Headboard - Before and After

I am on currently vacation for 2 weeks, which means I have a little extra time to clean and organize, as well as take care of a few projects I have been wanting to do around the house. One such project is the headboard in our bedroom. Here is a before picture:
At the time when we built it, we wanted something functional that we could put our glasses and our phones at night that was in reach (since I have to check my email just one more time before I close my eyes each night...) But as we lived with it, functional was no longer fitting into what I considered nice to look at.

Now, the after:

We had a ton of fence pickets left over from when we added our backyard fence a few years ago. I've tried to think of different projects to do with them, but never really thought about using them for a new headboard until I saw this post at ana-white.com (which is, by far, one of my most favorite places on the internet.)

So, I took the leftover fence pickets, sanded them like crazy, and built this simple headboard a few days ago. A couple of coats of stain and it was complete. I love it! I'm so thrilled with how great it turned out.

Next, I'll be making some matching bedside tables to go with it, because we still need a place to set our glasses and phone at night.