What better way to add a pop of individuality and glamour to the bedroom than with an oversized headboard? These homes from the Elle Decoration archive reveal the many inspiring ways to add some drama or fun to your dream bedroom.
A space to showcase
For Pierre Frey, living above the family business had two advantages: the convenience of seeing his young family easily during the day, and also being able to showcase the company’s furniture and fabrics.
In a recent renovation to the apartment on the upper floor of the brand’s Parisian HQ, new textiles and wallpapers from the historic fabric company founded by his grandfather were used to decorate the space. In collaboration with Architect Eleonora Santucci they converted a former storage area into spacious bedrooms.
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Almost reaching to the ceiling, the classically shaped headboard in one of the rooms, covered in ‘Indian Tree’ cotton by Le Manach, part of the Pierre Frey family, provides a focal point and also a gentle nod to the interiors of the classic Parisian architecture in the area.
Timeless elegance in this London home
The brief from a family that frequently travels between Asia and London was for a restful and serene retreat to counter their long distance lifestyle.
Charu Ghandi of Elicyon design studio and her team responded by gathering a mix of bespoke, custom and vintage pieces to create a space perfectly tailored to their clients needs.
The main bedroom ultimately achieves this restful and serene quality. The neutral and green hues pick up the green of the tree-lined street outside, and is reflected in the large custom headboard designed to frame the bespoke bed creates a pleasing restful space.
This holiday home-come-showroom in Maine USA is the testing pad for US-based ‘lifestyling service’ An Aesthetic Pursuit’s design ideas.
Husband and wife team Chris Corrado and Jenny Kaplan along with friend Tai Coombes hatched a plan to find a house to showcase their unique and colourful style. A blend of bright colours and geometric shapes permeates throughout the house to create a bold but fun space.
In the bedroom they designed an oversized perforated headboard in a honeycombed pattern that is not only a focal point for the room, but also acts as a divider to the dressing room area just visible behind.
The overall aesthetic, as one of their friends has described it, is ‘Memphis vibes, but with a softer palette’.
Friends for Life
It’s testament to the depth of a lifelong friendship that interior designer Ali Budd was able to persuade her best friend to knock down and rebuild their family home so they could remain in the same neighbourhood.
Ali was given complete freedom to transform the building to reflect her best friend and her family’s needs. ‘She loves comfort and I wanted to do something that felt elevated and cosy’ says Ali.
In the bedroom, the bold design of the floor-to-ceiling lilac headboard mixed with the warm cream and caramel tones create an elegant pairing. Ali says her friend wasn’t convinced by the palette ‘but she trusted me and it came out beautifully!’.
A home with an unexpected edge
A townhouse in South London, previously owned by a family that had divided it into several living spaces, was the challenge for interior designer Bee Janaye, who had to transform it back into a single home that blended warmth and nostalgia but felt modern. The brief was ‘a place that feels both brand new and deeply familiar at the same time’ explains Bee.This inspired her to create a home that was bold but sophisticated. In the bedroom, she mixed leather, studs and metals to create a statement headboard. ‘it’s feminine, yes – but it’s got bite. That unexpected edge is what really makes the space sing.’
Designer apartment in former shopping mall
When the opportunity arose to design a show apartment in the redevelopment of Whiteley’s, the iconic London shopping mall, interior designer Joyce Wang jumped at the chance. ‘It was a no brainer,’ she says, ‘I was one of those kids who’d go and watch movies. It was a grimy place, but I loved it.’
Being offered the largest apartment to design, her ‘imagined’ prospective client was based on herself, a Chinese designer who studied and worked in the UK and the US. ‘I’ve spent time in LA, I love mid-century modern, going to antique fairs, looking at Tudor furniture.’
The bedrooms were all given their own colour scheme to ensure they felt coherent and filled with pieces from different eras, mixing late-1800s mirrors and chandeliers with mid-century armchairs and modern bedside tables. An oversized upholstered panelled headboard adds drama to one of the four bedrooms but maintains a subtle and refreshing elegance.
A blank canvas for party vibes and relaxation
A commission that is a designer’s dream, the brief for Tiffany Duggan of Studio Duggan for this contemporary family home was that every element was to be ‘fun, dynamic and unique’.
Duggan seized the opportunity of creating bespoke pieces of furniture and selecting modern classics to fill this vast home. There are also moments of calm, such as the main bedroom which is dominated by a unique Studio Duggan designed headboard upholstered in ‘Perses’ fabric by Marvic textiles and paired with a luxurious ‘Coco’ rug by Rug Company, giving a sense of softness and luxury as well as a cheeky nod to the 1970s.
A space with a personal touch to bring harmony
Born and bred north Londoner Philip Hooper, joint Managing Director with Emma Burns of Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler (Britain’s longest-established decorating firm) found himself moving south of the river when an apartment in a converted Victorian school caught his eye. ‘You bought the shell – a big white box with some electrics and water – and did your own fit out,’ he says. This idea appealed to his original architectural training.
Hooper believes that comfort should drive design and having the confidence to make it personal.
‘If you surround youself with things you love, your DNA binds them and gives them harmony. Don’t listen to other people. If you like it, have it.’
No more so is this apparent than in the bedroom on the mezzanine where he has created an impressive headboard from leather panelling salvaged from a London shop. Hooper observes that there’s ‘an eccentricity that’s undoubtedly English’ about this London bolthole.
Pattern with a twist
For the bedroom of this former artist studio in London’s Notting Hill, designer Rachel Chudley wanted to create a flight of fantasy with a cloud-filled ceiling and a dramatic use of pattern. She completely wrapped the bed and extensive headboard in a bold Dedar fabric which also covered the bedside tables to create an undeniable feature bedroom.
‘It’s freeing to design something that is supposed to be fun for a whole family,’ Says Rachel.
A contemporary organic aesthetic
‘I wanted to transfer the soul of a post-factory loft interior into this ultra-modern apartment,’ says interior designer Konrad Kudraszow of this luxury apartment in the 52-storey Warsaw tower designed by Daniel Liebskind.
His idea was to complement the concrete of the ceilings and the walnut floors with sensual forms in natural materials to give an overall softness to the interior.
The sculptural nature of the furniture and limited colour palette of white, black and earthy tones gives the space a contemporary but organic feel. ‘I left the walls white to provide a neutral backdrop, but also so that they can be coloured with daylight’ say Konrad. This is perfectly illustrated in the bedroom where a gently curved winged headboard in wood and velvet offers a sense of sanctuary as you view the city beyond. ‘Even 45 floors up, nature plays a huge role in this design.’
