How to Create a Beautiful Bed

As part of this series sponsored by Classic Casual Home and Rough Luxe Lifestyle, I am happy to contribute to the topic of "How to Create a Beautiful Bed". This is a fun topic, since my favorite thing is crawling into bed at night with crisp clean sheets.  First of all, there is no perfect bed, but you certainly can make any bed beautiful.  Your bed and comfort are solely your at personal discretion, directed by your taste and budget.  Get the best you can afford, and I guarantee as you get better linens, your taste will demand an even better set the next time your purchase them.  Spoil yourself!  Afterall, we spend 25 years of our life sleeping*. 

At Powell Brower Interiors we recommend keeping the bed and bed linens simple, crisp and minimal-most often white.  Let a few spectacular accent pillows and a throw be just enough accent to compliment the rest of the room.

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 In creating a beautiful bed, first, lets talk about the bed as a piece of furniture. 

 Do you want a functional headboard, such as fully padded if you sit up and read in bed, or do you want it to have wings so as to embrace you and hold you in when sitting up? [Perhaps you don't read in bed and you want a low headboard or one made of wood, rush, or other hard material.]  How high do you want your headboard? These are fairly personal requisites.  My wishes about a headboard have changed over the years from wood and basic to more padded and luxurious.  How about you?

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Can we mention that when we designed this master bedroom pictured above, with a fully upholstered bed for a client, both Bethany and I have put that high on our list of priorities.  I don't know about you, but I am tired of banging my chin on wood, or metal edges of a bed; or having it move away from the wall.  I want padding, a quality fabric, great craftsmanship and a fully upholstered headboard and bed frame.

Secondly, decide on your linens.

Your bed linens are also personal preference.  We love soft, high quality cotton [Eqyptian, organic] and  high thread count (400+) sheets with layers of soft cotton blankets, soft cotton matelasse coverlets, and thick, fluffy comforters. The quality of your linens is price directed, whether you get Leontine, or Matouk, Yves DeLorme, or some off of Overstock, get the best you can afford.  If you can't afford the entire set, get high end pillow cases and they'll make you  feel like a million bucks.

          Thirdly,                     

 I prefer lofty, fluffy layers, so I often add a thin comforter over my flat sheet and fold it down over the coverlet for an extra luxurious layer.

Fourthly, ask yourself about the tolerance level of the throw pillow, bed pillow and sham situation.

 Do you like many sleep pillows or a few? Do you like shams, Euro, king or standard?  [In my opinion, shams are for looks and not for using as a sleep pillow, as my family likes to do.]  We prefer layering pillows back to front: bed pillows, Euro or standard sham, then throw pillows and bolster.

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We have often used an heirloom scarf made into a lumbar pillow, as a unique accent pillow.

                                    

A colorfully dressed bed or white?  Currently we love white bedding, a white duvet cover and shams, with minimal color trim and then a brilliant lumbar pillow, like this...

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What keeps a white dressed bed from being boring?  Texture, both physical and visual, accent color and form.  A bolster, or a surprise shape like a round pillow, keep simple from being bland.

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Beds and bedding are like choosing art- what one person feels comfortable with may not serve the next person well.  You could always have a bed like this:

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Sleep well my friends and check out these lovely blogs and their take on creating a beautiful bed!

     After Orange County

    Classic Casual Home

       Kim Macumber Interiors 

   Maison Décor

      Powell Brower At Home

     Rough Luxe Lifestyle

  Shine Your Light

     Vintage Contessa