Bed In Front of Window
How is that for a fancy blog post title? ”Bed in Front of Window” Really went all out with that one.
We don’t move into our new home until June as the seller is renting it back from us while she gets her new place in order. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t think about decorating.
I always neglect the master bedroom and work on it last so I figure why not switch things around and start with that.
I absolutely love all of the natural light that our new master bedroom gets. It has three great windows and two of which look out onto our garden. BTW, I can’t believe I get to type words like “master bedroom” and “garden” and biggest of all – “ours”!
Here is the real estate photo of the bedroom as we purchased it -
One of the tricky things with the bedroom is that the bed sits right underneath the window. Since I am a decorator, I don’t believe a bed is truly finished until it has some sort of headboard. But, our current headboard situation is very high and would really cut into the window. As a reminder, here is our current bedroom and headboard (we have ten foot ceilings currently)…
When I look at the two bedroom images back to back, all I can really see is the difference of square footage. We get a bedroom that fit actual bedside tables, not garden stools!! Anyway, moving past my excitement. Here are some solutions for when working with a window directly behind your bed…
Really feature out the window with drapes and a valance; this can also make the window appear larger. In this case, we would do a headboard that goes slightly above the start of the window.
This example by Katie Ridder would be a slightly more elaborate version than a traditional cornice box (as the prior image was). The window becomes a lovely feature in a sort of mini jewel box. Imagine this version in manly colors – we’ll spare the pink for Graham’s sake. That headboard reminds me of the one we currently have – wouldn’t it be fab recovered in a print?
While I’m not a fan of accent walls, this could work out in our bedroom. We could forgo a headboard and paint out or wallpaper the one wall where the bed is, thereby giving the illusion that the entire wall acts as a headboard of sorts.
A more paired down approach would be to go with a bamboo shade, as seen by the bedroom by Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects. I like the simplicity of it and this would also allow for a headboard that comes about halfway up the window.
Similar to the bamboo shades would be to do roman shades and again you can bring that headboard up onto the window.
The final option would be to cover up the window with a screen as Jenny Komenda did in the above example. This is my least favorite option though as I like all the natural light pouring in. Plus, lets face it, we have many, many moons before we will ever sleep in again.
Way back in 2011, when I used to do staging for Ken Fulk, I faced this dilemma of a bed that needed to go in front of a window. Because it was for staging, we left the windows bare and then I chose the lowest headboard possible to bring the light in…
