Unique Headboard Ideas

Not every bed needs a headboard, but adding a statement headboard is an easy way to express your creativity and make your bedroom feel like more than just a place to crash after a long day. Striking headboards come in all shapes, sizes, and price points, from DIY to custom-built. But they are a low-effort, high-impact way to set the tone for your bedroom, and a chance to take design risks and change the atmosphere without overthinking it.

Check out these fun, unexpected, and occasionally eccentric designer headboard ideas that will inspire you to dream up your own.

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Bold Geometric

Hotel Henriette

French interior designer Vanessa Scoffier designed this playful geometric headboard at the Hotel Henriette in Paris using inexpensive materials and bold dose of imagination. A wall clad with simple unfinished plywood is painted with a deep teal off-center iceberg, creating an unexpected shape and a graphic punch that creates an instant focal point in the room.

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Arch Wonder

Matthew Williamson / Studio DB

Manhattan-based design firm Studio DB turned an exposed brick arched detail in the wall behind the bed into a cozy and colorful headboard. Using shades of coral and cream that complement the tones of the brick and mortar, the designers covered the archway with a vivid patterned backdrop and layered in a comfy upholstered headboard in a contrasting pattern that stays within the same color story. You can achieve a similar effect by hanging a set of curtains or a decorative rug behind your bed, and layering a headboard of your choice on top.

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Vintage Tiles

Barbara Corsico / Kingston Lafferty Design

Dublin-based Kingston Lafferty Design designed a monumental custom free-standing bed in a historic coach house in Ireland made from lovely vintage tiles to highlight the generous proportions of the room.

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Layers of Blue

Matthew Williamson / Studio DB

Design firm Studio DB created a custom headboard in this bedroom by pairing royal blue paint with a blue fabric headboard that reaches to the ceiling. A trio of floating shelves on each side provides storage, while an industrial wall sconce, bold patterned rug, and accessories in shades of orange provide high contrast and a cheery color palette.

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Curtain Time

Chzon / Hotel des Grands Boulevards

At the Hotel des Grands Boulevards in Paris, French interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon demonstrates the power of taking a big design swing in a tiny space. This cozy jewel-toned room features sapphire blue walls and a rounded rosy pink velvet upholstered headboard layered with emerald green silk curtains hung from an arch above the bed, a nod to the French design of centuries past. Contemporary lighting and rustic bedside tables add balance.

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Painted Doors

Hotel Henriette

French interior designer Vanessa Scoffier made a small bedroom feel larger by using tall antique French doors to create a headboard in a bed nook at the Hotel Henriette in Paris. The deep turquoise blue color updates the look of the doors. Hanging pendant lights, bedding, and wall paint in cool pale grays and blues creates a soothing feel, and mismatched mid-century wood side tables and a vintage bronze flower sconce add a note of vintage charm.

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Antique Windows

Kara Rosenlund

Australian travel photographer Kara Rosenlund spends a lot of time on the road. But when she returns to what she calls her "humble timber and tin weatherboard cottage" in Brisbane to sleep in her own bed, it's in a room layered with natural textures and colors, with a beautiful handmade headboard fashioned from repurposed old windows that creates a timeless and homey feel.

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Wrap-Around

Matthew Williamson / Studio DB

Studio DB created adjacent wrap-around built-in upholstered headboards that extend to the ceiling, creating a pair of kids' dream spaces separated by a pocket door. The ceiling light and reading light above the bed are built right into the upholstery, a neat space-saving trick.

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Vintage Cane Room Divider

Barbara Corsico / Kingston Lafferty Design

Kingston Lafferty Design created an imposing headboard using a free-standing five-panel cane room divider that creates a cozy bed nook within the generous proportions of a large Victorian house bedroom. Pendant lights framing the bed and a George Nelson Bubble Pendant hanging from the ceiling add definition to the space.

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Dual Purpose

Merci

This bedroom at the Merci apartment in Paris is a lesson in nonchalant Parisian interior design style. The back of an antique vintage armoire does double duty as a tall wood headboard. Placed in the middle of the room, it creates the opportunity to float the bed and to create a semi-private dressing area on the other side. And it also solves a common layout conundrum in 19th-century Haussmanian apartments, where decorative fireplaces often make it hard to place a 21st-century bed.

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Extra Wide

Christina Kim Interior Design

This sweet twin room from Christina Kim Interior Design creates a sense of togetherness. This was done by linking twin beds decked out in matching linens and decorative throw pillows with an extra wide blue velvet headboard that creates a sense of place for the beds and makes the tight space feel larger.

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Wall-to-Wall Headboard

Forbes + Masters

In this East Atlanta guest suite designed by Forbes + Masters, the whole wall becomes a headboard with built-in shelving, creating a space-saving solution and a feature wall all in one.

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Art Deco Revival

Henrietta Hotel / Dorothée Meilichzon

The show-stopping custom headboard in this Art Deco inspired bedroom from French interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon at the Henrietta Hotel in London was inspired by the shape and style of Milanese door frames.

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Slipcovered

Annie Diamond / Most Lovely Things

Blogger Annie Diamond of Most Lovely Things gave new life to a West Elm headboard by adding a DIY slipcover using a piece of African mud cloth that she found on Etsy, a quick and easy way to change up the decor without buying a new piece of furniture.

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Vintage Rattan

K Shan Design

This boho chic bedroom from K Shan Design features a vintage-style rattan headboard in a flower design that creates a happy vintage feel and works best with simple bedding.

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Vibrant Headboard

Hotel Henriette

An easy, inexpensive and non-committal way to create a headboard-like focal point in your bedroom is to use paint to focus the eye. In this spirited room at the Hotel Henriette in Paris, French interior designer Vanessa Scoffier used neon yellow paint wrapped around three sides of the bed at pillow height to contrast with the crisp white walls and soft pastel linen bedding.