canopy beds

Curtains and a Canopy for a Double Digits Girl

There is nothing like a big birthday and a move to spark a bedroom re-do. Both of my girls were due for a change, moving from their tiny closet sized bedrooms in Tokyo to their much more expansive bedrooms in Doha. The elder had a plan and a Pinterest board from the beginning. But the younger wasn’t sure of what she wanted when we first moved in. Personally I had a plan in my mind for a full size bed using this wedding noren as part of the bed hangings. Once settled, she had other ideas, mainly a desire to keep as much floor space as possible for play area, so a single bed against the wall made more sense. She quickly commandeered the French iron campaign bed and the painted French armoire from her sister’s room. She wanted to keep her Claire Murray Alphabet Garden hooked rugs (which have since become collectors items I am given to understand) because they are soft and provide interesting backdrops for imaginary play – and even nixed the idea of a Madeline Weinrib dhurrie. Can’t argue with the recycling or the continuing interest in play!

The bare room had a lot of promise, including this very sunny east facing window. All varieties of small birds come and perch along the windowsill to my daughter’s great joy. The campaign bed fit perfectly underneath it, leaving lots of play space as requested. But my daughter felt something special was needed, some pretty girly centerpiece to make the room special. I suggested bed hangings and some kind of fitted valance/canopy as the solution and she was hooked.

We went straight to images of Katie Ridder‘s whimsical bed hanging designs (and frankly, you know you are in trouble when your nine, soon to be ten-year old tells you she has a favorite designer). Here in Katie’s own daughter’s room she has installed the basic combination I am planning on – valance type canopy, roman shade for light control and ornamental bed curtains. It looks like there may be real curtains as well in the pink fabric although I am not planning to make those.

We knew for sure we wanted to pair two different fabrics, a solid and a pattern, just like all these examples.

This bedroom designed by Katie has to be one of the most pinned girls rooms ever and continues to be a favorite of mine. It demonstrates how successful this kind of arrangement can be with a daybed. I also love the idea of a small light fixture tucked into the canopy and you can just see the pierced brass lamp peeking out here. Many of these brass globes with scrolling arabesque pattern or karakusa were made in Japan and I am lucky enough to have a few.

I can’t resist showing how pretty this one looks in the stair hall. And I have another one if I wanted to use it over the bed.

Back to the topic at hand, Barrie Benson has a similar set of bed hangings made from an Indian block print in this lovely bedroom. I really like a soft fabric valance for my project, rather than a stiff pelmet.

All of the above designs have the canopies mounted to the ceiling. With the crown molding in the room, ours would need to be placed below it and I was a bit worried about whether or not that would look good. Inspiration examples were not hard to find, including Rebecca de Ravenel’s lovely blue and white New York apartment recently featured in Vogue. The dreamy soft canopy in her bedroom has just the feel I am going for.

Palmer Weiss used the same wallpaper as Rebecca in this oft blogged about show house bedroom which is another example with a daybed against the wall. Note that the box is also below the ceiling…

…as are these in another showhouse room by Elizabeth Dinkel.

Since I have arrived here in Doha I have been farming out projects to different upholsterers and fabricators to find the ones that I like and I think I have found the right person for these. Ironically Qataris love incredibly ornate over the top window treatments which means the skill set here is high. It’s just a matter of simplifying the fabrics and details. After a bit of searching through all the velvets and brocades I found a very nice cotton just the color of the walls (Benjamin Moore Silver Crest 1583). And as the client requested girly, I went into my stash (yes I even have a stash with me abroad) and pulled out a huge amount of yardage of an old and discontinued Rachel Ashwell Bemberg silk fabric called Trellis Rose or something like that. One of the main things we are planning on doing differently from all the examples above is reversing the fabrics – in other words, having the solid on the outside and the pattern as the lining. To jazz up the plainer exterior curtain and valance, I have found an elaborate and detailed trim.

For those of you who have been following me on Instagram, you’ve seen the incredible trims I have been finding here. Both vintage and new, made anywhere from Oman to India, designed for trimming abayas and saris, they are extraordinary and I have been incorporating them into decorating projects wherever I can.

I have one sweet ten year old who is very excited about hers!

Nov 18, 2013 By tokyojinja in Doha Move, Interior Design, Kids, Lighting, Textiles 5 Comments Tags: Barrie Benson, canopy beds, daybed, Elizabeth Dinkel, girls room, Katie Ridder, Palmer Weiss, Rebecca de Ravenel, sari trim, trim, valence, window treatments

Reader’s Query…More on Flat Fabric Canopy Beds

I had a few comments about the fabulous pair of canopied twin beds above from my last post on designer Katie Leede, and thought I might share a few other examples for those who are thinking about taking this project on, either as a DIY or professionally done. I haven’t actually stumbled across any formal tutorials, but I think from examining the photos, it must not be too difficult. The beds above employ two simple curtain rods, with one attached to the wall and the other hung from chains on the ceiling. Two rod pockets are sewn into the fabric and a trim border has been added to the front. The long piece of striped fabric the width of the beds runs from behind the headboards to close to the ceiling where the first rod is attached to the wall and is then draped to the second suspended rod. A matching striped bedskirt creates visual harmony.

I have numerous examples of similar canopies, although they all have small differences worth examining. One key to this style is for the fabric to be just the width of the headboard. The panels in the photo below are more sophisticated and involve more sewing, with an Indian block print centered in a border of lavender fabric and trimmed in tape. But here, no rod pockets were necessary because there are no curtain rods or poles – it looks as if the fabric has been attached directly to the wall. Again the fabric stops a foot or so before the ceiling, and then is draped upward to form the canopy by attaching the fabric directly to the ceiling. A similar length overhang here creates a similar valence effect in the front as in Katie’s version above.

Again, a stripe has been used below to great effect and again, continued on the dust ruffles. Like Katie’s room, the stripes are reminiscent of a circus tent and we see animal accessories, art and wallpaper, leading me to believe this is also a child’s room. One change here is that the fabric against the wall goes all the way up to the ceiling – no gap is left – perhaps because the ceiling height is lower or perhaps because it would be too busy to have the toile-like wallpaper show above the stripes. Note that the fabric has been allowed to drape from the first ceiling attachment to the next…

…unlike this example. Here the fabric is stiffer and squared off by having it run along the ceiling. Again we see the continuity with the bedskirts and the stripes, although this room clearly feels like an adult space.

In this less permanent showroom set up, we see our first example with skirtless beds. The panels are also simpler, with no trim or borders and seem to be installed with rods. This would be very easy to pull off with very little complicated sewing. And like the mirrors in the example above, a decorative detail attached to the canopy is used to draw our eye.

Here Lauren Liess created a crib version of the canopy using a painters dropcloth which she stencilled and then simply attached with a stapler to the ceiling. More details on this project can be found here.

Another very easy DIY approach features two simple swing curtain rods attached to the wall at the ceiling height with fabric draped over them, creating a canopy that runs the opposite direction. I like this idea when you need to frame a window, since it creates a canopy and curtains all at once.

There are many other gorgeous, albeit more elaborate, canopy beds out there, but I really do like these simple flat versions. Let me know if anyone actually tries to make one!