Canopy Dreams

I must have been royalty in a past life. I absolutely swoon at any bed with something swagged, hung or swathed with fabric overhead, leading me to believe I spent a good deal of time luxuriating in draped canopy beds dripping with rich silks and gauzy cottons. Perhaps I was an Indian Princess or maybe one of the Hapsburgs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Present day has me eying these beautiful canopy beds with much admiration. Easily dressed up or down, and in a wide range of styles, they are the perfect bedroom addition to make anybody feel royal.

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Love the delicacy of this beauty from Oly Studio. It's so light and airy, yet has a glamorous finish and would look fab with super crisp, white linen panels hung all around. I can see this in a room painted turquoise blue.

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I'm super intrigued with this bed from Ironies. Love the brushed silver finish. Actually love this whole room, but don't think I could live in there very long without wanting some color somewhere. I think the bed makes such a strong statement, I would keep the canopy really simple. One single piece of super sheer white gauze draped up, over the top and down the other side at the headboard. Super easy and call it a day!

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I have long wanted this bed from Ikea. Someday I will have it! I chose this one simply because it's priced in my comfort zone and (sorta) realistically attainable. Also, it's solid wood and I can paint it! And you know I would, too! I can also see turning this into an art project....gluing little mosaic mirrors all over it to match my disco ball, or painting ever-trendy chevron stripes on the posts. Hey, Nate Berkus didn't call me the "Glamazon" for nothin'!

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Of course who doesn't love Anthropologie's Italian Campaign Bed? I adore the bare skeleton of this and would probably leave it un-adorned. I have seen this bed outfitted with yards and yards of fabric with ruffles and frills galore and it looks very romantic and pretty that way, but definitely not me. I think the shape of the canopy speaks for itself and should be left bare.

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Rounding out the selection leads us to this substantial wood platform bed from MASHstudios. I.Love.This.Bed! I really like low-slung furniture and this is a gorgeous example of form and function. You could dress this bed just about any old way and it would always look good!

These days, you don't have to be royalty to enjoy a canopy bed, but isn't it fun to imagine yourself in a faraway land, on a beautiful bed draped with rich fabrics and drifting off to sleep under canopy dreams.....

Sleep tight,

A picture is worth....

As most of you already know, I was recently on the Nate Berkus Show, talking about low cost, high style design.  I got selected for the show by clicking on the "be on the show" link on the Nate Berkus website.  I had submitted several photos of  my home, but my bedroom was the one they chose to focus on.

This is the photo I submitted of the bedroom..

 Unbeknownst to me, they would need several additional photos of the room and video footage of some elements in the room.  Yeah, but there was a small problem.....between the time the photo was taken, and the time it was submitted and chosen, the room had changed a few times!  What you can't see in the photo above is that I was in the process of changing the colors of the horizontal stripes, and had only gotten halfway through. They were green and dark blue, I was changing them to light blue and dark blue.  The problem was, the producers wanted a different angle of the room, and that different angle would show a halfway finished paint job!

 

Luckily, I had stopped in a corner, but if you look closely, you can see some of the light blue paint creeping onto the green just to the right of the mercury glass lamp.  I never said anything to the producers; Maybe they noticed, maybe they didn't or maybe they thought it was supposed to be that way!  One of Nate's comments on the show was that he loved the use of color in the room, and this was the photo that made it on national TV, so I guess it all worked out! Another thing the pictures can't reveal and thankfully so, is smell.  The day I got the call and was asked to provide more photos, I had had my duvet cover, pillowcases, AND canopy in the laundry basket for several days.  My daughter had thrown a wet towel on top of the pile and there it sat....mildewing!!  But when Jess, a producer from the show called and said they needed pictures yesterday, what could I do?!  I didn't have time to run them through a wash cycle, so I just fished them out, wet and smelly, made the bed, grimaced and took those photos!  After taping the show, the producers had me send even MORE pictures, so I scrambled to finish the paint job and sent off what I thought was a great shot of the room.  They didn't end up using the "new" pix, but like I said, I think it all worked out.

All finished!

I really had a fun experience on the show, but the experience in getting there was equally as memorable, if not more so in it's comedy! Here are some additional shots that you didn't get to see , but they are just as important to get the feel of the room as a whole.

starlight, starbright......

Hope you enjoyed the pix, thanks for visiting, come back soon!