I used to build furniture for a number of years. One of the companies I sold my pieces to was a retailer in New Orleans. Besides antiques they also provided custom pieces typically made from salvage woods and materials. One of their signature pieces was a headboard made from old salvage cypress doors. The best door for this was a five panel door with the panels oriented horizontally (these were plentiful a hundred years ago in NO). So when the door was turned on its side to make the headboard the panels were oriented vertically. They would add a cornice to the door (headboard) and two legs. Rails were added with bed hardware and voila; a really neat headboard. I said all that to say that Sunset.com has a pretty cool article on making custom headboards. You can get your headboard inspiration here: Sunset Headboards
Wood Corbels