Can You Put Up a Headboard in a Rental?

Yes, but the way most headboards mount is the way most tenants lose part of a damage deposit. The fix is choosing the mounting method before you choose the headboard, which is the opposite of how everyone shops.

The three ways a headboard attaches

Frame-attached is the one you want in a rental. The headboard bolts to the bed frame itself through pre-drilled holes in the frame legs, touches the wall only incidentally, and leaves nothing behind when you move. Nothing goes into the wall at all.

Wall-mounted headboards hang on a French cleat or a set of brackets screwed into studs. They look better in a lot of rooms because the bed can sit slightly away from the wall and the headboard stays put, and they require holes in a wall you do not own.

Freestanding headboards, which are a panel on legs held in place by the weight of the bed, are the third option. They work, they wobble slightly, and they are the compromise nobody loves but everybody can live with.

Whether your frame can take one

Check the frame before you buy the headboard. Metal platform frames often have bolt holes at the head end, and many do not. Wooden platform beds usually have their own integrated headboard or no provision at all. If the frame has no holes, a universal bracket kit exists but it adds height and reduces stability, and on some frames the bolt spacing simply does not line up.

Measure the bolt spacing on the frame and compare it to the headboard's legs. This is a five-minute check that prevents a return.

Most of the platform beds we carry come with the headboard as part of the bed rather than as a separate bolt-on piece, which sidesteps the whole question. If you already own a frame, send us the model and we will check it. Our range is in bed frames.

If you do go into the wall

Nova Scotia's Residential Tenancies Act expects a tenant to leave the unit in reasonable condition, allowing for normal wear. Small anchor holes filled and painted at move-out are usually negotiated rather than automatically deducted, but nothing in the Act says so in those words, which is exactly why you ask your landlord in writing before drilling and keep the reply. A one-line email is worth more than an argument at move-out.

Practical notes if you have permission. Find the studs; a headboard hanging on drywall anchors alone in a plaster wall will pull out. In older Halifax buildings the wall behind the bed is often plaster and lath over irregular framing, and the stud spacing is not reliably sixteen inches. A magnet or a proper stud finder beats knocking.

Patch the holes yourself at move-out and repaint the patch. A filled hole is invisible; a filled hole with no paint over it is a highlighted circle.

The option that avoids all of this

An upholstered bed with an integrated headboard is a single piece of furniture that solves the problem by not being a headboard at all. It costs more than a frame plus a headboard, takes up slightly more floor length, and moves with you cleanly. In a rental you expect to leave in two years, it is often the cheaper decision once the deposit is counted.

Tell us what frame you own and we will tell you whether a headboard will bolt to it before you buy one.

headboards and upholstered beds. Related: upholstered vs wood vs metal bed frames and how to match your bed frame to your nightstand and dresser.