DIY Upholstered Box Spring Bed Makeover

Around five or six years ago, my dad finally upgraded my futon bunk bed that I had been sleeping on for years (I removed the top bunk when I got to college to update it slightly) to something a little more “grown-up”. The problem is, since then I’ve had this really nice queen pillow top mattress sitting on top of this ugly brown metal bed-frame and an equally ugly box spring. Yeah, it was an upgrade, but it still left much to desire. So, now a whole five years later, I’ve finally decided it was time I do something about that awful bed frame & box spring. I’ve tried to cover it with bed skirts, but to be quite honest, I have this strong aversion to them. They’re ugly and I don’t like ‘em. After doing some searching online for alternatives, I decided to put on my DIY cap and upholster the box spring, get rid of the bed frame and replace it with something a little nicer. Just in case you’re wondering, I didn’t want to get rid of the box spring altogether for two reasons – 1. I’m lazy and trying to figure out how to dispose of it was something I just did not feel like doing and 2. I need my bed to sit up higher so that my little pug baby can’t jump onto my bed. I love him, but that shedding… not so much.

And so, I got to work.

Upholstering the bed frame took the longest and I had to complete it in phases. I thought about different fabric colors for awhile and eventually decided to go with this white faux leather ostrich fabric. The base of my room is grey and white with yellow and pink accents, so white just made the most sense to me. I went with the faux leather so that I could clean it easily seeing as it’s not removable. Hello, magic eraser. I ordered 3 yards of fabric, although I could’ve went with less. But I’m pretty lazy and not really one for measuring. I pretty much just cut & sew and hope for the best. I started by cutting the fabric making sure there was enough overhang so that I could sew it to the top of my box spring and staple it to the bottom. I had to sew a few pieces together to make it long enough to go all the way around the box spring. Then I pretty much just wrapped it around to get a good guess as to where I need to sew it closed and turned it into a tube top of sorts for my box spring. Fancy, huh? I then left it like this for a couple of weeks until I decided how I was going to manage to sew the top down.

Sewing the top down took me approx 4 hours or 4 episodes of Mad Men, however you want to look at it. I of course, had to sew it down by hand, using a curved needle. I eventually just decided to push the mattress to the side a few inches and sew it that way, since I figured trying to lift the mattress off and then put it back after would result in all kinds of mishaps. And before you look at this close up of the sewing, remember that I am not a seamstress. I repeat, I am not  a seamstress. So, no shit talking about how those stitches look, it worked and that’s all that matters.

Next up was purchasing a new bed frame and putting it together. I decided to go with this one from West Elm, which I purchased during their 25% off bedroom furniture sale. Hello, discount! Putting it together was fairly simple and I was able to put it together by myself in less than an hour.

Progress.

Once I had the bed put together, I flexed my muscles, lifted the mattress and box spring off the old bed frame and leaned them against the wall while I finished the last step of upholstering the box spring – stapling the bottom down (I didn’t take any pictures of that step, sorry). I then dropped the box spring and mattress into the new bed frame and started making up the bed. I did notice around this time that the paint was chipped on the front of the bed frame, I don’t know if I did it or if it came like that but at this point theres not much I can do about it. I’ll fix it eventually.

And here’s the finished-for-now product. As you can see there’s a lot of dead space (well, actually you can’t really see, just take my word for it) above my bed that needs to be filled. I eventually want to diy  a floor to ceiling headboard in the same faux leather fabric as the box spring, but until then I need some art or something to fill that space. Also, my bed now sits a few inches higher than before, so it’s at the same height as my ikea floating shelves that I installed when I first moved in. Talk about a stroke of luck.

And in case you’re wondering why I hate bed skirts so much, this is what my room looked like 2 years ago. When I first purchased my condo, I decided it would be cool to paint my wall black and go with a whole black & white theme. I changed my mind shortly after that. That bed skirt tho. Ugh. Gag.

So, what do you think? My room is far from done, I have a lot of changes that I’ll be making including filling the empty space over my bed and getting rid of or reupholstering that storage bench at the foot of my bed. I also need to purchase some white sheets. The grey that I have currently is too dark for the new duvet set I purchased recently.