11 Headboard Ideas, With the Sizes That Make Them Work

Measure the bed before you shop: the mattress width, and the height of its top from the floor, topper included. Then look at the wall behind it. Note the window, the outlets and switches, the nightstands, and anything you want to hang above the bed.

The headboard’s size comes from the bed, its height from the look you want and what’s on the wall. Every idea below starts from those two numbers.

1. Size the headboard to the mattress

Make the headboard about as wide as the mattress, no more than 2 in past each side. A queen headboard is usually about 62 in wide, a king one about 80 in and a full one about 56 in.

A headboard that bolts to the bed frame comes in the bed’s size, because its legs have to line up with the frame’s holes. A queen frame takes a queen headboard, whatever the look. Measure the mattress top too: a standard headboard has its top 42 to 48 in from the floor, which shows 17 to 23 in above a mattress 25 in high.

Try it with your room: Headboard Size Calculator

2. Go tall under a high ceiling

A tall headboard stands 52 in or more from the floor, 52 to 70 in in all. On a queen bed with its mattress 25 in up, that puts 27 to 45 in of headboard above the mattress.

Tall headboards look best under high ceilings, where they fill the height of the wall. Under a low ceiling, a standard or low one keeps the bed in proportion with the room.

Try it with your room: Headboard Size Calculator

3. Keep it low on a platform bed

A low headboard rises 10 to 24 in above the mattress, and any headboard should show at least 10 in above it. On a full platform bed whose mattress top sits 18 in from the floor, that puts the top of a low headboard 28 to 42 in from the floor.

A low bed takes low nightstands too, so their tops stay level with the mattress. For that same mattress, look for nightstands 16 to 20 in tall. A floating shelf at mattress height works as well, like the one in the photo.

Try it with your room: Headboard Size Calculator

4. Run it past the nightstands

An extra-wide headboard runs 25 to 30 in wider than the bed, out past the nightstands. Behind a queen bed, that comes to 85 to 90 in.

Most extra-wide headboards hang on the wall instead of bolting to the frame, so the bed’s size stops mattering. It can stop just past the nightstands or run the full width of the wall.

Try it with your room: Headboard Size Calculator

5. Hang a panel on the wall

A headboard on the wall doesn’t need holes that match the frame, so it can be any width or shape, like the carved panel in the photo. Hang it with its bottom edge 3 to 4 in below the top of the mattress, where the bed hides it. For a queen with its mattress 25 in up, the bottom edge goes 21 to 22 in from the floor, which makes a standard-height panel 20 to 27 in tall.

Try it with your room: Headboard Size Calculator

6. Keep it under the glass of a window

A bed under a window looks best when the headboard covers no more than the bottom quarter of the glass, a third of the way up at most. In the drawing, a king bed sits under a window with its sill 30 in up: a quarter of the way up the window is 43.5 in from the floor and a third is 48 in. A standard headboard there tops out at 43.5 in.

With curtains behind the bed, pull the bed 4 to 6 in away from the wall.

Try it with your room: Headboard Size Calculator

7. Leave room for art or a mirror above it

Art or a mirror above the headboard needs its own stretch of wall. Hang it about 8 in above the top of the headboard, and size it to the bed, not the headboard: two-thirds to three-quarters of the bed’s width, or 40 to 45 in over a queen.

A tall headboard leaves little wall above it, so with art in mind, choose a standard or low one. A round mirror, like the one in the photo, counts by its width the same way a frame does.

Try it with your room: Wall Art Size Calculator

8. Skip the headboard and hang art

Without a headboard, art can mark the head of the bed. Size it the way you would above a headboard: 40 to 45 in wide over a queen or 51 to 57 in over a king. A pair of prints counts as one piece, measured from the outer edge of one to the outer edge of the other.

Wall lights at each side, as in the photo, finish the look and leave the nightstands clear. Hang frames over a bed from hooks or screws in the wall, not from adhesive picture-hanging strips. The strips’ own instructions say not to hang them over a bed.

Try it with your room: Wall Art Size Calculator

9. Paint a headboard on the wall

A painted shape behind the bed can stand in for a headboard, and it takes nothing but paint. Size it like one: about as wide as the mattress, 60 to 64 in for a queen, with its top 42 to 48 in from the floor for a classic look.

For a bolder look, carry it all the way up to the ceiling. In the photo, a white brick panel between deep blue walls frames the bed the way a tall headboard would.

Try it with your room: Headboard Size Calculator

10. Line the nightstands up with the mattress

The headboard frames the nightstands, so size them together. Keep each nightstand’s top within 2 in of the mattress top: for a mattress 25 in high, that’s a nightstand 23 to 27 in tall. Beside a queen bed, look for one 18 to 28 in wide, set 2 to 6 in from the bed.

With a table lamp, put the bottom of the shade about 20 in above the mattress.

Try it with your room: Nightstand Height Calculator

11. Count the headboard in the bed’s footprint

A big upholstered headboard makes the bed longer and wider. A standard frame adds about 5 in to the mattress each way, but a large upholstered bed with a deep headboard and footboard adds about 10 in.

Plan the walkways around the bigger bed: about 24 in on each side you use and at the foot. Before you order, tape the bed’s full outline on the floor, headboard included, and walk around it.

Try it with your room: Bed Size Calculator

Every bedroom calculator is on the Bedroom page, and a bed you pick in one carries over to the others.