Wood and Aluminum Flashing Striped Headboard Tutorial

I'm back today with the tutorial for our new headboard.

Supplies:

• 1/4" thick plywood
• wood stain (I used Minwax's dark walnut)
• 1"x1" wood
• roll of aluminum flashing
• liquid nails construction adhesive
• screws
• finishing nails
• wood filler

Tools:

• miter saw
• tin snips
• drill
• hammer
• nail punch

We used a five foot by four foot piece of 1/4" plywood for the back of the headboard.  We then cut the aluminum flashing into four 5 inch by 5 foot strips.  

We also cut more 1/4" plywood into five 5 inch by 5 foot strips.  (We bought cheap plywood for the back and some nicer pine plywood for the wood strips.)  I stained them with my favorite stain - Minwax's Dark Walnut.  (The unstained pieces in the lower left corner of this pic are for the headboard frame which I'll discuss later.)

We then laid the flashing and wood strips out on the piece of plywood and made sure everything was going to fit properly.  Then, we used liquid nails construction adhesive to first attach the pieces of aluminum flashing and then to attach the wood strips.

*Learn from our mistakes: As you will be able to see in the finished photos, the wavy line of the construction adhesive is visible through the aluminum flashing.  We had no idea this would be an issue.  I assume that if you spread the adhesive out evenly with a putty knife before adhering the pieces of flashing this will not happen.  Sadly, it was too late for us.

We then attached some scrap 1"x1"s that we had lying around to the back of the headboard to reinforce it and to create a place to attach the outer trim.  We used some screws that we already had in our toolbox (anything 1/2" to 1" long would work fine).  

We then framed it out with a combination of 1/4" plywood and some strips of pine lattice molding stained to match the wood strips.  We attached the frame pieces with more liquid nails and also with some finishing nails.  

Our original plan was to hang the new headboard using this (what I would call a French cleat but those at Lowe's call a "picture hanging system").  However, we should have thought the hanging process through BEFORE completely finishing the headboard.  There was no good way that we could  securely attach the cleat without having obvious imperfections on the front of the headboard (from visible hardware or wood filler).  

So we came up with our own hanging system.  We used a piece of scrap wood (cut to the correct depth for our headboard) and a dowel.  We attached this to the wall with screws and heavy duty anchors.  

We then used screws to attach another dowel to the 1x1 at the top of our headboard.  

Then we hung it up on the wall and stepped back to admire our work.

The visible wavy lines are making me a little crazy but I'm trying to get over it.  Is it possible that one day I won't notice them?  (Unlikely.)

I've got lots of posts planned, I just need to get the pictures taken and edited.  (Working third shift makes picture taking more difficult due to the lack of natural light when I'm awake.)  Hope everyone has a great week!