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I don't know about the quality, but I would never buy an upholstered bed. Too much potential for the upholstery to get dirty.

I've wanted a white upholstered bed forever. Something along these lines:

http://www.cb2.com/family.aspx?c=400&f=3873

Or something like this:

http://www.eurway.com/beds.lasso?itemid=4196&categorykey=89&subcategorykey=7&page=1&result=&-session=eo_user:4B3339A40533c250A6OQS3717044

But like cokieDC, I too worry about dirtiness / ease of cleaning.

i dont know about the quality of these, but I have heard good things from Ballard Designs. THere are all sorts of customizable options, and they are affordable!
http://www.ballarddesigns.com/Furniture/Headboards/c/1481?path=1%2C2%2C1443%2C1481

I am actually buying a less expensive headboard and reupholstering it myself- believe it or not, I am getting it from Home Depot! I found a fabric that I wanted to use, a gorg apple green velvet. Agreed on the dirtiness- I would go darker.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?keyword=headboard&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I've had experience with 2 upholstered beds. No problems with keeping it clean. I occasionally use a lint brush or a small vacuum attachment on it.

The EQ3 Queen Upholstered Bed is inexpensive and great! Looks much better in person than in the pics. You can customize the fabric and legs.
http://eq3.com/cat-eq3/process/locale/en_US/currency/en_US/30018-49.html

I would also recommend the DWR upholstered beds. The DWR Luxux Bed is a little lower and sleeker than EQ3 (but a lot more $$). Unfortunately, I don't see it on their site anymore. But it is basically the Loja Bed in fabric instead of leather.
http://www.dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=7722

I highly recommend both of these. When I was looking for upholstered beds, these were the only ones I found that had the 2 features I was looking for: a footboard and metal legs. Most of the beds had no footboard and wooden legs.

We've had the Pottery Barn "Evan" bed for over a year now and haven't had a problem keeping it clean. We love it. When I was shopping, I found the quality of the bed to be much better than West Elm's upholstered bed.

I am a clean freak, but wanted an upholstered headboard. My solution was to get the slipcovered bed from Pottery Barn. It's very clean and simple with a natural linen slipcover! I love it!

Thanks for the feedback!

I don't want white upholstery -- I'm thinking a linen/oatmeal color, and as I'm thinking about it, I don't imagine it would harder to keep clean than any other upholstered item in my house. In fact, I expect that the cats leave more hair on the couch than they will ever leave on my headboard. :-)

Now I just have to decide *which* bed or headboard to buy.