Beautiful Headboard Inspirations

I just love the look of an upholstered headboard. It's one of the easiest projects you can do at home to completely change the look of a bedroom and all you need to get started is a little inspiration and a little elbow grease. I won't go into major detail on the how to's but I've include a couple of links to some great step-by-step advice. This page is mainly for headboard inspirations, meant to show you what's out there and inspire you to create something magnificent.

As you can see there is no limit to the shape of your headboard design. So get a jig-saw and get funky!

4 Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing Your Fabric

• Fabric can be expensive - especially if you are going to upholster a headboard for a California King size bed so shop around, check out remnants and discontinued patterns.
  
• No matter how often you shower, your head still produces oil which will eventually rub off onto your headboard. A pattern will hide minor staining better than plain fabric as will medium tones as opposed to tones that are very pale or very dark.
• Leather wears extremely well though its expensive and not easy to work with for beginners.
• Consider just covering a plain upholstered headboard with muslin then making a slip-cover for it which can be changed out with the seasons or your mood.

• Plain (non-patterned) fabric is more versatile and you might not get tired of it so quickly but be bold. Choose a saturated color and then make the rest of the room neutral so the bed really stands out as the focal point. Just make sure to bring in the color of the headboard at least twice more. You could do this by adding a strip of the fabric to your drapes (which will also give them a great custom look) or a throw pillow, flowers, a painting, really the options are endless.

• Printed fabric makes a statement. Personally, I prefer a large print - but everybody's different. The trick to decorating with prints is to vary the sizes but stay in the same color family. For example if you have a large print on your headboard, then use a small print on your bed and mix that up with a medium print throw. Or alternatively, just let the print on your headboard shine and keep everything else calm.

Things to Consider When Designing Your Headboard

• Materials you'll need are either a headboard in a shape you like (from a thrift store etc.) to cover or plywood cut to the desired size. Make sure you use plywood and not particle board because particle board emits fumes (from the glue holding the particles together) than can smell and be unhealthy.
  
• A basic shape such as a rectangle is a snap - just ask your DIY chain store to cut your wood to the size you need. Remember that the headboard should be slightly wider (about an inch or 2 cm) than your bed and that the foam will add a bit of width as well. Of course you could also make it much wider for a really big impact.
• Make sure the foam is about 2 inches or 5 cm thick - an electric knife cuts through foam really well but a craft knife or even scissors will work, too.
  
• If you're looking to add some curves then plan these out carefully on a large sheet of paper first. You can tape together sheets of newspaper, or plain brown kraft paper to get the size you need. This way you can sort of "try out" the new shape in your bedroom before you actually commit to anything permanent.
• Don't forget that planning the height or your headboard is just as important as planning the width. Think about whether you'll be leaning up against it to read or watch T.V. If so it will need to be tall enough to comfortably accommodate this. A nice basic rule is to make the headboard height 2/3 higher than the height of your mattress.
  
• Consider buying enough fabric to make a bed skirt for a really put together look.

You know you spend one third of your life sleeping so why not do it beautifully? A headboard can totally change the look of your room and choosing which one you want shouldn't stress you. If you don't like it, or want to change it out after a while - that's not a problem.

I wish you lots of luck and sweet dreams.

Article by Anne Alexander Sieder all rights reserved. For hardcore interior design fans, check out my blog www.prettyhaus.com.

If you're looking for some step by step instructions I tracked down a couple of the best:

A Really Simple Headboard with Upholstery Tacks

General Advice good for basic how to's

Fabriclist.com is a wonderful resource for all of your fabric needs. It breaks down the online retailers into groups and rates the quality of their goods as well as their ease of use. My personal favorite online retailer for upholstery fabric is Modern Fabrics.

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