Have more fun with your art and a little less entertainment
Artwork always makes for a great conversation piece in a space. When it comes to the bedroom, it really depends on your personal preferences. Shannon leans more fun and cheeky, so she has a Snoopy print by Hassan Rahim mounted in her bedroom. “Nothing too big or distracting,” she insists before airing her grievances about large portraits. “That’s something I’m not into, but I think small personal pieces can really finish off all the other details and add additional warmth and personality.”
While not exactly art but certainly on the entertainment side, Sebastian hates seeing TVs on the walls of a bedroom, so he’ll either bring in a TV stand or cabinet to conceal it. “Also, you can use projectors, which I think are a great way to have entertainment. You can move it from your bedroom to your living room,” he adds. “We all watch TV. There’s so much good TV. I hate people who are like, ‘I don't watch TV.’ Watching TV on your computer is also not that good for your eyes.”
Big bedside tables and built-in storage
No offense, but there’s nothing less attractive than a table that can’t even do what it was designed for. Shannon is ready to preach the gospel of functional side tables because if you can’t put anything on or in them then what’s the point? To avoid a total nightstand nightmare, Sebastian also advises making sure that your side tables measure at least the same height as your mattress or an inch or two higher. Anything that will make the proportions of your bedroom feel correct is probably worth doing.
“I always think about side tables and the bed as the foundation [of a bedroom],” Shannon says. “I want to have more built-in storage in my bed, whether that’s a side table or a place for books—me and my husband always have a glass of water on each side of our bed. It’s so important to us. Stuff like that or my iPad to charge, it’s little things that I need.”
Consider a canopy bed with a view
Do you love setting boundaries? If your answer is an enthusiastic yes then a canopy bed sounds like the right choice for you! For me, canopy beds are peak luxury. (Not quiet or loud, just the right vibe.) I was reminded of how whimsical they are when I spent a weekend at the Ulysses in Baltimore in 2022 and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since then. Adwoa Aboah also makes a great case for the canopy bed in the primary bedroom of her four-story townhouse in London. Why not indulge in an extra layer of privacy?
Shannon recently stayed overnight at a hotel and the experience of sleeping in a canopy bed—and not feeling claustrophobic inside of it—completely shifted her perspective. “It opened my eyes to it as a concept in that it did feel cozier than just not having something above you,” she explains. “It was great for light control because it is a little bit darker in there once that’s above you. It was something I’d never considered in the past, never really on my radar.”
Sebastian references Rose Uniacke’s suspension bed canopy as an example of alternative options for people that want the look without having to buy the bed. “There’s definitely a romantic element about it,” Shannon adds while noting that a canopy provides “another excuse to get colour and texture into your space” as well. “There’s something softer about it.”
Bolder colours in smaller doses
Ellen proposes an important question: “You spend so much time in bed, why go with something boring?” You can’t go wrong with the colour palette of your choosing, but what if you dared to make a statement? “I think it’s important to have a little levity in all parts of the home, and what better way to wake up than surrounded by something that brings you joy? To me, bedding is all about the a.m. and starting the day off right,” she says. “Bold colour in the bedroom isn’t for everyone, but it certainly is for me!”
Maybe you’re not ready for full-on “colour drenching,” but there are methods to easing into a new hue. Kat prefers neutrals for her bedroom, so she has a rotation of colourful coverlets from Nickey Kehoe on hand whenever she feels the urge to switch things up. “That’s a simple thing to be able to change up in a room without redesigning the space,” she adds. If you’re hesitant about introducing a new colour to your bedroom, she recommends testing it out with a throw blanket in that shade.
Although Shannon leans toward more muted and warm tones for her own bedroom, she appreciates an accent wall as seen in many of the hotel rooms at Yowie. “My favorite accent wall that we have in this space is a terra-cotta colour that’s romantic and soft,” she says. “I was looking at some stuff yesterday for a project that had burgundy and plum tones, and that feels really luxurious to me in a bedroom.”
Sebastian acknowledges that everyone has a different profile, so he advises staying away from colours that feel too shocking for a bedroom in favor of calmer tones that are commonly seen in nature. “For example, I love the colour red,” he explains. “But when I see red, it pumps me up. My bedroom right now is this dark, dark green. It’s very specific to the person.”
A bed nook is a good look
Who needs a fainting couch or a daybed when you can just build a bed nook? Consider this my official petition to bring this snooze zone back in full force.
“People need to have fun,” Sebastian says. “Everyone lives differently and everyone sleeps differently. Some people don’t sleep at all, some people sleep too much, some people read in bed, some people don’t even have sex in bed—some people have sex on their sofas. People need to design according to how they use their bedroom and not what they’re seeing constantly out there.”
This story originally appeared on Architectural Digest US
