DIY Painted Arch Headboard

I’m back to share the full explanation of how to make your own DIY painted arch headboard! I shared the full process in action on Instagram a week or two ago and saved the whole thing in a highlight here. Click that link to watch the headboard come to life in video format in case you’re more of a visual learner. My explanation text below might be a little confusing, so that video highlight is a great way to put two-and-two together, in my opinion. ), so what I’m about to explain is sort of a combination of a lot of different ideas to arrive at a similar end point. I laid my measuring tape out on the floor between my outside edge pencil marks and found my center point (at about 3 feet).

In general, to get an arch drawn on your wall, you need to create a giant DIY compass using a nail and piece of string. You’ll want this to be as fluid as possible, and the string has to stay taut the entire time to ensure an even curve.

Remember when I painted a terra-cotta colored feature wall in our dining room? Well, it turned out to be the perfect shade of peachy orange for our bedroom refresh because it was an almost exact match to the tones in our new rug (see the full room tour with more resource links here).

With a steady hand, I dragged my heavily loaded paint brush along the arch pencil line in a strong, smooth motion to coat the outline completely (make sure you paint over your pencil line during this process, by the way, or else you’ll have to erase the marks later). The entire project took two coats of paint and less than two hours from start to finish (including drying time).