Jed and I were lucky ducks and when I graduated Jed's sweet parents bought us a bed; which kept us from having to sleep on the floor or old twin mattresses that we had when we were kids. Just a couple weeks later while at garage sales with my sister I found a great deal on a headboard that I had been dreaming about.
I had wanted to make my own headboard for a long time and even bought fabric for this imaginary head board months ago in Rexburg; and this 5$ plain wood one was just perfect for it.
To give it the padded/cushion look I cut up my old college, twin sized, mattress pad and used spray adhesive to glue it on. I did two layers and then just staple gunned the heck out of the fabric to the back of the headboard.
headboard: 5$ (garage sale)
foam cushion: on hand
fabric: 4$
spray adhesive/staples: on hand
total: 9$