Headboards on the Wall

Wall mounted headboards can be surprisingly inventive and easy to create or find.

When we lived in our apartment our bed had a slip-covered headboard attached to the Harvard bedframe. Because we hung out in there – it doubled as our TV room and too often the dining room – a padded headboard was a comfortable choice and easy to maintain. Now, for our house, we chose a wood-frame bed with an integral headboard and low footboard – much more of a furniture statement. But it bothers me that our guest room doesn’t have a proper headboard, only our daughter’s repurposed platform bed. It looks a bit unfinished. That’s why these ideas for wall mounted headboards — which are separate from a bed frame — seem so practical.

If I were lucky enough to find a 6-foot wide piece of wood paneling with an incised design as elegant as a Vitruvian scroll panel [top] I’d snap it up. This photo actually comes from an ad for Eileen Fisher sheets, so it’s staged. The panel looks Indian or Asian, the type of piece found at a dealer specializing in exotic architectural artifacts. It’s stunning and could work with many different bedroom styles.

In a rental house in the Luberon, one bedroom has a swath of whitewashed vintage wood paneling tacked up on the wall behind the bed. The rustic look is true ‘French country’ décor – a pretty and effective wall mounted headboard.

Loft bedrooms often require floating walls to re-proportion the space without closing off light or entryways. So it’s not unusual to see a partition created to back up a bed. The distinction here, obviously, is the landscape mural which – upon closer examination – does not extend all the way to the floor. The clear intention was to introduce color, perspective and to soften the industrial style. An added bonus is the ability of the partition to hide what’s going on behind it to a degree. I’ve seen an open closet built on the other side.

The idea of hollowing out a corner under the stairs to build in a bed is both odd and fascinating. In this case, the “headboard” continues around the corner – essentially this is a bed in a nook pushed up against the wall. And it appears that the bed ell is fabric-lined. While I could easily see something like this in a child’s room, putting a double bed mattress on a platform with this configuration is one of those gimmicks that are the specialty of hgtv. What happens when you’re sleeping on the inside and need to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom? Sure you can crawl, but you also need to watch your head and be careful of the step down at the same time.

It would be easy to get away with painting an entire wall with black chalkboard paint, wheeling an old reversible schoolroom blackboard behind the bed, and then using an array of boho print bedding for effect. And how clever to create architectural details in chalk for the headboard and on the floor. It looks great for a photo though I’m not entirely sure how comfy it might be to try to sit up and read in this bed. I think I might dispense with the actual blackboard and just nail some wood framing on the wall instead. The nice aspect, however, is that chalkboard paint now comes in dozens of colors. So it would be easy (not to mention inexpensive) to create an entirely different look with a coat of paint and alternate color chalk. The x factor, then, is the bedding.

We’ve written about the many ways suzani textiles can be used – from pillows to bed covers to wall hangings and furniture – and it’s safe to say that suzanis have gone mainstream. How amusing to find a suzani hanging in a California hotel room! To help focus the entire arrangement and keep the textile in scale, the wall is dual-color and the painted wainscot extends just above the level of the bedside tables. One additional refinement: the dark central motif on the suzani lines up horizontally with the lamp shades. So professionally composed.

(Source: eileenfisher, location-en-luberon, strangerthanvintage, hgtvdecor, house&home, colonypalmshotel)*

Copy & Paste Link to Quick-Share this Post: http://bit.ly/1geyhqx