I voted for without the footboard. It looks great with it though, I'm just not a footboard person. I've stubbed my toe on too many of them.

We have been searching for a new bedroom furniture for over a year and the bed is almost always the problem for us. We just want a headboard and about everything out there right now is a sleighbed. On top of that we have an extremely heavy mattress that we had special made with memory foam and we can't use siderails and slats with it, we must use the heavy steel frame that came with it. I wish we could find a solid wood headboard we liked. Maybe some day.