How to Create a Faux Headboard

Because of your budget or your floor space, a bed may have to forgo a real headboard. Use one of these decorating tricks to achieve the same effect as a headboard.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Hang a divided-light window (minus the glass) or porch gingerbread or other architectural fragment above the bed. Old millwork with peeling paint can be the most interesting.

2. Attach a section of fence or a gate to the wall behind the bed. Picket and wrought-iron fencing are top options.

3. Mount a heavy-duty cafe-curtain rod on the wall and suspend cushions or pillows in shams from cafe rings. Determine the rod height carefully so you don't bump a head or shoulder on the rod if you're a bedtime reader.

4. Paint the wall with a trompe l'oeil headboard. This doesn't have to be elaborate, just an iron-bedstead headboard or a stenciled design, perhaps a wicker or fluted-column look.

5. Mount three strips of molding (two vertical pieces at the edges of the bed plus a horizontal piece the width of the bed) on the wall above the bed in an inverted U-shape. Miter the corners picture-frame style and paint them and the enclosed wall area (which should extend down below the mattress) in a color that contrasts with the rest of the wall.

6. Paint a rectangle of wall above the bed (extended down below the mattress) in a color that contrasts with the rest of the wall and edge it with a mitered wallpaper border. You might want a second row of the border in your headboard; place it below and parallel to the top horizontal piece of the border.

7. Hang a textile on the wall. This could be a quilt, small rug, tapestry or pretty tablecloth suspended from a curtain rod.

8. Make a rod pocket in the top and bottom edges of fabric (about 2 1/2 times as wide as the bed) and shirr it onto two slender brass curtain rods that fit the width of the bed. Mount the top rod on the wall above the bed; you don't have to mount the bottom rod if you don't want to because its weight will keep the fabric against the wall.

9. Put a large pleated fan on the wall above the headboard. Asian import shops sometimes sell large decorative fans, or you can make your own by fan-folding wallpaper and holding the folds in place with a staple, brad or similar fastener.

Tips & Warnings

• You'll need a miter saw and miter box for the molding treatment and a breakaway-blade razor knife for mitering the wallpaper border.

[lisa411]

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on 4/1/2006 Find a large piece of fabric that you like. Buy a large canvas the width of your bed at an art supply store. Stretch the fabric over the canvas and attach on the back with a staple gun, then hang the canvas above your bed. Even cheaper, but a bit more time-consuming: instead of buying a whole canvas, just buy canvas stretchers. Assemble the stretchers into a frame, then stretch the fabric over the frame. This option requires a sturdier fabric than if you use the entire canvas.

on 11/22/2005 Pick up an old door (with some character) from a building salvage center. Paint (or refinish) it to suit your taste. This can create a rustic country look.

on 11/22/2005 An alternative to using batting and fabric is to buy a comforter to match, accent, or contrast the one on your bed. Cut " plywood to the size and shape you desire; fold the comforter over and staple it on as you would batting and fabric. Looks great!

on 11/22/2005 I found two matching screens made of a metal that looks like wrought iron that were supposed to be for the garden (on clearance, of course). I nailed them flat against the wall and it looks like an iron headboard.