How to Cover a Box Spring

We bought a mattress and box spring set about a year ago. Since we move so frequently we try to cut down on furniture as much as possible. Because of that, we never bought a bed frame and our bed looked a little sad. Living in an apartment can make one feel a little beige. My solution was to cover the box spring. I've seen tutorials which just have you cover the box spring with a fitted sheet. Come on. You are so better than that. 

Let's gather materials. You need

• 3 yards of a heavy duty fabric. I used canvas. Keep in mind that this is for a queen size bed. All measurements will be for a queen sized bed. 
• Scissors
• Staple gun
• Measuring tape
• Tape 
• Box Spring (duh)

Cut your fabric. For a  queen sized box spring cut four pieces to cover the corners (11" x 14")
Cut the two longer sides (81" x 13")
Cut the two shorter sides (65" x 13")

Time to start stapling. I suggest a partner if you have small hands. I could barely wrap my hand around the staple gun which made this an extremely difficult and painful process. Find a buddy to hold the mattress for you and use both hands for the staple gun. You have been warned.

Start off with the corners first. Staple the ends first and then pleat and tuck to make the corners look smooth. Make sure to pull the fabric taught. I ended up doing two of the corners first and then flipping the box spring instead of flipping it back and forth. We have a small bedroom. This was much easier.

Attach your short ends first. Fold and press the fabric over 1/2" so you have a lovely finished edge. Staple the fabric to the box spring making sure to tug and pleat and pull to make sure that the side looks nice.

Attach the longer side in the same manner as the short side. Make the corner look like the picture below. Continue with the other side. 

Almost done! If you are an overly ambitious, bored housewife feel free to turn in the raw edges and hand sew. Everyone else can take some wide tape. Packing tape, duct tape, masking tape, anything works. Just tape the edges to prevent too much fraying. The appearance doesn't really matter because both sides will be covered. Hooray for fast solutions!

The finished product! I love the pop of color in our otherwise blah room. I would have liked a patterned fabric, but I wasn't ready to spend $20 a yard for this project. What type of fabric would you use?