My client wanted a unique headboard. She’d already done the whole IKEA thing and wanted something that would last and would make a statement.

After talking through her whole project, we concluded that a live edge headboard would make that statement. We met at my live edge vendor and looked through a bunch of slabs. You can see that her dog was worn out by the process. I love including the client in all aspects of the process, which she loved, too.

She chose a Poplar slab with a crotch. This can be a problem as far as stability but the piece had a ton of character. I had the slab flattened at my slab vendor’s place and then was barely able to fit it into the back of my Honda Pilot.

I stripped off all the old bark with the draw knife and then filled part of the crotch with black epoxy to add some stability. At the end of the project, I also cut and drilled some bar steel to attach to the back for more stability.

I sanded everything down to 120 grit and put three coats of Osmo PolyxOil on it for protection and to pull out the grain.

Because the piece was very heavy, I decided we couldn’t attach it to the bed frame because it would have been able to handle the weight. I put two 45″ french cleats on the back and attached it to the wall in this manner. My helper and I also put together the bedframe she bought on Wayfair. It wasn’t worth the cost for me to build a frame for her, and the bed frame matched well with the headboard.

My client was able to come by my workshop throughout the process to look at how things were going and make decisions regarding how she wanted the edges cut. We had debated about making the edges wavy but in the edge chose an angled cut. I was able to show her how it looked by showing a Photoshopped view but it was better for her to see it in person.

She was very excited about the results and spent a lot of time helping us put together everything on the bed so we could get good pictures.