Home Decorating For Dummies
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Making your own headboard can be a satisfying way of bringing your own personality to a bedroom. The following tips can show you how to make a headboard that’s quick, easy, and inexpensive. Remember, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get a great look.

  • Antique shutters: Attach shutters to the wall at the head of your bed. (Antique ones from the local salvage yard add a true cottage flavor.)

    Use salvaged shutters to create a cottage-style headboard.
    Use salvaged shutters to create a cottage-style headboard.
  • Demi-canopy: Attach a curtain rod shaped like a semicircle on the wall near the ceiling, leaving a space of about two to three inches for the top of the curtain (sometimes called a curtain heading). These special rods are available at craft stores, decorating shops, and drapery makers. Then hang readymade curtains long enough to reach the floor.

  • Pillows: Above the bed, firmly install a drapery rod that extends the bed’s width. Add grosgrain ribbon tabs at intervals along one side of the pillowcases. Insert pillows into the pillowcases, and hang them on the rod as a headboard.

  • Standing screen: Place a standing screen between your bed and the wall. If the screen is unstable, you can secure it to the wall.

  • Tapestry or quilt: Hang a tapestry or quilt on the wall behind your bed. Make sure it’s fastened securely by drilling hooks into the wall or by installing a rod supported by brackets. Make sure that your hanging isn’t so fragile that rubbing against it will damage the tapestry.

  • Wagon wheel: An old wagon wheel makes a natural headboard for a boy’s twin bed. Fasten a wheel securely at the height that you like.

  • Wrought iron gate: Check out the salvage yard for an old iron gate that you can secure to the wall for a headboard. These gates add plenty of Old World charm to any bedroom.

About This Article

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Katharine Kaye McMillan, former senior editor of a New York City-based national magazine, is a writer whose work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers. She is a contributing writer to internationally circulated Florida Design Magazine. She is the co-author of several books on decorating and design, including Sun Country Style, which is the basis for licensed signature collections of furniture and accessories by three leading American manufacturers and importers. A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, she holds a masters degree in psychology and is a doctoral student in psychology at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.

Patricia Hart McMillan is a nationally known interior designer, whose interior design work for private clients, designer showcases, and corporations has appeared in publications worldwide, including the New York Times and USA Today. Known as a trend spotter and for clearly articulated views on design, she is quoted frequently and extensively in both trade and consumer publications. She a ppears on TV and talk radio. A prolific writer, she is coauthor and author of seven books on interior design and decoration, with Sun Country Style signature collections of furniture based on two books. She has taught decorating courses at several colleges and conducted numerous seminars across the U.S. She is decorating editor for Christian Woman Magazine and reports on design trends for The Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She has been editor-in-chief of two publications and was head of a New York City-based public relations firm representing some of the most prestigious names in home furnishing and building products. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a minor in art history (with an emphasis in architecture), from the State University of New York (New Paltz). She was awarded a certificate from The New York School of Interior Design.

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