When you start out deciding what to do with a bedroom, you should spend some time sourcing ideas in magazines and from films. This will give you an idea of different styles and periods that you can emulate or mix and match design features.
Sultry movie sirens Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy languished in to-die-for deco bedrooms. A big feature of beds from this 20s through 40s period, is the upholstered bed head, often with button detailing. This is a very opulent look. If the bed didn't have an upholstered bed head it had one in beautifully shaped veneer wood. Fabrics were satiny and there was usually an ottoman at the end of the bed. Design was a balance between geometric purity and elaborate detail. Dressers often had beveled circular or fan-shaped mirrors, and free-standing wardrobes were de rigueur.
If you taste runs towards the ornate, the feminine, you might look to Marie Antoinette. Why not? Her boudoir at the Versailles Palace is the ultimate in late 18th-century Rococo chic. You may not be able to match the flamboyant narcissism of the huge gilt mirrors and the floral details on fabrics, timber and wallpaper but you can create the same feel with chintz, chandeliers and a canopied bed. Any bed can be canopied with a swathe of fabric. Matching fabrics is important in this style, including using the same or similar fabrics for curtains, cushions and sofa. Modern Provincial beds, dressers and wardrobes will do well here if you employ the right linens and fabrics.
With Colonial furniture beds are often poster or sleigh style but the key element here is the wood itself, polished but glowing in its natural grain. Turned legs were all the rage in every piece of furniture. A tallboy, rug and crotchet or patchwork quilt will really pull this look together. Lovely pictorial inspiration here is George Washington's Mount Vernon home or even his New York home. The dates are a bit late for Colonial but they have the restrained elegance of the period with spare use of simple dressers and benches or chests.
Whitewashed or plain pine furniture is perfect if you want to achieve a beach style. Complementary dresser, wardrobe and lots of white and blue in bed linens and décor items based on coral, shell and sea will bring that seaside feeling to life. Diane Keaton's all-white bedroom in ‘Something's Gotta Give' has to be one of the most beautiful examples of seaside holiday style.
If I had to choose a model for modern Spartan with comfort, it would be the house in the movie ‘Twilight'. Everything is low and sleek, everything is carefully chosen for economy of purpose and aesthetic. A brooding Robert Patterson chooses gun-metal grey walls, dark wood dresser and side table with the most gorgeous simple but expansive bed. Furnishings are to a minimum; all perfection.
So peruse some mags and pay attention to films, you'll start to accumulate some ideas about what you want and want you don't want. Then see what's out there and use a dash of imagination, a splash of creativity to adapt available furniture to fit the style and mood of your dream bedroom. It's your most sacred sanctuary after all.
Sultry movie sirens Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy languished in to-die-for deco bedrooms. A big feature of beds from this 20s through 40s period, is the upholstered bed head, often with button detailing. This is a very opulent look. If the bed didn't have an upholstered bed head it had one in beautifully shaped veneer wood. Fabrics were satiny and there was usually an ottoman at the end of the bed. Design was a balance between geometric purity and elaborate detail. Dressers often had beveled circular or fan-shaped mirrors, and free-standing wardrobes were de rigueur.
If you taste runs towards the ornate, the feminine, you might look to Marie Antoinette. Why not? Her boudoir at the Versailles Palace is the ultimate in late 18th-century Rococo chic. You may not be able to match the flamboyant narcissism of the huge gilt mirrors and the floral details on fabrics, timber and wallpaper but you can create the same feel with chintz, chandeliers and a canopied bed. Any bed can be canopied with a swathe of fabric. Matching fabrics is important in this style, including using the same or similar fabrics for curtains, cushions and sofa. Modern Provincial beds, dressers and wardrobes will do well here if you employ the right linens and fabrics.
With Colonial furniture beds are often poster or sleigh style but the key element here is the wood itself, polished but glowing in its natural grain. Turned legs were all the rage in every piece of furniture. A tallboy, rug and crotchet or patchwork quilt will really pull this look together. Lovely pictorial inspiration here is George Washington's Mount Vernon home or even his New York home. The dates are a bit late for Colonial but they have the restrained elegance of the period with spare use of simple dressers and benches or chests.
Whitewashed or plain pine furniture is perfect if you want to achieve a beach style. Complementary dresser, wardrobe and lots of white and blue in bed linens and décor items based on coral, shell and sea will bring that seaside feeling to life. Diane Keaton's all-white bedroom in ‘Something's Gotta Give' has to be one of the most beautiful examples of seaside holiday style.
If I had to choose a model for modern Spartan with comfort, it would be the house in the movie ‘Twilight'. Everything is low and sleek, everything is carefully chosen for economy of purpose and aesthetic. A brooding Robert Patterson chooses gun-metal grey walls, dark wood dresser and side table with the most gorgeous simple but expansive bed. Furnishings are to a minimum; all perfection.
So peruse some mags and pay attention to films, you'll start to accumulate some ideas about what you want and want you don't want. Then see what's out there and use a dash of imagination, a splash of creativity to adapt available furniture to fit the style and mood of your dream bedroom. It's your most sacred sanctuary after all.