Deciding on the best headboard for your bed is made easy with this ultimate guide.
After reading it you will be able to:
- Choose your ideal headboard
- Value how a headboard can help you
- Understand what exactly a headboard does
- Realise how a headboard can protect your wall
- Recognise the headboard most suitable for your type of bed
- Discover headboard types based on how they attach to beds
- Know how headboards can help with back and neck problems
- Appreciate that headboards are a crucial part of amazing bedroom décor
Do I Need A Headboard For My Bed?
Ever wonder why your head has to endure the cold, hard wall surface every time you want to sit up in bed?
Do you find propping yourself up in bed to read or watch TV leaves you with a painful neck and back?
Do you have to keep pushing your bed back against the wall every morning?
A good headboard is an essential fitting for people who spend time in bed doing anything other than sleeping. Sitting up against the wall is bad for your back, and becomes increasingly worse the longer you do so. As you lean against the wall your back subtly pushes the bed away from it, expanding the gap, and adjusting your spine into a progressively poorer posture.
Come the morning, you can find yourself painfully stretching a stiff back to reach into a crevice for fallen pillows, and rubbing a sore neck as you do so. Given enough time, the area of the wall where your head rests might even develop a greasy stain!
In addition to alleviating the pains that accompany bad posture, headboards are frequently the centrepiece of a bedroom, a canvas that draws the eye and sets the tonal agenda for the rest of the room. An attractive, comfortable headboard helps a bedroom charm you into feeling relaxed and invites you to spend quality time there.
What Headboard Material Is Best For My Bed?
Upholstered Headboards
The most elegant of headboards are those with an upholstered finish. From Verona, leather, velvet, wool, and chenille to fusion fabrics, the wide range of textiles available affords the opportunity to provide comfort and elan to any décor style of your choosing.
Not only do they look great, but the padding offered by fabric headboards, as opposed to harder materials such as wood or metal, means sitting up in bed is a comfortable and relaxing experience for longer.
Metal Headboards
Thanks to the plethora of styles available, metal headboards are an excellent choice for anyone wanting to blend a bed backdrop in with either contemporary, traditional, antique or rustic décor. This material is also famously easy to wipe clean with a damp cloth. This makes it an excellent choice for those suffering from dust-mite allergies.
Popular in iron, other common metal headboards include aluminium, brass, copper, and steel.
Wooden Headboards
Wood is a classic choice of material for headboards. Great for both traditional and contemporary styles of bedroom, wooden headboards provide a great range of options. Although wood can be painted or stained in whatever colour best suits a room, the neutral tones of the natural material are often already the best shades you would ever need.
Spectacular, luxurious looks can be achieved by oak or pine headboard. Less expensive wood is available for great décor on a budget. Natural fibres such as wicker and rattan can also be used for a similar country house effect.
Ethically Sourced Headboard Wood For Beds
To limit the need for logging and its effects on wildlife and communities, we offer many ethically sourced wooden headboards. By harvesting with sustainable methods, managed forests encourage the continued, healthy growth of trees. These include the following:
Pine Headboards
A common type of tree, pine wood comes from a fast-growing conifer. This tree type has a lower carbon footprint than most trees.
Oak Headboards
It may be a slow-growing tree, but with great care oak can be harvested as an ethically sourced wood. Available in less quantities than pine, properly managed it is still a common enough material to be justifiably used for furniture.
Rubberwood Headboards
Harvested primarily for latex, rubber trees are an excellent, renewable source of ethical bed furniture material.
Which Style Of Headboard Is Best For My Bed?
Panel Headboards
Rectangular in shape and often consisting of three or more plates, panel headboards make for terrific, understated elegance. Mostly suited to minimalist contemporary style bedrooms, by their very modest nature they are often unoffensive in other environments too. In smaller bedrooms they can be used to create the illusion of more space. Most common materials include wood, metal and fabric.
Slatted Headboards
Helping add depth to smaller bedrooms are slatted headboards. Most often consisting of vertical, equally distanced slats, they make the bed seem taller and more inviting via the suggestion of height. Wood and metal are the most common materials that slatted headboards are to be found in.
Vintage Style Headboards
When it comes to beds and bedrooms, many people feel comforted by older design styles. Few things in sleeping quarters suggest traditional more than a vintage style headboard. Available both in wood and metal, the arching curves of vintage style headboards make for an ideal addition to any rustic bedroom setting.
Shabby Chic Headboards
Few images in the world are as romantic as a slightly distressed looking headboard. Ideal for that old cottage feel, shabby chic is a design aesthetic that never seems to go out of fashion. Ordinarily, shabby chic items are made of wood.
Storage Headboards
Usually freestanding, storage headboards can consist of shelving, drawers and concealed compartments. For larger bedrooms, bookcase headboards are a popular choice. Although they require a lot of space, by showcasing your book or media library, vases, ornaments and photo frames, open shelving headboards prove to be an impressive part of bedroom décor.
An expensive option, storage headboards do have a tendency to dominate a room, so it is important to be sure it complements the interior decoration to avoid living with any mistakes regrets.
Contemporary Headboards
There is no easier way to complement a lightly coloured room decorated with minimalist, sleek clean lines and modern materials than with a contemporary headboard. The best materials for this type of headboard are normally wood or upholstered, particularly fabrics such as linen or silk, which help add a soft texture to the harder angles of the room.
What Size Headboard Do I Need For My Bed?
Many people might get by just fine with a shorter headboard, but those who spend more than a few minutes a night sat up in bed will appreciate the supportive benefits of a taller one.
Obviously, in terms of width a good headboard is one that corresponds with the size of your bed. However, the space a bedroom has available should also be considered. Measuring the room, and taking into account anything such as doorways and windows that might restrict the size of a headboard, will help decide the scale.
As a rule, when measuring up the fit of a headboard into a place, two inches extra should be added to either side in order to accommodate any inaccuracies or elements of the design that might jut out further than expected.
The Footboard
Ask someone to create a basic drawing of a bed and chances are they will picture it as featuring a medium size headboard accompanied by a similarly sized footboard – the iconic image of a bed. A classic of contemporary styles, it is quite common at the moment for beds to include a medium sized headboard with no footboard. If you do want a tall headboard however, it would look a little out of place without a medium or high footboard to match.
Land of Beds even have a range of beds that feature TVs in the footboards.
How Are Headboards Attached To Beds?
Strutted Headboards
Strutted headboards primarily accompany divan beds by allowing users to fix them to the bed using pre-drilled holes, thanks to the struts they feature. It is possible to adjust their height to better suit individual needs.
Floor-Standing Headboards
As their name suggests, floor-standing headboards sit directly on the floor behind your bed. Although they cannot be adjusted for height, many models can securely attach to the bed.
Wall-Mounted Headboards
Wall-mounted headboards usually make up an important part of an ensemble, as they are typically purchased along with other fitted items like wardrobes. However, they can be costly to replace. These headboards are fixed to the wall using hidden fittings.
Wondering if a headboard would suit your room’s décor? Find some inspiration from our guide to choosing the best bed for your bedroom.
Already found a headboard you like? Then turn your attention to some of these other comfort considerations:
How To Choose The Best Mattress For Your Needs
How Many Pillows Should You Sleep On?
Creating A More Relaxing Bedroom
Need Help Choosing The Correct Headboard For Your Bed?
Deciding on the best headboard for your needs is dependent on many factors.
Is it compatible with your type of bed?
Do you spend a lot of time sitting up in bed?
What style of headboard is best suited to your bedroom décor?
There is no need to lose sleep over trying to choose the right headboard for your room. Our bed experts at Land of Beds pride themselves on their specialist knowledge and ability to guide you to the headboard that’s just right for you.
Our customer-first policy means we listen and give good, independent advice based on the needs of the individual. By pairing consumers up with ethically sourced, affordable, quality products, we provide as many people as possible with a great night’s sleep.
If you would like help connecting your bed with the perfect headboard, feel free to get in touch with us on 01928 242829