The base arrives, the mattress goes on, and then you are stood there holding a headboard and two bolts wondering where exactly they are supposed to go. It is one of those jobs that takes about ten minutes when you know what you are doing and most of an afternoon when you do not.
Knowing how to fit a headboard properly is mostly about getting three things right before you touch a spanner. The right fixing type, the right height, and bolts that are tightened in the correct order. Get those and the headboard sits flush, stays silent, and never needs looking at again.
First, Check What Your Base Is Set Up For
Nearly every divan base is supplied with two threaded fixing points on the head end, hidden under the upholstery near the top corners. On a standard single, double, king or super king base, those two points sit at a set distance apart, and that spacing is what your headboard struts have to match.
Run your hand along the upholstered top edge at the head of the base and you will feel them. Some bases have the fixings capped or covered by the fabric, in which case there is a small slit or a marked point to work through. Do not go hunting with a knife. If you cannot find them by feel, the fixing points are always on the top surface near the corners, never on the side panel.
A quick warning worth reading before you buy anything. Bases from different makers do not all use the same strut spacing, and a headboard bought for one is not guaranteed to line up with another. If you are replacing a headboard on an older base, measure the distance between the centres of the two fixing points before you order. That single measurement saves most of the returns we see.
Strutted or Floor Standing
There are two ways a headboard attaches, and it changes the whole job.
A strutted headboard has two vertical legs, the struts, on the back of the board. Those bolt directly to the fixing points on the base and the headboard hangs off the bed. Nothing touches the floor and nothing touches the wall, so the bed can be pulled out for cleaning as one piece.
A floor standing headboard runs all the way down to the carpet. It sits behind the base rather than hanging off it, and it is usually taller and wider, which gives the bed a lot more presence in the room. It still bolts on for stability, but the floor is carrying most of the weight.
Both fit to the same two points on the base. Which one suits your room is a longer conversation and we will come back to it properly next week.
Getting the Height Right Before You Tighten Anything
This is the step people rush and then regret.
Strutted headboards have a run of holes down each strut rather than a single one. That is deliberate. The holes let you slide the headboard up and down so it sits correctly relative to your mattress depth.
The rule is simple. The bottom edge of the headboard panel should finish just below the top of your mattress, by an inch or so. Set it too high and you get a gap between mattress and board that swallows pillows all night. Set it too low and the board disappears behind the mattress, which wastes the height you paid for.
So fit the mattress first. Always. Then offer the headboard up against it and pick the hole that gives you that small overlap. A deep pocket sprung or medi-endorsed mattress can be a good deal thicker than the one it replaced, which is why a headboard that sat perfectly on the old bed can look wrong on the new one.
How to Fit a Headboard, Step by Step
You need one person, or two if the headboard is a super king, and usually nothing more than the bolts and washers supplied plus a spanner or an Allen key.
1. Pull the bed away from the wall
Give yourself a couple of feet behind the head end. Trying to do this in a nine inch gap is how bolts get cross-threaded.
2. Locate and expose the fixings
Find both threaded points on the top of the base at the head end. Clear the fabric away from them gently if it has settled over the thread.
3. Offer the headboard up and mark your hole
With the mattress in place, hold the headboard against the base and slide it until the bottom edge sits just below the top of the mattress. Note which hole in the strut lines up with the fixing point.
4. Start both bolts by hand
Thread each bolt in with your fingers first, both of them, before tightening either. Starting bolts by hand is the single easiest way to avoid cross-threading, and a cross-threaded fixing point on a base is not a repair anyone enjoys.
5. Tighten in stages
Nip up the left, then the right, then go back and do both properly. Tightening one fully before the other pulls the board out of square and leaves a lean you will notice from the doorway.
6. Check it, then push the bed back
Take hold of the top of the headboard and give it a firm rock. There should be no movement and no creak. If there is a knock, one bolt has not seated. Then push the bed back into place.
Common Problems and What Causes Them
The headboard knocks against the wall at night. The base has castors and the whole bed is drifting. Fit glides instead, or move the bed a finger's width off the skirting so nothing is in contact.
There is a gap between the headboard and the wall. That is normal and it is meant to be there. A strutted headboard hangs off the bed and does not lean on the wall. If the gap bothers you, a floor standing headboard closes it.
The board sits at a slight angle. Almost always uneven bolt tension. Slacken both off, square the board up, and retighten evenly.
The struts do not line up with the base at all. The spacing does not match. Measure the fixing centres on your base and check that against the headboard specification before ordering a replacement.
Matching the Headboard to the Base
A headboard in the same fabric as the base makes the bed read as one piece rather than two things that happen to be touching. Chenille Charcoal or Lino Stone keeps a bedroom calm and understated. Plush Emerald Green or Plush Marine gives you the deeper, light-catching finish if you want the bed to be the feature of the room. Naples Silver and Wool Steel sit somewhere in between and go with almost anything.
You can see the full divan base and headboard range online today.
One Last Thing About Delivery
Every order comes with Complimentary Two-Man Delivery to your room of choice, so the base, mattress and headboard all arrive upstairs rather than in the hall. That matters more than it sounds when a super king base and a medi-endorsed mattress are involved. All you are left with is the ten minute job above, done in the right room, with everything already where it needs to be.
