Bed Time, Part VI: A Bit of Design Ingenuity

One of the most fun -- and challenging -- aspects of the interior design profession can be summed up as "thinking outside the box."  It involves problem solving and coming up with new uses for items that are completely unrelated.  Beds are fertile ground for this.  Take a look:

This very large and distinctive Greek Revival mantle piece became a beautiful headboard.              (source unknown)

An understated iron bed gets a shot of gravitas with a hand-painted antique screen.            

(House Beautiful; designer and photographer unknown)

I don't know how safe it is to have those vases perched on its shelves, but otherwise using an antique bamboo hall tree as a headboard is pretty ingenious.  (source unknown)

The imminently talented Jeffrey Bilhuber topped off this opulent headboard with a gilded and mirrored piece that he believes was originally a valance in a grand old country estate.  (photographed by Pascal Chevalier for House & Garden)

These Deco-style mirrored headboards are so sophisticated...and would be so easy to recreate.  I'd like to see them taller and made with antiqued mirror (oh, or how about reverse-painted glass?), but the idea is great.  (Country Living; designer and photographer unknown)

This is a particularly good idea for space-challenged living: a built-out wall does double duty as storage and as a headboard. (source unknown)

Slip-covering a bed is nothing new, but done this way it does look charming.  It could also be useful to camouflage an ugly head and foot board.  (Martha Stewart Living; photographer unknown)

In a difficult, narrow space, Architect Lee Mindel shows his design savvy by positioning a pair of antique beds end to end.  (House Beautiful; photographer unknown)

I had to save this for last.  For her own Miami pied a terre, designer DD Allen used hula skirts to hide a bed frame.  (photographed by Steven White for Elle Decor) 

Are you wondering where the draped and canopied beds are?  Your wait is almost over.

Thanks for reading, everyone!