We are currently working on our bedroom. When we moved into the house mid-December, we basically just plopped down our bedroom furniture.  And called it a day.  Well, it’s time to get the ball rolling and get that room decorated and put together.  I bought a tufted headboard about a year ago.  I loved it when it was in front of these coat closet doors… which were being stored in the bedroom until it was time for installation.  But, when we moved the tufted headboard here to the house, it gave me a MEH feeling.  It wasn’t flashy enough for me and we wanted something different.  So we decided to give a free laminate headboard a makeover.  And this is how we made a laminate headboard look like an antique.

How to make a Laminate Headboard look like an Antique

I don’t know if you have ever tried to find an antique headboard in a king size, but they don’t exist.  Because they didn’t make king size mattresses back then.  So, I knew that I would have to be creative.  Here is the little backstory on this laminate headboard.

One of the girls asked us if we wanted a king-sized headboard that she was getting rid of.  We immediately said no.. because we knew it was a laminate.  I then started wondering if we could paint it and make it look older, like an antique.  So I text her back and said we would take it.  Once we saw what it would look like behind the bed, we loved the look… but wasn’t fond of the color.

Keep scrolling for a BEFORE picture.

We ran across a lot of laminate furniture when we owned our storefront and shied away from it.  It is so hard to work with.  I know there are things now that make it easier.  But as I was looking around our room, I decided that a painted headboard would blend in too much.  I wanted it to stand out.  So we took it over to Deb’s workshop (aka the cottage) and sanded it.  It was very dark brown with a cherry hint.  And it looked plastic.  And, again, I wanted to turn this into an antique replica.

The laminate sanded off pretty easily.  However, all of the details in this headboard were very hard to sand.  We removed what appliques that we could.. and had to leave the rest.  I decided to add a bit of paint around the appliques to make it look a little older.  And, I stained the entire headboard in the color Early American by Minwax.

I hated it!  And, really thought about painting it.  The paint that I added looked sloppy and the stain color was not right for our taste.

“Let’s sleep on it…”

We have been around long enough to know that we don’t make rash decisions anymore.  Sleeping on a decision is something we learned long ago because you always see things differently the next day.  Deb has another saying which is, “Eat a sandwich.  Sandwiches make things a lot better.”  But that’s for another day.

When I woke up the next day, it didn’t look quite as bad as I thought… still ugly, but not AS UGLY.   I decided that I applied the paint way too thick, so I re-sanded those areas by hand and removed some of it.  And, since the stain color wasn’t correct, I gave it another coat of Provincial.  And Deb applied two coat of poly in a satin finish.  That did the trick.  I started to like the headboard a little, but not a lot.  

Here is a little side by side BEFORE and AFTER for you.

It wasn’t until we moved it over here to the house and attached it to the wall that I LOVED it.   It looks like an antique headboard with lots of imperfections. Which is exactly what I had in mind.  The color goes more with our original antique pieces.  And the wood tones pop against our white walls.  I am really happy with how it turned out.  What do you think?

Pillow Sources:  White Ruffle Sham / Black and White / Long Lumbar