A headboard in a let room is a working surface. Guests lean on it with sun cream on their shoulders and wet hair, and housekeeping has minutes to make the room ready. In Calangute that argues for leatherette or a tight performance weave that wipes clean, in a simple panelled shape with no buttons to work loose. Keeping to one design across all rooms means a damaged board can be re-covered without the room looking odd. Salt and humidity matter too: seal the backing board on both faces, and leave a little air behind a board on a sea-facing wall. A full-width board also saves the wall from scuffs.
- Guest-house bedrooms: a flat panelled headboard in mid-tone leatherette, fixed to the wall and made wider than the bed.
- Holiday flats with twin beds: two matching boards that can sit together or apart as the beds are rearranged for each booking.
- Family bedrooms in the lanes: a channelled fabric headboard in a synthetic weave, held slightly off the outer wall.
Calangute is the largest and busiest beach town in North Goa. From the church at the top of the village a road runs down to the beach through shops, hotels and restaurants, and the lanes on either side are filled with guest houses, holiday apartments and family homes.
A large share of property in Calangute earns its living from visitors: hotels of every size, guest houses, and flats let by the night or the month. Furnishing is bought in quantity and replaced often, so it must be hard-wearing and easy to match later.
The whole town is within reach of sea air. Salt, humidity and sand are constant, and the main roads are noisy and dusty in season.