Ask the Audience: Master Bed In Front of Window

I am slowly, yet frantically, designing the house. It needs to be complete by the beginning of May for a big ol’ feature, and while that seems far away – in order to make sure that it’s actually well designed and not just a bunch of furniture living together, I need to make some serious decisions very quickly. Today we are talking about the bed in our bedroom.  Most of what is already in the room came from the other house and is staying – the leather nightstands are perfect, I love those lamps, that rug is a dream (I secretly want the look of an antique tabriz in here, but that rug is just too amazing to step onto in the morning to give up) and the bedding is great, but might be switched out/added to. The wall color is Ammonite by Farrow and Ball and it’s just amazing – so warm, neutral and soft. We’ve got a great start and it’s a totally pleasant room to be in as-is. We have temporary $5 blackout curtains over our headboard windows (see below) for now, but the other ones are blank. I’m not sure why we have any curtains in there because those children wake us up before the sun is up anyway, but some day, SOME DAY we’ll be psyched that we have black out shades because they’ll be sleeping in til’ 8:30am (fingers crossed).

In the picture below you can see that the bed is just below the sill, and that there is actually 12″ of sill back there.

We have three major things to add – window treatments (we ordered custom shades via Calico Corners out of a super pretty Swedish gray washed linen, lined in blackout), the dresser (we are having this one painted caldwell green) and today’s biggest quandary – THE BED.

Now there are only three ways to orient the room/bed but this one makes the room feel the biggest and allows for the largest dresser (opposite the bed). You don’t wake up to the view, but we have a serious storage situation in this house so this is the best layout to maximize the storage without making the room feel crowded and tiny. Instead of that dresser we are getting this one that is 6′ long and not quite as deep but has way more storage.

We’ll be selling that beautiful dresser when we get our new one, so email hello@emilyhendersondesign.com if you are interested in purchasing it. It will be $800, it’s antique English pine, in perfect condition and it’s very, very special – just not the right shape for the room.

Right now Brian is working in here as his office space has flooded and is a total mud pit (thanks to our new Pacific Northwest climate in LA – so much rain!!!).

So the new dresser will span all the way across (yay!!) but be lower. I’ve been obsessed with this company for a few months now so I’m psyched to get this dresser (in a custom dark matte greeny-blue).

Back to the quandary at hand: Putting a bed in front of a window is tricky. We don’t want to block too much of the light, but we do want something to lean against. I’ve done it twice.

It can work, as you can see.

So we mocked up some options for me/you:

Option A: a curved headboard in a patterned fabric. I fell in love with this fabric although I’m unsure that it will work on something curved because it is technically a stripe – albeit a shaky one. And i’m terrified because it might be like $200 a yard (I’m hoping wholesale is much cheaper).

We all loved the idea of the curve because it breaks up all the lines and doesn’t feel quite as obtrusive in front of a window. It’s softer and quieter. But once it was rendered I was less convinced.

We also did it in a navy blue so you could see how it changes if it’s a solid, darker color:

It does feel much better but that could be because the navy blue throw on the bed kinda overpowered the patterned fabric, whereas the navy headboard kept it feeling more balanced. So if we take off that throw, will it feel more balanced?

It does help. Sure, the bed looks boring, but it works better. We would custom make it to make sure that the proportions are exactly what we want since there wasn’t really anything on the market, but here are some good ready made options:

1. Ames Bed | 2. Georgio Upholstered Platform Bed | 3. Brookings Upholstered Bed | 4. Gem Cut Bed

Now, maybe the curve is just weird and we should stick to something more classic. Part of me REALLY wants something tufted, but a low tufted bed seems weird. So a good option is doing a simple low straight headboard in that fabric:

I like it. It doesn’t feel quite right but I think that is because the scale of the fabric is off and it’s a rendering. I worry that that lightness of the fabric should feel more substantial, so we tweaked it to be a solid:

It’s good, right? But maybe boring? Is that too much bed in front of the window? It’s only about 6″ high off the window sill. So hard! There are a decent amount of low upholstered headboards out there (we particularly like #4):

1. Cobble Hill Sonoma Bed | 2. Wyatt Bed | 3. Welles Upholstered Platform Bed | 4. Broderick Shelter Bed | 5. Mod Upholstered Platform Bed | 6. New Standard Bed

But wait, meanwhile I’ve fallen in love with all things windsor (I’m not alone apparently) and am extremely tempted by this:

It definitely holds the wall better and lets more light through/feels airier. I could do a big bolster of the fabric I love across the front of the bed and still get that pretty pattern in there. Now the only bummer with this is that this bed is $5k (handmade in LA, worth every penny, but it is many, many pennies). Rejuvenation just came out with one that I love and is less than 1/2 the price.

So the next option is more affordable but still such a beautiful wood windsor bed:

OOOOOOOHHHHH, I like that. I love the first one, too, but the price difference is huge. here are some others that we were thinking about:

1. Jarvis Bed with Leather Pad | 2. Edeline Mid-Century Modern Slatted Bed | 3. Perkins Spindle Bed | 4. Companions Bed | 5. Windsor Bed | 6. Culla Spindle Bed

There of course are some iron options but if we were going to lose the comfort of an upholstered headboard then we would both opt for wood over metal.

So help, folks. I’m leaning towards windsor, but I LOVE an upholstered headboard. I feel like I know what you guys will say, but please weigh in. And remember, the bedding is still totally up in the air and will change to be amazing, but this is way more about the headboard. Or if you have any other suggestions that I haven’t thought of already let me know below in the comments when you weigh in on which setup you like the best.