JOIN USThe utility of the bed headboard is often underestimated. A Dyuti offers some innovative ideas to add spunk to your bed.
We all know that the bedroom’s focal point is the bed. For enhancing the bedroom’s aesthetic appeal, we pay attention to wall colours, bedspreads, cushions and pillows, besides the bed design and type. But often, a major game changer is ignored – the bed’s headboard. Irrespective of whether your bedroom decor theme is regal or minimalistic, modern or traditional, funky or Spartan, rustic or contemporary, an appropriate headboard can work wonders.
Headboards evolved as a means for resting the head and supporting the back while sitting on the bed to read books or simply relax. They helped in holding the pillows in place too. Plus, they doubled as decor accessories. Today, headboard designs range from the simple but elegant to the unique and creative.
Multipurpose
They make laptop-use and TV-watching on the bed comfortable. Today, beds fixed with a mind-blowing range of headboard designs are available. A headboard can be appended onto a bare bedhead later too. Hire a designer for the latter or make it a DIY job. If functionality is the priority, consider the ideal height and adequate weight-bearing capacity. The size of the room and the room’s overall theme mustn’t, however, be neglected. Such headboards in wood or metal are available in the market. Else, craft or get one crafted to suit your taste.
A plain wooden panel is a minimalist marvel, while a carved design is the best ally of a classic theme. Headboards with intricate filigree or inlay work lend an artistic touch to the room. Go for wicker if the theme is rustic. Choose bamboo for an ethnic or oriental setting. Or, simply paint headboards in hues matching the room decor.
Headboards in kids’ rooms demand dashing colours for the background with cartoon characters painted on them. Keep twin beds apart in kids’/guest rooms by placing a bedside table between them, while letting the headboard run uninterruptedly from one bed’s beginning to the other’s end. Spice up your plain wooden headboard by draping a patterned rug or fabric with abstract or floral design. If plain colours work for you, select them in smooth velvet, silk, synthetics or pick netted material.
Recruiting a slip-cover helps you change the appearance frequently, banishing monotony. Nail canvases side by side onto the headboard and cover them with colours. Or, even with a subject of your choice. Bolster comfort with upholstered headboards. Choose between leather and fabric for these. The simplest idea is to nail a plain wooden plank onto the wall behind the bed. An array of cushions can also do the trick.
Do you want your headboard to multitask? Folks habituated to reading in bed will vote for one with a bookcase attached to the headboard top. Shelves or cupboards over the headboard are for the storage-starved. Tiny dim lights lining the headboard’s top edge assist while getting up in the dark.
In a studio apartment or a loft, a tall wooden headboard with shelves attached onto it and turning to form an angled niche doubles as a room divider. A decorative room divider behind the bed for a headboard can conceal a cupboard or closet behind it. In sync with other furniture in the room, select either wrought iron or wooden room divider for the headboard.
Go overboard
If decoration’s all you want, get creative. Just glue on a minimalist metal headboard decal to the wall behind the bed’s head portion in a design that matches the headboard. Or, use a picket fence design in wood. Even easier, fix a length of curtain-rod corresponding to the headboard width and hang fabric like a curtain from it.
The more adventurous could fix the curtain-rod all the way up to the ceiling and hang curtains from it. You could also draw the curtain forward into a half-canopy over the bed. Cover the entire wall behind the bed with tapestry. But, be careful with the choice of colour and fabric-type in these cases.
Hang bare frames or framed pictures in the pattern/theme of your choice onto the headboard. Arrange mirrors of different shapes and sizes artistically over the headboard. Look for antique windows or mantelpieces and fix them onto the wall for a headboard. Old window-frames with their glass removed and fabric nailed onto the back count as headboards too.
How do you select headboards for different room-sizes? For a small room with a high ceiling, opt for a higher headboard than functionally required. Use the same texture and pattern of fabric for the bed-skirt, headboard and the wall behind the headboard in a small room to create a semblance of spaciousness. A normal-sized headboard is fine for larger rooms. Here, you can employ an abundance of cushions and pillows in silk, satin or velvet.
Now, board the bus and head towards creativity!