Making the most of your bedroom

Making the Most of Your Bedroom

Learn how Gabby created her stylish canopy bed and how you can style your bedroom to reflect your personal style.

Originally, this room was part of my living room, but a wall was built between the two rooms to create my one-bedroom flat. At first, the headboard was to the window running into the room, so I ended up with a strange sliver of the floor on one side of the bed.

The room is 2 metres wide, which is exactly the length of a double mattress. It has two matching headboards made by The Dormy House out of calico fabric that does not extend as far as the bed.

Creating a Custom Bed

The room is 2 metres wide, which is exactly the length of a double mattress. It has two matching headboards made by The Dormy House out of calico fabric that does not extend as far as the bed.

Creating the Fabric Canopy

I wanted a pretty fabric cushion between myself and the wall. For that I needed a really good textile vehicle. The canopy is really just one long piece of fabric with two channels on either end. I've got a couple of Jim Lawrence rods that are attached to brackets and then mounted into the tops of the walls, and then the long piece of fabric that you can see goes up, across, and back down.

The length of the fabric between the channels is slightly greater than the length of the bed, resulting in the swoop. From poll to poll, the distance is probably only 220cm. It frames the window so nicely, and the fabric hangs almost like curtains. You need quite a lot of fabric for it, which is why it's better to use more affordable options. You can buy amazing block prints on Etsy.

Making the Most of a Bed in Any Room

This method would still work well in a wider room; even if it was 3 metres wide, you could just add some storage at either end. I've seen some really good examples of people building pigeonholes or bookshelves to fill the space and then fitting the bed on the inside.

I love textiles, so my bed was very much a vehicle for bringing all these different patterns together, and my bedside lamp is an extension of that.

I made the headboard covers loose so that they could be attached to the back with Velcro and removed to be washed or replaced. Making a headboard slipcover is very simple, and you don't need much fabric. It's a great way to incorporate a favourite fabric into your home, and I'm sure you'll love it even more if you see it on your headboard every day.

Think About Both Ends of the Bed

It's very important to just keep thinking about the whole room. People put a lot of effort into the space above the headboard looking lovely, but neglect the other end. Think about the whole 360 degrees of the room.

Changing the Look with Different Fabrics

I love how simple it is to change the fabric on the canopy and headboard. I imagine that if I changed the headboard to a really broad red-and-white stripe and had a solid dark blue or dark green fabric for the canopy, it would be easy to completely change the look, and it wouldn't take much energy to do so.

Discover More

House & Garden has a great article on designs for canopy beds that you can read here.

Design Notes - Gabby's Bedroom

Headboards and footboards from The Dormy House.

The canopy fabric is 'Genevieve' in Madder Red by Les Indiennes.

'Janna' by Namay Samay covers the headboard loosely.

Both lampshades and cushions are by Susan Deliss.

The linen half-curtain is made of a vintage tablecloth.

The walls are painted in Farrow & Ball's 'Old White'.

I've got a couple of rods from Jim Lawrence that are attached to brackets and then mounted into the tops of the walls. I've sown in pockets or channels into the fabric that the rod goes through.

The length of the material between the two pockets is slightly longer than the length of the bed, creating the swoop.