This!

I've decided that THIS is the headboard I want for my spare bedroom. Ideally, I'd prefer a complete upholstered bed frame (with footboard and rails), but there are several issues with this: (i) the room is rather small, (ii) I want to place the bed in front of a window so the headboard can't be taller than 45" and (iii) my budget is tight.

But mostly, it's been a real challenge to find a classical, pretty, low profile upholstered bed frame. I found one by Mitchell Gold for $3700, a little over my budget, and a little too modern.

So I've decided to build my own headboard base, upholster it, and then cover it with this lovely headboard slipcover from OKA Direct. I will visit one of the OKA shops later this month when I'm in London to see if this slipcover is worth the cost (£ 140). Seeing as how it's a simple design, I could just have one made by my tailor, but I do love the monogram on this one. And I hope the quality is good.

Oh, and luckily, the UK King bed is the same width (60") as the Canadian Queen so the headboard cover will fit precisely!

I'll still need to build a frame to fit the slipcover on, which makes me a little nervous. But my darling David is pretty handy and I've watched enough HGTV DIY shows that surely we can accomplish this minor engineering marvel? And hey, once it's done, any imperfections will be covered by the new slipcover! I might also be able to buy an ugly upholstered headboard at The Home Depot, say, and cut down the legs to fit my 45" height requirement. And I'll also have to temporary-hem the OKA headboard cover since it comes taller than 45".

How's that for ingenuity? Let's just hope the cover is as lovely as the photo suggests, and more importantly - that it's available!

While I'm shopping at OKA, I'll also hunt down these pretty little boxes, which would go swimmingly with the new headboard in the spare room: