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How to choose a feature headboard for your bedroom

Decorative, textured or oversized? Make a headboard the highlight of your bedroom scheme with these standout designs


If you're looking to achieve a luxury hotel vibe in your bedroom, a beautiful feature headboard may be what you're looking for. This handy guide will help you choose which headboard style is right for your interior scheme.

Decorative headboard ideas

Tio Rattan headboard, La Redoute, £175.75
Tio Rattan headboard, La Redoute, £175.75

With the wane of the feature wall as a design crutch in our homes, bedheads have enjoyed a renaissance in decorative detailing during recent years. Interior designers such as Kit Kemp have revived elaborate headboards that make the bed the undeniable focal point in a room.

Prettier, more ornate styles hark back to a period of grandeur, something that’s echoed with intricately designed borders and trims. However, it’s the use of on-trend and invigorating colours that give this style a contemporary lift.

Figura Upholstered Headboard by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Wayfair, £349.99
Figura Upholstered Headboard by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Wayfair, £349.99

This look also employs pattern to double down on ostentatious style, with large-scale prints and ornamental motifs ensuring that the headboard is dominant in the scheme, no matter how richly the bed is dressed.

Textured and tactile headboard ideas

Smith Headboard by Loaf
Smith Headboard by Loaf, from £275

Deeply padded headboards are an easy way to set up a plush, comfortable scene in your bedroom. More than just offering you an exciting range of textures to choose from, you can also explore options within the upholstery detailing.

Buttoned styles are perennially popular in both modern and traditional schemes, but fluted styles are also making waves in the design world.

Flora Dusty Pink Velvet Double Bed Headboard, Oliver Bonas, £495
Flora Dusty Pink Velvet Double Bed Headboard, Oliver Bonas, £495

Whatever the look, each helps contribute another dimension to your bedroom scheme. If you can’t find the bedhead of your dreams, find your fabric and enlist the help of a professional upholsterer. It’s easier than you think to commission a bespoke design.

Oversized headboard ideas

If your bedroom has lofty ceilings or a generous square footage, it will demand a headboard design that commands the space and helps balance the proportions of the room in question.

Upholstered Headboard, Wayfair, £214.05
Upholstered Headboard, Wayfair, £214.05

Beds are, generally, only available in a select range of standard sizes, so unless you commission a bespoke frame and mattress, you’re unlikely to have a bed larger than a super-king in width and depth.

However, extending the dimensions of the headboard upwards or outwards allows you to control how the bed finds its footing in the space, allowing it to feel as large and central to the design as you need it to be. Alternatively, you could opt for a bed head with a statement design – a big space will give a quirky piece the breathing room it needs to reach its full potential.

Words by Luke Arthur Wells

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