners for all of the buttons on the edge. If your fabric and batting are fairly thick, then sometimes you can have issues where the staples will not engage with the plywood. If this occurs, one way to prevent it is to locate the staple just past the batting but still over the upholstery fabric. This way the staple will only be going through the fabric.
  2. Trim all of the excess fabric and button strings.
  3. Tada, now you have created a tufted headboard. Repeat all of these steps if you also want a footboard. We attached our headboard and footboard by wedging it between the wall of the van and the bed frame, which was super secure. The tops of the headboard and footboard were secured with other trim pieces in our van. However, all van builds will be different, so you may have to devise your own method of securing. We also thought to use industrial strength velcro but this may not hold up over time (heat). 

Here are some of the websites we used for inspiration. I find reading multiple instructions provides multiple points of view. So check them out.

If you have any further questions, you can reach us on Instagram or in the comments below. Tag us in a photo if you create your own. We’d love to see it!

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