Decorating Bedrooms
Emphasis on the Bed

The bed is a basic and essential element when decorating bedrooms, and the first place to begin when formulating your room's design.

The eye is generally always drawn to the bed, so the bed's silhouette sets the tone, dictating the personality and character of the room.

The scale of the bed affects the perception of size in the space because it adds vertical and horizontal dimensions to the room, and the color and finish on the bed you choose also affects the way the room is perceived.

The darker the finish in a lighter room it will stand out more and absorb the space.

Decorating bedrooms with many styles of beds

A four-poster bed gives a sculptural elegance to large spaces where you can appreciate the scale and lines of the frame and looks best without a skirt. The posts draw your eye toward the ceiling, so consider treating the ceiling in a different manner, like a contrast color, or a faux finish.

Canopy

The canopy bed is romantic and creates a room within a room. It works best in a larger room making the room more cozy and comfortable.

The bed can be left unadorned or softened with draped fabric. The more heavily draped the bed, the more it dominates the room and harder to provide proper lighting if you happen to read in bed.

Cornice and Corona

Decorating bedrooms using a cornice and corona creates an architectural surround offering the dramatic flair and romance of a canopy.

It is a visually impressive feature in the room but is still suitable for smaller rooms because it doesn't take up as much space as a canopy. Choose fabric that drapes well for a look that is soft and graceful.

Sleigh Bed

The sleigh bed is a classic shape that softens with curves. This bed is versatile because it can float in a space, or turn into a daybed. The same as the four poster beds, this bed works best without a skirt so you can appreciate the graceful curves of the frame.

It can appear bulky in a small room though because of the unusually high footboard, and if you are tall the footboard can be confining.

Settee

The settee bed is a headboard with arms that looks like an opened sofa bed (when the mattress is pulled out) An antique settee can create this type of bed and works well in a guest room decorated in the French country style.

The look is cozy, but the arms can feel confining, because they can be close to your face when sleeping. The arms can also block easy access to night stands, so consider skirted tables large enough to be out of the arm's range. Wall mounted lamps for lighting works nicely.

Upholstered

An upholstered headboard (and the footboard if you want one) is really flexible to work with a lot of different styles of furniture and room themes. They add another element of texture and soften the room.

They can be designed customly or design one yourself and have an upholsterer build one for relatively little expense, or if you are ambitious you can make your own and recover when you want a change.

One drawback would be that they could snag and show claw marks, (of furry members of the family;) Also, it would require a little more maintenance to keep clean.

Iron and Brass

It allows light to come through so it can be used in front of a window if the room dictates that is where the bed needs to go.

Depending on the rest of the room the look can be austere or delicate.

The metal can be cold to the touch and is not conducive to watching tv or reading in bed. If that is something important to you get big square back pillows to prop yourself up with.

Platform

Decorating bedrooms that are small can benefit from the platform bed and they are also well suited for rooms with low ceilings.

A platform bed adds a minimal look that is clean and streamlined, becomes part of the architecture and doesn't overpower the space. In fact they can even provide hidden storage to tuck extra pillows and bedding in.

No Headboard

Not using a headboard is definitely affordable and versatile, but may not feel permanent. The bed will need fine linens to make it special allowing the pillows to function as the headboard.

Reading in bed without the use of a headboard can be a challenge and the bed may move if the frame is on wheels.

You can visually create a headboard by placing the bed between two windows, and having the windows serve as a frame to the bed.

Or, align the bed with the night stands and do a gallery wall above.

Architectural items such as gates, doors, folding screens and stain glass are alternatives for headboards.

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