One of the easiest upcycles in the bedroom is the headboard – which can be made of literally anything you can find, from a couple of old doors to a pile of reclaimed wood. Here, I share some of my favourite upcycled headboard designs. Some are already shabby chic and others could be given a shabby chic finish with a little paint and distressing.
1. Barn door headboard
This gorgeous old barn door with all its hardware intact has been used behind the bed, giving this room a real focal point with tons of personality.
2. Store sign headboard
This store sign has simply been hung behind the bed to give a headboard effect – unusual, retro and really attractive. The ‘sack’ cushion is a nice complementing touch!
3. Window shutters headboard
This design created by Chris Hill Old makes use of old window shutters that are sandwiched in between reclaimed wood to make the headboard with a bit of an art deco feel to it.
4. Reclaimed wood headboard
This lovely headboard is simply made from planks of reclaimed wood. The design is by Marianne from SongBirdBlog.com.
5. Old door and metal gate headboard
This fantastic design by Funky Junk Interiors is made from an old door that has been paired with a metal gate sprayed lightly with white spray paint.
6. Railings headboard
This gorgeous shabby chic headboard makes us of some old railings painted in green and cream. You could create the same effect with new railings by painting them cream all over, painting on the green once dry and then (once everything is thoroughly dry) adding the wear and tear yourself (see my post on painting shabby chic furniture).
7. Pallet headboard
This gorgeous headboard is made using old pallets and latex paint. The pieces were drilled into the wall rather than being assembled as a single piece headboard – you can find a full tutorial on how it was done here. You could of course experiment with different paint colours to match your room, wearing away the paint to give it the aged shabby chic appearance.
8. Stencilled door
This simple headboard uses an old door turned on its side. There are loads of good examples of doors used as headboards (and I’ll share a few more) but what I loved about this one is the addition of the stencilling. You could of course create the old door effect on a new door by painting it shabby chic style and you could add anything you want here besides numbers – words or patterns would work well too. Picture from the Little Green Bean (check out the full post for more lovely bedroom ideas).
9. Barn door headboard
When I first saw this amazing headboard I was absolutely convinced it was an upcycle project using a proper old barn door. Hunting around for the source, I found that actually it was made piece by piece for Ashley from Little Yellow Barn by her Dad! She’s posted up the step by step instructions too so you can give it a go. You could choose any paint effect to finish this gorgeous piece, and ‘weather’ the wood to your liking, to match the rest of your room.
10. Old door photo frame headboard
Okay, I admit – it’s not a headboard in this picture – but it is crying out to be one! This awesome idea for a *cough* headboard, is an old, weathered door with black and white pics to fill in the gaps. I want this for my room right now.
11. Old doors headboard
Just one more door pic, I promise! I wanted to share this with you because I was amazed how simple the whole idea was. The headboard is of course two old doors that have been cleaned down (and secured onto the wall, I would hope). They have deliberately been left untreated and unfinished but I absolutely love the end result! In a white room with a theatrical chandelier, this really works and it’s cheap and cheerful in the bargain. It took me a while to track down the original source of the image – the headboard is the creation of Maria on the Dreamy Whites Blog (‘french farmhouse living’), worth a visit for tonnes of inspiration.
12. Salvaged moldings headboard
I’ve not been able to find anything about this picture except that it appears all over the net – some labelling the headboard as a picture frame, others a mirror frame and yet another a ‘distressed plank’ To me, this looks like the sort of molding you’d expect to see in an old theatre and your best chance of finding something like this will be at the salvage yard.
13. Old mirror headboard
This huge old mirror makes a very glamorous backdrop for this cream and gold themed room. The mirror is covered in imperfections and scratches but this somehow adds to the ‘grand stately home’ feel. The chandelier in front reflects in the mirror and the small touches of gold around the room help to create a balanced feel.
Of course it’s not every day that you find a mirror like this lying around, so I thought I’d share some other shabby chic / vintage feel mirrors that have been used as headboards so that you can see how the idea works with pretty much any large, old looking mirror:
The above is a gorgeous arrangement of three wooden framed mirrors with a white distressed paint finish.
Here, the ‘headboard’ is simply a collection of objects – a good sized mirror, some ornate frames, old shutters and strings of pearls. There’s no real order to this lovely arrangement but it looks fantastic all the same!
14. Old garden gates headboards
Two old garden gates have been used to make the headboards for these twin children’s beds to great effect. You could wind a garland around each of the frames to get the pretty flower effect. I’ve not been able to track down who originally posted up this image (please get in touch if it’s you!) but I do want to share how they have extended the theme further around the room by using fencing for a pretty garden-themed window valance – amazing idea:
15. Elevator gate
I spotted this gorgeous wrought iron elevator gate in a FT feature that mentions LASSCO and thought it would look incredible as a headboard. This particular gate would certainly set you back a small fortune and I’ve included it more for inspiration than anything else – keep an eye out for fancy gates at your local salvage yards which will be a lot more affordable. The LASSCO website is also worth keeping an eye on unless you’re on a very tight budget (they have two branches in London and one in Oxfordshire) as although most things are insanely expensive, there are a few salvaged pieces that are more affordable too (try ordering the items ‘low to high’!)
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