Beautiful Handmade Headboards
Why have a Headboard?
A headboard serves an aesthetic purpose in all bedrooms: being the focus for the entire design of a bedroom, bringing comfort and as a visual centre piece to grab attention.
Headboards are an inexpensive way of transforming a bedroom and really is an alternative form of artwork!
On a practical level, it stops your pillows from falling down the back of the bed and makes reading in bed cosier.
For a big bedroom a large and more elaborate headboard can be needed to create a sense of scale, drama and help to fill some wall space. In a small room it can help to make it feel really snug.
Table of Contents
Comfort and Luxury
Being comfortable often has a significant effect on sleep quality. Whatever overall look and feel you want for your bedroom, the right headboard can give you all the rest and relaxation you deserve.
Our bespoke handmade headboards, will add a touch of luxury to your bedroom and come in three different styles, all of which include piping in the same or contrasting fabric. All bespoke headboards are approximately 10cm deep and are available in the following sizes: single, double, king and super king.
There is a choice of three shapes – the classic rectangular, softly rounded and an elegant sculptured shape.
Sculptured Headboards
A uniquely shaped sculptured headboards can create a feature in any room. Wonderfully dramatic and Provencal in style. I love the way the two rows of piping frame in the Cow Parsley design below coordinate with the charcoal butterflies, and at the same time accentuate the beautiful shape of the headboard.
I feel as though I am in an old elegant chateau in France when I look at this photo, taken very recently on my photoshoot.
Rectangular Headboards
Understated, modern and inviting, a simple rectangular, padded and upholstered headboard is a good choice for a modern bedroom.
Left: Modern and smart this rectangular headboard upholstered in Sepals and Petals in Kale, is one of my favourites…
Right: The vertical design of the Gypsy Garland in Cornflower adding a delicate touch to the dark wall colour in Little Greene – Hicks Blue. Great balance and a really impactful statement to the bedroom.
Left: This headboard covered in my Plain Dotty in Duck Egg, is timeless and ageless…and feel so calming with the addition of a melee of Duck Egg cushions.
Right: My Scandinavian Wovens are perfect for rectangular headboards, as you can see here in Lapland Stripe – Smoke, Duck Egg & Hay.
Left: This Rectangular Headboard adds a very subtle touch of Up the Garden Path in Dove, to what is a very light and airy bedroom.
Right: Fun and powerful, this rectangular headboard in my Wild and Free design in Terracotta & Charcoal, isn’t just for the kids!
Rounded Headboards
Rounded headboards are neat, stylish and more contemporary, whilst rounded ones give a softer, gentler and more traditional vibe.
This For the Love of Rose headboard with contrast piping in Plain Linen Union in Charcoal, creates a rustic and fun feel, and gives the occupant of the room scenes to gaze at.
Left: This attic bedroom needed this rounded headboard shape. It fills the wall space between the old beams beautifully and is covered in my Up in the Air linen union.
Right: A very smart headboard made from our Plain Linen Union in Kale, toning with the beautiful green paint colour (in our made to measure service we don’t edge headboards like this, we just pipe down the leading edge).
This is my traditional rounded shape covered in Dainty Daisy – Charcoal, from my Botanical Collection. The bedhead takes on a more modern feel.
Our easy process to order your headboard:
1. Choose the shape of your headboard
Rectangular, Rounded or Sculptured. Look at the shape and style of your room and see which one would suit the architecture as well as the feel of your room
2. Select your headboard fabric(s)
The next step is to select the main fabric.
Then, if you want, choose a second fabric for contrast piping along the front edge of the headboard, or for the double row needed for the sculptured shape. This is a chance to visually link your headboard to the curtains, blinds and other soft furnishings in the room.
All my headboards are made with a fire redardent lining, so they can be used in hotels as well as in domestic settings.
We can also easily arrange for stain repellent treatments, just tick the box during the ordering process.
3. Select the perfect headboard size
Check the measurements to be sure you have ordered the right size. Our measurements are taken from the top of the mattress to the top of the headboard. Height for a rectangular and rounded headboard is approximately 76cm above mattress. My sculptured model measures approx 120cm above the mattress, so making it a more dramatic. All three headboards extend down by 20cm behind the mattress and are made approximately 5cm wider than the standard UK bed sizes. This is so that when the bed is made up, the headboard doesn’t look too narrow for the frame.
4. Choose your headboard fixing
These headboards are best wall mounted being heavy and pretty solid, having said that they are can also be attached to the bed.
They come with the appropriate wooden battens, including the screws and wall plugs. Just choose the fixing you prefer in the drop down menu when you choose your required size.
5. Delivery
Your beautiful headboard will arrive with you within 6 weeks of ordering. It will be boxed and well wrapped, we will ring you before dispatching to make sure you will be in to receive it.
The history of our headboards
A brief history of headboards. I started reading up about headboards, and thought I would share my findings with you…
The pictorial history of the headboard starts with the Egyptian pharaohs. Headboards carved in ebony, silver and gold (clearly more for show than comfort) are depicted in many early drawings.
Next were the Greeks and Romans. More practical in their approach, they designed a basic wooden platform with a wooden headboard to protect themselves from cold drafts.
The headboard, provided a barrier between the wall and the edge of the bed. Walls are known to get very cold and damp within the home, and this was even more true centuries ago when insulation really didn’t exist.
A headboard was able to help shield off some of this cold from reaching the sleeper.
Just imagine…in Roman times the headboard allowed them to eat and even socialize around the bed, making the bedroom the main entertaining area in the home, guests being able to lean against the wooden headboard and sit around the bed too.
With the Middle Ages came the canopy and fourposter designs. More intricate and elaborate, the bed became the most expensive and important piece of furniture in both rich and poor homes. The curtains around the bed existed to keep out the cold and in wealthier houses were placed on podiums high up in the room where the air was warmer.
Upholstered Headboards
Upholstered headboards (or stuffers, as they were originally known) became popular during the 17th century, as the demand for comfort increased and draping fabric on canopy beds died out. The bedroom became more private during this time, and the need to show off had moved to other rooms in the home!
OTHER IDEAS…
Left: Here is an old 19th century French wooden bed, reupholstered in my Botanical Trellis in Raspberry. Being 4ft wide and low to the floor, my grandchildren sleep in this bed when they comes to stay with me.
Right: This is an example of a headboard (a shape we don’t make as a standard) loose covered in Down to Earth – Apple Green & Raspberry, with a coordinating quilt and cushions…
Left: Buttoned headboards are sophisticated and also add texture to a bedroom. This one is covered in my Plain Linen Union – Charcoal.
Right: How about adding in extra texture with some Harris Tweed?
I hope this information encourages you to order a new headboard to cheer up the winter months.
Pair your made to order headboard with our made to order lampshades best for bedrooms to complete the look of your bedroom.
We sell fabrics exclusively designed by Vanessa Arbuthnott, along side small, bespoke collection of Made to Measure items which includes curtains, blinds, sofas, footstools, chairs, headboards, and quilts, all handmade specially for you by master crafts people.
