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43 stylish headboard designs to suit every kind of bedroom
A headboard can go a long way towards tying a bedroom decorating scheme together, whether you use one to bring a note of colour and pattern to a more muted room, or tie a riot of textiles together cohesively. Form and function are both key when it comes to choosing headboards, as you're very likely to spend at least some time with your head resting against it, drinking a morning cup of tea or reading a book. From that point of view, an upholstered headboard – where a fabric of your choosing covers a lovely padded foam shape – is the most comfortable, but that doesn't mean we're against the likes of rattan headboards or even cane. They bring a touch of cool modernity to a room and you can simply prop a pillow behind you for reclining purposes.
How to fit a headboard
There are two ways to fit a headboard; attach it the bed or attach it to the wall. The former is by far easier, but attaching it to the wall ensures no gaps and potential noise as you move in bed and the headboard hits the wall. If you're fitting it to the bed, the headboard needs to have legs, which will have a cut out section that slots onto adjacent knobs on the bed – it really is very easy and can work well when there's no skirting board between the bed and the wall to create a gap. If you're attaching it to the wall, you'll need French cleat brackets, a drill and a lot of patience to measure everything correctly. For seasoned DIYers, it is fairly simple and YouTube has plenty of videos to guide you. For renters, a headboard attached to the bed is definitely preferable.
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Boz Gagovski1/43Carlos Garcia's ‘Anatolia’ fabric is a current favourite of ours, and we love how rich and luxurious it looks on this headboard, against a backdrop of a Jean Monro wallpaper. The combination is the work of Brandon Schubert, who decorated this 16th-century cottage in Wiltshire.
Christopher Horwood2/43If you are working with a four-poster bed with drapes, or indeed a bed canopy, you may not want to introduce patterned fabrics everywhere. The plain headboard works well against an antique crewelwork textile in this 17th-century Huguenot weavers' house in Spitalfields, decorated by Rachel Allen.
Dean Hearne3/43Having lighted on his ideal house in the wild Devon countryside, Tom Cox of HÁM Interiors set about making it into a warm and welcoming place to get away, filled with the distinctive art and antiques he has grown up with. The main bedroom has a headboard in ‘Delgado’ by Colefax & Fowler. A custom ‘Cabin’ sign artwork hangs above the bed, and a ‘Harrison’ side table (both by Studio HÁM) stands alongside.
Dean Hearne4/43This custom headboard in the main bedroom of the cottage next door to Tom Cox's main house is covered in ‘Cheyenne’ by Güell Lamadrid, and the Vaughan ‘Oban Rise & Fall’ light has a shade in the same fabric.
Mark Anthony Fox5/43Instead of a traditional headboard, a piece of tongue and groove panelling can be very smart, especially when there are plenty of other patterns in the room to compete. In this Cotswold house by Emma Burns, Cole & Son's ‘Sweet Pea’ wallpaper provides plenty of visual interest, so that the panelling makes for a calming look around the bed.
Simon Brown6/43Wavy headboards are definitely having a moment, as seen in this Notting Hill townhouse with interiors by Studio Vero. We love the cheerful orange fabric on this one. Cleverly, these are actually twin beds that can be linked to make a double.
Alexander James7/43Studio Peake brings a fresh spirit to this Arts & Crafts house in Surrey. With its low ceilings and dark beams, this Arts and Crafts house in Surrey was looking sad and neglected, until interior designer Sarah Peake brought a new, energetic spirit to its rooms using a bold palette and pretty prints. A headboard in Namay Samay’s ‘Sitaron’ and Vanderhurd and Wicklewood cushions balance Antoinette Poisson’s ‘Jaipur’ wallpaper in the spare room.
Helen Cathcart8/43Once pokey and disjointed, Isabella Worsley turns a village cottage into a coherent and expansive house for a young family moving from London to the countryside. In the main bedroom, the walls are covered in Susanna Davis' ‘Birzai’ paper-backed linen. A headboard in Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler's ‘Squiggle’ contrasts with a bespoke side table painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Brinjal.’ Both colours are echoed in the rug from A Rum Fellow. The armchair is upholstered in ‘Zanzibar’ by Peter Dunham.
Michael Sinclair9/43This custom bed, with a headboard in Rose Tarlow’s ‘Aida’ linen in roux, is flanked by a table with a cloth in Guy Goodfellow Collection’s ‘Fez Weave’ and a chest of drawers from Max Rollitt. Paintings by Richard Ballinger from Jenna Burlingham Gallery (left) and Paul Resika provide colourful focal points.
Jonathan Bond10/43Katharine Paravicini has warmed up a Feather & Black bed frame with a custom headboard in Ottoline's 'Tulips of Belgravia' fabric. It is a pretty scheme packed with colour and shows an way of adding a headboard to a bed that usually wouldn't support one.
Dean Hearne11/43The theme for de Gournay Design Director India Holmes' bedroom was drawn from her grandparents' collection of Asian art, which mostly lives in her bedroom now. The yellow and red colour scheme was the starting point, with a custom yellow dupion wallpaper by de Gournay above the dado and a custom hand-painted wallpaper design called ‘Mapi’ below. India upholstered the headboard in Beata Heuman's ‘Palm Drop’ fabric, adding matching cushions.
Tom Griffiths12/43The walls in the spare bedroom of Kate Cox's flat are covered in Jean Monro's ‘Clover’ wallpaper in Flower Pot. Not wanting to crowd the room with too much pattern, Kate chose a neutral fabric for the Studio HÁM headboard: ‘Ismaelia’ Pierre Frey.
Owen Gale13/43In Angus and Charlotte Buchanan's bedroom, they have created an easy, airy canopy using a lightweight aluminium frame and lots of white linen. The valance and headboard are done in Buchanan Studio's Studio Stripe in rose and add to the airy, calm feeling, while bringing pattern to the room.
Simon Brown14/43A headboard in ‘Beaucaire’ linen by Nicole Fabre Designs from Tissus d’Hélène blends with walls in ‘Pavilion Blue’ by Farrow & Ball in this bedroom by Samantha Todhunter. The bedcover is by Torna Lucia and the ‘End of Bed’ bench is from the Turner Pocock x Lorfords Contemporary Collection.
Paul Massey15/43Lisa Mehydene, founder of online homeware platform edit58, was looking for a weekend house in the Cotswolds when she found this loftily proportioned converted barn on the site of a former spiritual retreat. In the bedroom, walls in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’ showcase a headboard made by John Haswell from a rug; the remnants were turned into a blind and a cushion.
Sarah Griggs16/43A headboard doesn't have the be the statement in a room, as this tonal option demonstrates.T he main bedroom had to be ‘fun but liveable’, says Tiffany Duggan, the interior designer. The mixture of printed and plain fabrics and Farrow & Ball's 'Pond Green' balances the neutral with the bold.
Jan Baldwin17/43In this brookside house, Thibaut’s woven paper wallcovering contrasts with the headboard and chair seat in Manuel Canovas’ ‘Bordeaux’ in ciel, from Colefax and Fowler. The pattern brings colour to the room.
Paul Massey18/43Modernising without losing character is no mean feat, but Carlos Garcia has approached the decoration of this early 18th-century house and its Tudor elements with great sensitivity, marrying period details with colour, pattern and contemporary touches. The headboard and valance in Nicole Fabre Designs’ ‘Laure’ linen and the 19th-century Turkish kilim runner add pattern and colour to this elegant bedroom. Adding the small detail of cut out corners on his headboard makes a big impact.
Alexander James19/43The bespoke headboard in the second bedroom in this Notting Hill pied-à-terre by Studio Peake is in Wicklewood on Rustic Col: Dark Pink from Blithfield, which sits prettily against Gayle Warwick bed linen. The wall lights above are the Carter wall lights by Pooky.
Michael Sinclair20/43In this bedroom, Calico's ombré 'Aurora' wallcovering in azure is the backdrop for a bubble-shaped headboard in Lewis & Wood's 'Rooksmore' linen. Pandora Taylor, whose house this is, designed the headboard herself. "That hazy moment between being awake and being asleep always brings up ideas," she says, and the disconnected shapes of the bubble headboard she designed for a spare room seem to embody that very moment.
Simon Brown21/43'We loved the cool, pared-down style of a house belonging to a Swedish art collector, which we had seen in a magazine,' say the owners of this west London terrace home. Enter Hugh Leslie, whose unmistakable style gradually evolved the house into a smart family home. At the front of the house on the first floor is the pretty, generously proportioned main bedroom. Hugh had their existing headboard recovered by Ridge Interior Furnishings, in a Prelle fabric, 'Jaspe' in the 'Froment' colourway bought from Alton Brooke.
22/43At Aller Dorset, the headboards are custom designs covered in Christopher Farr Cloth's 'Carnival' fabric, or a blue Rapture & Wright design. Luckily, they are now available to buy via Aller Home, alongside a wonderful wiggly design too.
Paul Massey23/43The main bedroom in Susan Deliss's country house in France has a simple headboard made from an antique suzani. The bed is spread with an antique quilt, hand-dyed by Susan with indigo. She has mounted an antique Ikat textile to create an artwork for the wall.
24/43This unique headboard belongs to our Rising Star from our Top 100 Interiors Designers, Rachel Chudley. It is in the bedroom of her East London home and Rachel designed it herself. The velvet headboard was inspired by the leaves of the toleware lights.
Davide Lovatti25/43In Tara Craig's London flat, a relatively simple headboard from her company Ensemblier sits below a fabric half-tester, and pretty shell wall lights protrude to make reading easier. Tara’s company, Ensemblier London (French for interior designer) works with artisans to make furniture by hand, using traditional materials.
Paul Massey26/43Virginia Howard chose a muted palette for this London home, contrasting the pink throughout the living spaces with a soft green bedroom. She kept the scheme tonal by employing a simple green headboard against the green-grey walls and matching curtains. Touches of blush lighten the room.
Owen Gale27/43In the main bedroom of Jeremy Langmead's Suffolk house - decorated by Top 100 designer Susan Deliss - the walls are covered in Robert Kime's 'St Abb's' wallpaper and the bed features a patterned suzani. The use of a headboard in dark blue grounds all the prints in the room and anchors the scheme.
Roger Davies28/43Why not make a rug into a headboard? This adds texture and colour, and ensures your bedroom design is unique. In the Beverly Hills bedroom of designer Joe Nye, Claremont's George Spencer 'Palm Stripe' wallpaper has been paired with a headboard covered in a dhurrie rug, and bedding from William-Sonoma Home. The red throw is from the Harnaz Cashmere collection.
Simon Brown29/43A headboard covered in Jane Shelton fabric contrasts with dark grey herringbone cashmere walls in a spare room at a Belgian art collector's London home designed by Freddy van Zevenbergen.
Sarah Hogan30/43Headboards can even be two-dimensional. If you're a dab hand with a paintbrush, why not pick one up and create your own? A painted headboard by Paola Cumiskey adds elegance to the main bedroom of this Norfolk village house belonging to Alan and Sarah Wilson and designed by George Carter (who is known primarily for his award-winning gardens).
Andrew Montgomery31/43There can be few House & Garden readers who are unfamiliar with the cult names and sought-after colours of the Farrow & Ball paint chart. Friends and business partners Martin Ephson and Tom Helme, the men responsible for planting it firmly in the nation's consciousness, sold the company in 2006, and have since launched textiles company Fermoie. House & Garden decoration editor Gabby Deeming created a pretty scheme using their soft tonal fabrics. The padded headboard, upholstered in the 'Rabanna' cotton is from Fafio, while the Howe sofa has a seat cushion covered in 'Hertford Stripe'.
Simon Upton32/43The bedroom of decorator Emma Burns of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler is quintessentially English in both its gentle antique style and its 'make do and mend' execution, which her headboard encapsulates. 'It is covered in an ancient patchwork made from my mother's old dresses. I originally used it as a tablecloth,' she says. 'For me the bedroom is as important as the sitting room; it is a place of refuge that I use for resting and reading. I like to fill it with books, pictures and armchairs. I've kept a feeling of softness by using a very subtle stippling effect on the walls, and some translucent blinds from Chelsea Textiles under the curtains, which allow a diffuse light into the room. My linen is from Volga Linen.'
33/43Author and designer Paul Golding spent seven years restoring this exquisite eighteenth-century palazzo in Malta. 'I couldn't resist its romantic decay!' Built by the distinguished Maltese architect Francesco Sammut, the bedroom is stenciled with a pattern copied from a Carmelite convent in Medina. The chandelier is from Julian Chichester, while the magnificent shell-shaped headboard in gesso and silver gilt was made by https://instagram.com/explore/tags/lincolncato/Lincoln Cato.
Paul Massey34/43Don't be afraid of going matchy-matchy. Robert Moore used 'Palma Large' fabric from Bernard Thorp for his headboard, the curtains and also an armchair in the main bedroom of his South London home. The effect is delightful!
Paul Massey35/43Henri Fitzwilliam-Lay used a mix of fun colours and patterns to create this stylish children's bedroom. The pink-and-white headboard highlights the accents in the flowery silk Kandy wallpaper, 'Brit Pop' by Élitis. A fixed and shaped box pelmet with curtains in a pale blue fabric is a smart choice as it will not be quickly outgrown when the children become teenagers. The overall effect is modern and elegant.
Lucas Allen36/43The leopard print headboard takes centre stage in this bedroom, which also features panels of tropical Pierre Frey wallpaper and a matching tropical-themed lampshade. The overall scheme is fun and daring.
Henri Fitzwilliam-Lay, the owner of this Victorian country house in Shropshire has enhanced the interiors of this grand property with her signature mid-century aesthetic without compromising original features.
Paul Massey37/43Kit Kemp is known for her flamboyant use of fabric. In her own home she has used Vanderhurd fabric for the towering headboard. If you are looking to commission your own headboard, look to Southdown Interiors in West Sussex, who have over 20 years experience creating bespoke upholstered furniture as well as restoring antique pieces.
Lucas Allen38/43Covering a headboard in bright fabric is a stylish and effective way to add a pop of colour to your mostly-white bedroom. Newly installed panelling and limed oak beams add character to this room in designer John Minshaw's home. The bedhead is covered in rough linen hand-dyed by Polly Lyster.
Rachel Whiting39/43Can't find a headboard you like? Simply cover an existing headboard in a new fabric as shown here, adding plenty of pattern throughout the room for a cosy, layered look. This headboard is upholstered in 'Suzani Carnation' (pink) by Madeline Weinrib, silk/cotton mix, £445 a metre, at Andrew Martin. The navy blue walls look fantastic with these bright pink floral details.
Michael Sinclair40/43Blue and white striped walls make this room feel bigger, a clever effect that is reinforced by the matching headboard. The subtle nautical style with industrial touches seems particularly fitting for a bedroom in a Victorian water tower conversion.
Simon Upton41/43Casamidy's 'Hacienda' silver-leaf headboard provides a focal point in this bedroom, creating a glamorous space when paired with the red bedding and matching ribbon of colour running around the top of the wall.
Anne-Marie Midy inherited this house in the south of France and has since lovingly restored it to refresh the interiors without losing the charm of the space. Anne-Marie Midy and her husband own the Mexican furniture company Casamidy.
Simon Brown42/43Nicole Fabre Designs' 'Laure' fabric was used for the curtains and headboard in this bedroom in a London garden square house.
43/43Designer Kit Kemp is the queen of combining bold colour and pattern with a finesse that never looks overdone. In this room in the Ham Yard hotel, deep blue walls are lifted by an upholstered gabled headboard and matching curtains. The polka dot print on the cushions is echoed in the chair, while the curtains reflect the padded headboard and the striped ottoman at the foot of the bed pulls in the white of the bedspread and balances the scheme.
