Headboards set the mood in your master bedroom.
While plenty of people have beds without headboards, headboards add character and visual appeal to beds and rooms. But ready-made headboards tend to be expensive and lack individual style. Whether you're a die-hard individualist or just want to spice up the master bedroom with something different, think outside the usual range of headboard materials, colors and shapes. Does this Spark an idea?
Shutters
Choose a bright, cheery color, like turqoise, for the shutters.
If you live in a cabin, cottage or home decorated in the popular "shabby chic" style, a headboard made from wooden shutters will add a spot of character to your master bedroom. Get enough shutters that, when laid side by side, they are as wide as your bed. Paint them with low or no-VOC paint. VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are smelly and bad for your health. Apply an antiquing treatment, or simply sand the paint away in spots. Attach the shutters together with a tried-and-true method, such as wood strips, and enjoy your shabby new headboard. According to The Better Sleep Council, a sturdy headboard "can help create a sense of stability," which contributes to the overall restfulness of your bedroom.
Surfboards
Surfboards come in many sizes and colors.
Whether you live near the ocean or just wish you did, a headboard made of surfboards will infuse your room with seaside spirit. Assemble a small collection of battered-beyond-repair surfboards. (Cutting up perfectly good surfboards would be extremely costly, not to mention frowned upon as wasteful by the surfing community.) If possible, have a variety of board types. There are many types to choose from, including longboards, thruster boards with squashtails and "fish" boards with swallowtails. Cut the boards---wear a respirator and clean up carefully afterward so you don't breathe harmful foam dust---and seal off the cut portions with epoxy so they don't shed foam. Connect the most visually interesting sections of the boards, such as the tails, in a vertical form.
Wrought Iron Spikes
Repurpose a wrought iron gate as your headboard.
A headboard crafted from wrought iron spikes---the kind you see on fences surrounding spooky old houses---would be ideal for medieval reenactment enthusiasts, history buffs and role-playing game aficionados. A cheap yet interesting alternative to actual wrought iron spikes is to paint black silhouetted spikes directly on the wall behind the bed. Or follow the suggestion of the website "Design*Sponge" and embroider a "wrought iron" design on a more traditional padded headboard.
Tags: master bedroom, wrought iron, boards with, headboard made, your master, your master bedroom
