How to repair a headboard
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Do you have a headboard with bad veneer? My nephew Jimmy dropped this off for me to repair and paint.
Isn’t it a beautiful bed?
Excuse the blurry picture. It’s the only picture I have that shows how bad the veneer was warped.
Related content:
You can patch wood after removing veneer
How to Repair Veneer
The veneer was pulling away from the front and the back of this headboard.
Visit the My Repurposed Life Amazon Store to shop my favorite items.
If you want a good hold when you repair a headboard, I recommend the ever popular Gorilla Wood Glue .
Then, I used something very thin to spread the glue. If you look carefully, you’ll see how wavy the veneer is in both the front and the back. After I spread the glue I need to clamp it.
New Use for Painter’s Tape
My regular readers know I’m a huge fan of ScotchBlue Painter’s tape. I have found a brand new use for it! Look how I applied tape to two pieces of scrap lumber.
Clamp Headboard Veneer
I used those two pieces of taped boards to clamp the headboard. Applying just enough pressure to get a little ooze. Don’t apply so much pressure that you make ALL of the glue ooze out.
I used four clamps and let the glue set up.
You can see that this option is a lot better than using the same four clamps in random areas. It sandwiched the bad veneer really well.
When the glue had set up, I removed the clamps and “popped off” the scrap lumber. It did stick slightly to the bed, but not like it would have stuck if the ScotchBlue had not been used.
Clean Repaired Headboard
It’s the dead of winter but we had a pretty warm day, so I was able to work outside. After sanding the bed, I used some TSP to wash it down.
Repair a Headboard with Wood Putty
There were some cracks there on the top left, this is before I filled them with wood putty.
This is after I filled the cracks and sanded.
Paint Headboard White
It was warm enough for me to paint outdoors. This is after I sprayed some gray primer on the footboard. I have a new favorite sprayer from Homeright.
I didn’t have much time to work, so I mostly concentrated on the spindle parts of the bed, because they are so hard to paint by hand.
The weather turned cold again, and I was painting by hand indoors with a fabulous Purdy paint brush! If you’ve never used one, you really should try it.
Here I am painting in my kitchen! The bed is mostly finished. Jimmy is having a hard time finding side rails. I think he’s going to try using a regular metal bed frame. His aunt gail has had side rails, but has repurposed them into other items.
gail
If you’re not using the headboard for the bed, you will love these ideas on how to repurpose headboards.
What a sweet auntie you are! Thanks for the great tips! 🙂
Holy cow! You took a beautiful antique which looked like piece of junk (which is what I would have said, seeing the separated wood) and you brought it back to life. Good for you!! Really, I am SO impressed. I am going to save this – who knows when I might need to to do this one day!!!! Thanks for sharing.
Best,
Gloria
Wow. You have taken the fear out of veneer! The next time I see a slightly damaged veneer piece, I won’t be so reluctant to try to fix her up! If you have time, I would love for you to link this post (or any of your other ones) to my blog party at http://firstadream.blogspot.com/
What a great tutorial and so worth repairing! Thanks for sharing at Beyond the Picket Fence.
Great post! Can’t wait to see the finished project.
Wow, that is impressive how the veneer flatten out!
Great repair job Gail! Great tips to get nice even pressure on the veneer. It looks great all painted too. I hope the side rails gets figured out!
Marvelous job you have done…I hope nephew is paying you good to do all this work…cause I personaly would not have under taken this for anyone but myself and maybe not even for myself. Blessing Trish
You definitely worked your magic on that! It looks great 🙂
Lovely job Gail. Bet your nephew is loving it.
I agree with everyone else that just kept thinking the entire time “I would have left that thing at the curb and thought nothing can be done for it!!” Thank you for opening our eyes to more possibilities!
I’d be willing to bet that 90% of the people woldn’t have attemped to repair that bed. I looks amazing. I’ve tired using Gorilla Glue with disastrous results. lol I always use too much. I love the painters tape. In fact, Grampy just bought a new roll to use when we paint our two bathrooms.