The statement headboard is one of designer Kit Kemp’s most recognised and well-loved features in the hotel bedrooms she designs. In this extract from her new book, Design Secrets, Kit explains how to create a striking headboard for your home
The statement headboard is synonymous with designer Kit Kemp’s unique interiors at Firmdale Hotels, where she is the Founder. Kit Kemp’s headboards are invariably sculptural, colourful, intricately detailed and exquisitely finished; bringing drama and detail to every scheme. Here, in an extract from her fabulous new book, Design Secrets, she shares her tips for creating a striking Kit Kemp headboard in your own home…
IMAGES: SIMON BROWN
Oversized headboards have become one of the Kit Kemp Design Studio’s most iconic and recognisable design features. They play into all the things I love to accentuate in a room – our headboards are bold, striking and memorable.
Elevating the humble headboard to create maximum impact in a room not only provides a lovely way for showcasing the detail of a fabric’s beautiful embroidery, appliqué, collage or beadwork, but it is also the perfect opportunity to create something truly personal and unique for your bedroom.
Here are some tricks of the trade for creating your own headboard centrepiece:
IMAGES: SIMON BROWN
1. DON’T hold back
Find a fabric you love and go for it – you might be making the headboard the focal point of a room, but it’s actually a relatively small area in relation to the rest of the space, so don’t be afraid to use something bold.
Choosing a fun print or weave with multiple colours can also help to guide a room’s colour scheme. For example, if the headboard fabric is made up of blues, greens and yellows, you could then use blue on the walls, another patterned fabric with a complementary green for the curtains, and a combination of blues and yellows for the valance.
A headboard is also the one upholstery item that requires the least meterage of fabric – so if you’ve fallen in love with something really special, use it on the headboard and pair it with a more economical plain or striped linen for curtains to help even out your budget.
IMAGES: SIMON BROWN
2. DO think about the shape
When choosing a fabric, consider which headboard shape lends itself best to the design and pattern repeat of the fabric. With a geometric pattern or stripe you may want to accentuate the vertical with a more upright, elongated shape; a floral motif might be best complemented with a softer, more feminine edge. Of course, there are no rules, so play around and mix things up – a floral fabric used on a more streamlined shape can feel chic and modern; the curves of a headboard might echo the curves of an over-scaled botanical print.
3. DON’T forget the detail
I’m always looking for ways to layer extra accents into a room – here are some examples for headboards:
Studding: Metal upholstery studs are a great way to help define the headboard edge like a frame. I use a wide variety of sizes and finishes – I’m particularly fond of large, widely spaced, nickel studs because this feels really strong and contemporary.
Piping: Contrast piping is a favourite upholstery design detail which works equally well framing the front edge of a headboard as it does on a chair or cushion. Leather and wool piping also lends additional colour and texture; vertical piping within a headboard’s design can also be effective for separating fabrics if you are combining patterns with plains.
Contrast depth: Upholstering the depth of a headboard in a contrast fabric is another clever detail (above). It outlines the headboard and lifts it from the wall, making it really pop. It works best in a plain, picked out from one of the colours in the main headboard fabric, ideally contrasted with the wall colour.
IMAGE: SIMON BROWN
4. DO mix and match
Using a combination of fabrics and textures is a great trick for adding an extra layer of detail to a scheme. Using a smaller scale print or plain as a border, paired with a larger print as the main headboard fabric, lends depth and interest. Pair plains to create a dynamic colour blocking effect, which looks especially strong against a patterned wall.
5. DON’T be put off if a fabric is not wide enough
One of my great loves is sourcing antique textiles on my travels because they so often inspire my designs. While they look beautiful hung in decorative frames, I also can’t resist using them for upholstery. Very often, the fragments and panels I source are not wide enough to cover a headboard, so I pair them with a complementary fabric to cover the full width. At the Knightsbridge Hotel, I used an old Designers Guild blanket with two drops of orange moon tweed along either side to make up the full width.
6. DO create a work of art
A headboard can also provide the perfect canvas for storytelling – it infuses further narrative into a room, whether that be with the whimsy of Goddess Aurora flying through the sky, surrounded by her cherubs, or a simple, subtle embellishment of an existing pattern. On a headboard upholstered in Blithfield’s ‘Oakleaves’ fabric, taken from its Peggy Angus collection, the veins of some of the leaves, and the petals of flowers chosen at random, have been hand-embroidered in accents of vibrant red, yellow and green by Fine Cell Work (above).
IMAGE: SIMON BROWN
In this bedroom (above), I started with Christopher Farr Cloth’s ‘Tasha’s Trip’ on the curtains. With my design team, we enlarged and deconstructed the flower detail, creating a bespoke beaded collage design to be stitched onto the boiled wool upholstering the headboard. Appliqué like this allows me to play with scale and texture, as well as adding an individual, unexpected touch that cleverly ties the whole room together.
Discover more interiors ideas and inspiring homes from The Home Page below…
