April 16, 2008

Carleton Varney, Part XIII - Beds & Headboards

My office has installed a major firewall, so I am not able to read your blogs in my spare moments at work, or do research on donors or a lot of other things. So I have to do all of my blog-reading and donor-researching in the evenings.

I didn't have time to research a long post, so I pulled out the magic book of spells, aka Carleton Varney's Book of Decorating Ideas, to see what it said. Beds & Headboards! That's a topic that makes me happy... Carleton says Never has the selection of beds and headboards been so versatile... I have seen handsomely carved old doors, an iron gate, a balustrade and a host of other imaginative items used as headboards. And I have, too!
The salvage operation I helped to found a few years ago was a goldmine of great pieces for headboards. I found an old piece of picket fence that I used for my headboard for years. I was at Housewerks the other day and they had a spectacular piece of ironwork that was destined to become a headboard. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me, because the next week when I went back, it was sold.
I've seen headboards made from old paneled doors, wood and marble mantel pieces, and architectural elements. Some of them work well, others not so well... like this hideous one made from hockey sticks. I like the way this one looks:
Because my house is so narrow, I wasn't able to get the beautiful old four-poster bed of my grandmother's up the stairs, so I have an Ikea bed. But here's the bed I long for. You have to look in the back of the picture to see the lines of it, but it's lush!What's your headboard?

18 comments:

  1. Meg, the hockey stick bed frame is an eye opener for sure :P I liked the one that looks like a fireplace - a neat concept and the bed that you are lusting after is the best :) Great post! I love headboards.

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  2. What is up with that hockeystick headboard? Atrocious! I think we'd get along very well, that campaign bed at the bottom is BEAUTIFUL! I love the lines of it -very sculptural! Miles Redd uses a lot of canopy beds that look like that and just the other month someone blogged about one on potterybarn kids or somewhere like that with an EXTREMELY affordable version of it! I need to find out where that was!

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  3. I thought so -here's the bed - PLUS it's on sale!
    http://www.pbteen.com/products/p1807/index.cfm?pkey=cfurbed

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  4. The hockey headboard belongs in the home of the person who puts a MLB doormat on the porch. Hahahaha. Just kidding.

    I love the concept of this post! My fave is the photo after the hockey sticks headboard, the one of the mantel. It is gorgeous. Our headboard is very simple. Our bed is a sleigh bed without the footboard and the headboard doesn't curve back; it's very much like the headboard in your second photo, except in dark wood (cherry, I think). ::sigh: I'd love to paint it white, but I'm afraid I'd ruin it.

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  5. Mine is an old metal bed with tons of patina. Clear-coated over to keep it just as it is.

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  6. My upholstered headboard is from Target - fake suede pulled off and recovered w/raffia fabric.

    Is it bad if I admit I smiled when I saw the hockey stick headboard? It would probably make a Canadian teenager happy somewhere - or my upstate NY nephews for that matter.

    Re: traffic ? in DC. It's been fine - I was downtown all week,(not near the stadium/Pope though) and there are less tourists than a few weeks ago. The DC Design House is very close to the new store Maison Living. I'm hoping to go Sat am although it probably would be less crowded mid-week.

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  7. That hockey stick one makes me LAUGH!!! :-)

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  8. In Readymade there was a headboard made out of skateboards. Very cool if you're going for that urban feel.

    Anne

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  9. The first and third one looks great. They are such lovely headboards that will make your bed standout. Love it. Love it.

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  10. I LOVE headboards!!! I just ordered a wheat tufted curvy headboard from urban outfitters for my bedroom. I say the curvier the better!!! Great post!!!

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  11. I have a few of these in my bedding book already but I don't think I'll include the hockey stick one!

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  12. The third and fifth headboards are awesome! I have a typical sleigh bed headboard which I love but is not quite as decorative.

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  13. The hockey stick headboard is a carefully constructed atrocity :) The Campaign Bed is lovely.

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  14. i have a 1961 harvey probber headboard with pseudo moorish arches, that i love. i should do a post about it sometime, because one day i was going through a vintage bound book of house and garden magazines looking for window treatment inspiration and saw an ad for a bedroom designed by harvey probber and thought- "what a chic headboard". two days later i walked into the thrift shop two blocks from my house (i hit it on the way to starbucks, 2 -3 times a week), and there was the same headboard leaning against the wall- in a queen, no less. true decorating kismet!

    ps- sorry about the firewall at work. what good is having a computer at the office if you can't read your blogs?

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  15. I can tell you what my dream headboard is! Grey flannel with brass nailheads with a crisp white comforter lined in black. Maybe next year!

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  16. First, this made me laugh out loud: "What is up with that hockeystick headboard? Atrocious!" Bwah! It's terrible... and yet, I've seen worse. I like the first headboard.

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  17. Oddly enough, a cast-metal version of the black baroque one in your post! It's from the late 1960s, I think. I'm not entirely fond of it but it's what we've got for the moment. But in the country we have a wonderful button-tufted headboard covered in a peach-colored JAG silk that is overlaid with a tree-of-life-printed linen panel to cut down on the sweetness.

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