Headboards

Sold alone, a headboard is the tall end of a bed without the bed: one panel of wood, metal or upholstery that attaches to a plain frame or to the wall behind it. Its whole job is finishing the room and padding the wall your pillows lean against. Buying it separately is the cheapest structural change a bedroom can make.

Attachment decides everything at purchase. Most freestanding versions hang on struts, two vertical legs with slotted holes that bolt to the holes already drilled in nearly every standard metal bed frame. The slots let you set the height so the panel clears the mattress top. Wall-mounted versions screw into the studs behind the bed and float above the frame entirely, which suits platform beds with no bolt holes. Width follows the mattress ladder, about 62 inches of panel for a 60 inch queen, and a panel rising 20 inches or more above the mattress top gives a seated reader real back support instead of a decorative sliver.

Its siblings bundle the same piece differently. A panel bed welds this look into a full frame with footboard and rails, at several times the cost and footprint. Upholstered beds do the same in fabric. Buying the headboard alone is how you upgrade a bare metal frame you already own, and how renters get the look without drilling, provided they choose the strut-mounted kind. Nothing about the choice touches mattress support, which stays whatever your frame provides.

First apartments, guest rooms and buyers easing a budget across months are the natural audience, since frame now and headboard later is a workable sequence. People who sit up in bed should go upholstered here rather than buying a whole upholstered bed. Pass on the freestanding kind if your frame has no bolt holes, and think twice about wall mounting in a rental where the landlord counts holes, because stud mounting leaves marks a picture hook does not.

Measure from the floor to the top of your mattress before ordering, then confirm the strut slots cover that height, since a 14 inch mattress on a deep frame outruns short struts. Check bolt hole spacing against your frame rather than assuming, as a few frames use nonstandard widths. Tighten strut bolts every few months, since headboard wobble is almost always loose hardware, and vacuum upholstered panels monthly like any fabric near a pillow.