Headboards

How to choose a headboard

A headboard does three things at once: stops the pillows sliding off the back of the bed, finishes the visual line of the bedroom, and protects the wall behind from years of head and shoulder contact. The decision is mostly about scale, fixing method and material.

Size and scale follow the bed and the room. The headboard width should match the mattress (or the divan base if it's a divan-mounted headboard, since divan headboards sit slightly wider than mattress-only ones). On height, anything below 90cm reads timid in a normal-ceilinged room. 100 to 130cm is the comfortable mid-range. 150cm-plus is statement territory and changes the room significantly. Tall headboards lift small bedrooms; low ones suit period rooms with picture rails or beamed ceilings.

Fixing method determines compatibility:

• Strut-mount headboards bolt onto a divan base via two struts that drop into purpose-made slots. The pattern most matched divan sets ship with. Quick to fit; doesn't work with non-divan beds.
• Wall-mounted headboards hang from the wall behind the bed and aren't physically attached to the frame. They sit slightly wider than the bed and hide a multitude of frame sins. Right answer for ottoman frames, slatted frames and bedrooms where the bed sits against a feature wall.
• Bedstead headboards are part of the bed frame itself, sold as a single unit. No fixing decision needed, but you can't change the headboard without changing the bed.

Material and finish set the room's tone. Upholstered headboards (linen, velvet, fabric) are the dominant choice, soft to lean against and offering the broadest colour range. Tufted, channel-stitched and plain panel are the three common silhouettes. Wooden headboards (oak, walnut, painted) suit traditional and country bedrooms. Metal-frame headboards work in industrial and vintage-styled rooms but are uncomfortable to lean against without a pillow buffer.

Maintenance matters more in this category than people expect. Light-coloured upholstered headboards mark from hair products, makeup and skin oils within months. Removable, washable covers are worth the £30 to £80 premium when they're available. Velvet collects dust and pet hair and needs vacuuming weekly. Faux leather wipes clean but cracks at the seams over five years.

The brands and retailers we list

We pull around 24,000 headboards from across the UK retailer network.

Robert Dyas dominates with around 17,200 headboards, covering strut-mount, wall-mount and bedstead designs in upholstered and wooden finishes from £40 to £600.

The Range covers around 5,000 headboards in the £30 to £200 value-to-mid bracket.

Mattress Online and MattressNextDay stock matched-divan headboards from the major mattress brands (Silentnight, Sealy, Hypnos), useful when you want the headboard to match a divan base from the same range.

Filter the grid above by size, colour or price to narrow things down, or browse the full headboard range without filters to see everything in stock. Prices update daily.