How Much Does An Upholstered Headboard Cost?

How Much Does An Upholstered Headboard cost? How Much Does a Custom Upholstered Headboard Cost? These are two questions that designers frequently get asked, and today, dear Hadley Court readers, I am going to give you the 6 factors designers will ask you to consider [ and that they have to consider for you ] before they can determine for you how much your custom upholsterd headboard and bed will cost. 

Ready? 

FACTOR #1: MATRESS AND BOX SPRING HEIGHT AND WIDTH

Your mattress and box springs. The first consideration that will impact your cost and that your designer will ask you about is the width and height of your mattress and box springs.

If you think you are going to buy a new mattress and box springs, please let your designer know that. There is so much variation in mattress height these days, and with an upholstered headboard, the overall height of your mattress together with your box springs is the single most critical dimension to get right before you start and will impact the design, which will impact the yardage required, which will impact the cost.

FACTOR #2: MATTRESS AND BOX SPRING SURROUND STYLE

Your designer will want to discuss with you what type of surround you want for your bed’s frame, too. Will your mattress and box springs sit on a metal frame, covered with a bedspread, as in this room designed by Washington, DC designer, Darryl Carter,  pictured below? It is less expensive to use a metal frame, than to have a custom surround made to coordinate with your upholstered headboard.

Or, do you really want a matching or coordinating upholstered frame around your box springs that sits almost on the floor, like this one, available from the UK’s Time 4 Sleep retail shop?

or do you want your bed up on a decorative leg, as in the design below by Marina Lanina?  Custom legs can be finished in a variety of ways and your overall cost will be impacted by your decision about this.

FACTOR #3: WALL HEIGHT

Do you have 8′ walls, 9″ walls or higher? This question is factor #3 your designer will want you to consider. If you have a grandly scaled room, with extremely high ceilings, a magnificent, upholstered headboard with a hand carved wood surround like this one from our friends at Century Furniture might be one your designer would suggest to you, and you can expect your investment to be more, if this were to be your choice.

FACTOR #4 PILLOWS

Your designer will want to know how many decorative pillows you would like to have on your bed + how many pillows you normally use for sleeping. The number of pillows you want to have showing during the day, the number you need for sleeping [and their storage ], the type of pillow [it’s loft or flatness ] and the way the pillows will be arranged on your bed are all factors to consider that will dictate the height of the headboard, relative to the height of the wall, which then dictate the yardage needed for the headboard, which then impacts your cost. 

For instance, here are two bedrooms in the same home designed by Lauren Muse. Notice the number of pillows and the way they are arranged and their overall height relative to the headboard and wall height in both of these bedrooms.  In this bedroom below, only the top foot or so of the upholstered headboard design is showing and on this bed, there are no sleeping pillows, only decorative pillows, so the sleeping pillows must be stored elsewhere. This headboard would be a less expensive option.

Here’s the 2nd bedroom in this same home, probably the master bedroom. Notice how much higher this headboard is, relative to the pillows, and how this bedroom also incorporates the sleeping pillows behind the 3 decorative pillows. The height of the headboard gives it greater presence in the room, doesn’t it?

Because it has a more elaborate shape and requires more yardage and labor, it would be more expensive than the one shown above.

FACTOR #5: QUALITY OF UNDERLYING CONSTRUCTION

The quality of the underlying construction of the upholstered bed will be another factor determining its cost. Many of the inexpensive upholstered beds and headboards on the market today are made with MDF board, glued or stapled together, covered with a layer of battting and 1 or 2 layers of thin foam.

They look good { although they can tend to look flat compared with the best quality upholstered headboards – see the picture ending this post]  and if your bed is not going to get a lot of use, that may suffice, but if you want an upholstered bed frame that will last forever, the construction diagram shown below will give you an idea of how a really well constructed upholstered bed frame and headboard should be built.

 Once these 5 factors are considered, Hadley Court readers, then the final #6, the BIG determining factor in your upholstered headboard and/or bed cost is the fabric you choose, the trim you choose and how much yardage you will need for both.

If you’re on a tighter budget, or prefer to invest in a gorgeous wallpaper or lighting,  your designer will suggest to you a simpler headboard shape, and will also suggest using a solid or very small printed textile so the extra yardage costs when you have to match a pattern can be avoided, as in this beautiful bedroom designed by Suzie Lovejoy, below. Here, Suzie specified a pretty twisted ivory silk welt cord to define the shape of the headboard, but this trim is an optional element.

If you fall in love with a medium or larger scale print, your designer will first discuss the shape of the upholstered headboard you want with their custom workroom to make sure the pattern on the textile you’ve fallen in love with can be matched, if matching is important to you. Your cost will go up as pattern matching like this normally takes 20% to 50% more yardage + additional labor, depending on the repeat and the time required to match the pattern on the headboard shape you’ve selected.

Here’s an excellent illustration of pattern matching on the Charleston upholstered headboard from our friends at Thibaut.

Isn’t this whole room just pretty, pretty, pretty? Notice the height of the headboard vis a vis those high ceilings.

If the textile you’ve fallen in love with can’t be matched well, your designer will let you know and give you the choice to either reselect another fabric or to sign off in writing on the fact that you realize the fabric you love can’t be matched perfectly on the design of the upholstered headboard you’ve selected.

When you buy an *off the shelf*  upholstered headboard { see the picture that leads off this post }, you will not get pattern matching around the edges. And, although it’s still a pretty bed, this is one way that manufacturers, who sell online and at retail, save on the cost.

Now that you know what factors your designer will consider for you and with you, how much will your upholstered headboard cost?

It depends, as you can see, but it can range anywhere from $150.00 for something very basic and inexpensively made that you buy yourself at a discount shop up to $10,000 or more for a custom couture upholstered headboard and frame, depending on the quality of construction you prefer, the complexity of the design you choose, your textile + trim selections and the costs of labor, delivery and installation in your area.

This custom upholstered bed by designer Victoria Hagan has a complex shape, white lacquered legs and beautiful trim, and is in New York, so it would probably be on the upper end of that price range.

Isn’t this bedroom by the UK’s, The White Company, below, just beautiful? What I’m noticing, though, as  I mentioned above, is the beautiful tufting, and the thickness of the upholstered headboard. See also how those pillows are arranged > look how far forward they sit on the bed.

That’s just one more factor an interior designer like Leslie Hendrix Wood or your own local designer will consider when designing the upholstered bed of your dreams, just for you.

 I’d like to end this post by saying thank you to two people. First, to Houston’s Joni Cohen Webb of the well known blog, Cote de Texas, who featured the opening image on this post from Bassett Furniture on her own blog here a few days ago – which was the inspiration that started this post – and for also including Hadley Court on her blog roll. Thank you, Joni!

And, to New Jersey based author and color specialist, Amy Wax, who has an IPhone app for matching colors, readers, that you may enjoy using called http://color911.com. Thank you, Amy, for pulling out the colors from our opening image, so HC’s readers could see them clearly.

And readers, as  always, we appreciate YOU taking your time to read Hadley Court. Thank you!

Leslie Carothers

for

Leslie Hendrix Wood
Decorator
Chancellor Interiors
Midland, Texas

Founder, Editor In Chief
Hadley Court

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