Union Jack Pegboard Headboard | Children’s Room Decor

We are thrilled to be able to feature a fantastic kid’s bedroom creation from Carmel, founder and author of Our Fifth House.

Carmel had three problems to solve regarding the bed in her son’s room and time was tight as she wanted everything to be completed by his eighth birthday. Follow her process as she creates a fantastic bed and headboard perfect for an 8-year-old boy.

Submitted by: Carmel

Here are the three problems Carmel faced when it came to her son’s bedroom:
1.  How could she make the queen size bed (they already had) fit in his somewhat small room and still have room for some kind of bookcase/storage for all of his junk stuff?

This problem was solved by creating/building a queen sized storage day bed and pushing his bed up against the wall.  This was a great solution as far as space and storage was concerned, but this led to issue number 2.

(This is a before headboard, before curtains, before paint, and before new carpet , but after building the storage platform for the bed picture. )

2.   What could she use for a headboard?

3.  Since they have no space for nightstands, how can she bring in some reading lamps?

The room has a Star Wars thing going on (as requested by her son), but Carmel thought it needed a little Union Jack action.

She used pegboard (Lowe’s) to create a headboard, so that she could use these baskets (Home Depot) to hold books as well as these nifty clip-on lamps (Lowe’s).

The baskets were black, but Carmel painted them with stainless steel spray paint. She roughed them up a little with some sandpaper to make them look like old metal baskets. They work as a great alternative to night stands holding just what you need to have bedside – like a storm trooper alarm clock.

Project Costs (pegboard headboard only):  The pegboard comes in many different sizes and it can be painted.  She bought three boards for about $35 and some pre-primed wood trim to frame it out for around $15.  She already had the paint, so this headboard cost around $50.  Apart from being nice and easy on the pocketbook, it resolved problems 2 and 3 above, and it only took about 10 relatively simple steps to get from point A to point Z!

Total Time Required: a few days for paint drying

Working Time Required: approx 4 hours

Materials & Tools Required:

Pegboard

Wood trim (have the store cut it to size for you)

Primer / Paint / Polycrylic

Masking Tape

Handsaw of powersaw (or have somebody at the store cut your frame to size)

Step by Step:

If you’ve ever used pegboard for its intended purpose then you already know that you’ll want to leave a little space between the screw and the anchor. Basically, you don’t want them totally flush with the wall because you want to have space to use the peg hooks/ baskets.

Carmel used this Grandin Road catalog as a guide for painting the Union Jack. You don’t want to overload your paint brush when you’re painting pegboard. The brush needs to stay pretty dry, so you don’t get globs of paint in the tiny holes.

Do not stress or be overly concerned with perfection. Use the holes in the pegboard as a guide for taping your lines.

The painting took the longest, but it was worthwhile. The end result is so fun, and her son thinks, “It looks really cool!”