How to Make a Frame Collage Faux Headboard

When we first moved into the new digs, I had grand plans to paint each room with some sort of bright, chipper color and lovely finish. This, the guest room/my studio/my office was going to be bright white with blue-grey horizontal stripes. Lovely, right?

Then come paint it for me.

While I was waiting for you to all show up to paint, I decided the walls needed some ‘bang.’ I decided to give our platform bed the illusion of a tall, stately head board, complete with all the quirk and bizarre of my art collection.>Read on to find out how to do this without a straight edge, butcher paper, or a care in the world. Oh, and learn how not to do your hair. Ever.

Surriously.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where the art came from, it is Tina Crespo, Cricket Press, D.U.R.A., Katie Daisy, Mis Nopales Art, thrift shops, international travels, personal photos, and a few bits that I can’t think of…

This ombre floral DIY wall art would be a great DIY project to hang on the wall, too!

Supplies

• a zillion frames, maybe in the same color (I suggest buying a bunch of bizzare art at the thrift shop and spray painting the frames.)
• hammer
• small nails
• tape measure
• level (if you care more than I do…)
• pencil (or a Sharpie, if you’re feeling wild)
• incredibly balance

1.   Measure from the ceiling to the top of your existing headboard/bed frame. Write it down. Now decide how far from the ceiling you want your collage to start. If it’s five inches, then subtract ten from the total so that your collage is five inches from the ceiling and five inches from the top of the head board.

2.   Pull your tape measure out to your new total, and lock it. Line it up from the head board across the bed. You’re going to use the area marked off by the tape measure as your imaginary wall.

3.   Take any frame from your wild, massive collection, and line it up against the bottom of the tape measure. This will essentially be the bottom of your collage. Start filling in outwards and upwards from there, spacing pretty evenly between frames and going all the to the head board at the top and the edges of the bed at the sides.

Go until you filled all your spaces. Also, I feel like I need to address my hair. It’s clearly sixth grade fighting back for attention. I showed it what’s up though. I’m back. Sixth grade can stay in the ’90s.

4.   Remember when you decided how many inches you wanted in between the head board and the collage? Well, now is where you get your tape measure out and mark off that many inches from the head board.

Just scrawl it right onto the wall. Mark it in two or three different places to ensure a straight line. I used a Sharpie. That was probably brash and unnecessary.

5.   Take your bottom right corner frame, and line it up with the bottom at your rebellious Sharpie dot on the wall and the right edge lined up with the edge of the head board. Mark a dot at the top center of the frame so that you know where to nail.

6.   That dot you just marked? It’s in the wrong place. Really. That’s okay though. Flip the frame over to see where the little nail hanger is on the back. Is it an inch from the top? Then pound your nail in an inch below your dot. Get the idea?

6.   Do the opposite corner next. Same way, other side. This will give you a boundary to work within.

7.   Start taking your frames off the layout on the bed one at a time and putting them up on the wall. Start by filling in the bottom row, and go from there. You might find it easiest to go up each side after the bottom row, then across the top. You can fill in the middle last, adjusting as necessary.

Oh, and that little stop-motion above is really neat, right? Totally neat. I’m the next Scorcese…

8.   Straighten everything out. Call in the level, if you must. Finally, wrangle the nearest unwilling fur baby; flop back on the bed; pose for an incredibly awkward picture that again makes you regret that freaking hairdo; and enjoy all your hard work.