This $200 Headboard Can Be Added to Any Frame in Seconds – It’s Our Style Editor’s Hack for a More Elegant Bedroom
I’m using this clever cushion to romanticize the cold. Here's how to style it
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‘When they go low, we go high’ is very much my operating principle for the dog days of winter. Manhattan is bleak, morale is fragile, and generic dopamine decor simply won’t cut it. I don’t just want color – I want escape. Proper escape. Whimsy. And I may have just found an unbelievably elegant (and affordable) way to bring that into the bedroom.
You may recall the cosplaying cushion many of us fell hard for last year. For a certain set, WOWMAX’s now-viral headboard reading pillow was the ultimate easy bedroom hack. It was clever, and it was comfortable – but interior design trends move quickly, and when times feel this heavy, why hold back? What we need now is a pillow with personality. And velvet.
Unlike the reading pillow you may or may not already own, this version comes as a full ensemble. There’s the headboard pillow, a body pillow (we meet again, unipillow), plus two circular cushions for good measure. Choose between two widths – 60 or 76 inches – and a pared-back palette of grey, white, or the sunshine yellow. Rated a flawless five out of five stars, there's no going wrong.
This new iteration embraces this year's headboard trends for whimsical, statement ruffles, without the need for a whole new bed frame. The design brings a soft, optimistic elegance to the room, while offering ergonomic support for reading, emailing, or, more likely, watching trash TV in bed.
Despite what its name would have you believe, this headboard pillow isn’t limited to the bed. Use it to layer in a touch of opulence on a bench – or even a sofa, as above.
It may look a touch fussy, but it's really one of those hero pieces that functions as a neutral. Its job is to anchor the space. Pair it with stripes, botanicals, or other pattern-forward bedding to temper the sweetness, and layer on as much texture as you can. The more you lean in, the more convincingly it reads as an actual headboard – which, it’s worth noting, tend to cost a great deal more.
‘The quality of these pillows and bed rests is absolutely wonderful. I had been looking for a headboard, but the ones I liked were way too expensive,’ one reviewer observes. ‘I saw this and felt it would be a good substitution, and I feel like I made the right choice.’
And if whimsy does, eventually, give way to something calmer come spring and summer? At under $200, the commitment is fairly low-stakes. Move it to an entryway bench, a sofa, or a guest bedroom. Let it live another life.
At its core, this is a return to fun – an ode to enchantment in spite of everything. And if it happens to inspire you to rejoin a book club, or fall back in love with your bedroom, all the better.
Shop Whimsical Bedding to Complete the Look
The whimsical decor trend can edge toward twee if you let it, but keeping it on the right side is all about styling. Here’s what I’d buy to make your pillow feel firmly 2026.
Topping the list of mood-boosting patterns this season are thick, cabana-style stripes that conjure vacation. Go too wide, and it looks like a circus; too narrow, and you’re slightly too sartorial. Piglet in Bed nails the balance in its best-selling linen–cotton blend, which is prewashed for softness.
The natural instinct would be to pair the ruffled headboard pillow with more ruffles. Lace, perhaps. Both moves risk tipping the look into being too pretty. Scallops are the more modern compromise, especially when finished with contrast piping like this bed sheet set from Melange Home. The hit of blue is delightfully unexpected, peeking out from beneath the duvet.
This cushion cover by Bed Threads grounds the bedscape in rich cacao, but the real whimsy lives in the barely-there blue piping. It echoes the blue-piped sheets, though that avant-garde brown-and-blue combo is more than enchanting in its own right.
As we learned from the WOWMAX pillow that started it all, a great bed doesn't require a four-figure headboard. Turns out, one well-designed cushion can supply all of the style, serotonin, and support in one fell swoop.
