Of all the rooms in your apartment, you probably spend the most amount of time in your bedroom. After all, it’s where you recuperate after a long day of work, school, or other obligations — and hopefully for at least eight hours a night, if you’re getting enough shut-eye! As such, it’s a place you want to enjoy and feel at peace in; you want it to be conducive to relaxation, harmony, and rest.
A messy or poorly coordinated bedroom — or one cluttered with work, reminding you of all your responsibilities — is not only aesthetically ugly, but it also interferes with getting the rest you need. Various sleep studies have proven that having a serene and calming space can do wonders for your insomnia!
When you move into a new apartment, there’s a strong and natural urge to make it your own. These days, DIY renovations and upcycled products and materials — fueling what’s known as the ‘second-hand economy’ — are actually much more fashionable than store-bought items. This is great for your sense of style, but also fantastic for your wallet, as many of the coolest, warmest, and most unique style choices can be yours for very little cash (just be prepared to expend some elbow grease, depending on the project).
One element that can completely redefine your bedroom is a DIY, totally customized headboard. This is one interior design element you can make totally you. Why have some generic headboard when you can make it your own? If your bedroom is arguably the most important room in your apartment, then your bed — and the decorative elements you incorporate in it — is potentially the most important piece of furniture (not to mention the largest). So why not make it look the best and most comfortable it can be?
One great idea for a DIY headboard is to think wood. As the image above shows, old salvaged doors are a great way to add a rustic, warm, and quirky look to your bedroom — often the more cracked and brittle the door, the better. You can choose to keep the doorknobs on or remove them (to keep your head safe!). Paint the door any way you like to add a vibrant dose of colour to a room and make a bold statement. This is great if you aren’t willing (or permitted) to paint the walls of your rental. Add a secondary door to the bottom of your bed to create a symmetrical look with definite charm!
If your bedframe comes with a short but non-detachable headboard — and you’d still like to experiment with the door idea — simply mount the door (sans knob) on the wall above you. This will bring across the same look for those who can’t get rid of their existent headboards.
Another option that captures just as much warm, rustic charm is to nail salvaged wood together in a rectangular shape. This requires a bit more DIY skill, but will look just as attractive if you can do it right. It’s easy enough to find old distressed wood at garage sales, left out on the street, in antique stores, or even at hardware stores if you ask around. If you aren’t willing to nail and mount a bunch of different boards together, grab a solid skid (or pallet) instead; this can be every bit as attractive as the other more elaborate options. Another way to capture a woody, unpolished look is to replace a standard door with old shutter doors — for those who like their DIY projects to be simple and straightforward, this is a great option, as all you have to do it stand it up and make sure it’s supported between the bed and the wall.
Aside from wooden pallets, shutters, doors, and nailed-together collections of antique wood, there are plenty of other DIY headboard ideas, and they can be found in absolute abundance across the Internet. Some of the coolest we’ve seen include a headboard composed of open hardcover books (glued with their spines to the wall and open at some random page), or even piles of books stacked in place of a headboard. We’ve seen people take rubber doormats with elaborate designs, nail them to a wooden frame, paint them a rad colour, and mount this as a totally unexpected headboard. We’ve even seen remnant rugs painted with acrylic paint and mounted up to create a cool unique look. Start thinking outside the box — and start thinking big!
We’re not just here to help you find great rental apartments, but we want to help you make your living space as beautiful and individual as you are. As always, keep coming back to the RentSeeker Blog to get inspired!
