At last spring's wholesale furniture market in High Point, N.C., one of the most talked about pieces was the red-lacquered canopy bed with square tapered posts and pineapple finials in Baker's Parish-Hadley collection. It turned up again at the fall market in mahogany with gold trim. (Both will be in showrooms this spring.)
These are beds from a conservative manufacturer that specializes in traditional 18th-century reproductions. If Baker is making beds like these, you can imagine what else is out there, from Colonial four-posters to West Indies beds with mosquito netting to tole beds (made of elaborately painted sheet metal).
"The bed is the new status symbol," says Marian McEvoy. She's the editor of Elle Decor, which featured "25 Dream Bedrooms" in its December/January issue. "We're seeing a lot more fantasy attached to beds, much more of a statement being made."
Such romantic, whimsical and stylish beds can be the focal point of the entire bedroom. As bedrooms have become a place of refuge, designers have put more effort into making them wonderful places to live as well as sleep. That includes a fabulous bed. Although an elaborately carved mahogany footboard may have to be lower than in years past so the owner can lie in bed and watch television, the style still retains the romance of its origins.
The interest in beds as a statement of personal style started a few decades ago when people stopped buying matching bedroom suites. It has intensified recently as bedrooms have become a sanctuary, an entertainment center and a second family room.
"It's still that cocoony thing," says Helen Saters-Lawrence, manager of Royal Furniture in Towson.
There's a look for every taste, but whether you're talking locally or nationally, three styles stand out as most important:
* Sleigh beds
Their curvaceous head- and footboards have the shape of an old-fashioned sleigh, hence the name. But the style is classically inspired, beginning with Grecian couches and reworked in the Biedermeier period. The look is graceful and romantic.
Sleigh daybeds are very popular, used as a couch and as a single guest bed. Designers are hanging draped fabric from a central point above them for an especially romantic look.
Just about every significant furniture line includes a full-size sleigh bed, even when it's not period-appropriate. Thomasville, for instance, has a sleigh bed in its American Revival collection, even though the collection was inspired by the simple lines of the Arts and Crafts Movement. (The sleigh shape was simply too popular a style not to include.)
Why is it so popular? No one's quite sure. Perhaps Michelle Lamb, publisher of the Trend Curve newsletter, has the best answer. She says simply, "It's such a pleasing shape."
* Metal beds
You can, of course, find wonderful beds made of wood because the natural look is still a major influence. But metal is even bigger.
These aren't the Victorian styles we saw a decade ago, the ornate brass beds. The newest metal for bed frames is wrought iron, and unexpected things are being done with it.
Styles range from neoclassic to country. A wrought-iron bed can be clean-lined and quite spare, or it can have elaborate detailing. It can seem massive and imposing or be draped with sheer fabrics for a romantic and very light look.
The newest finishes are dulled, crackled or distressed. They look worn and homey, and blend well with wood armoires or other bedroom pieces.
Designers are discovering the possibilities of custom-made metal beds. The centerpiece of Annapolis designer Gary Lawrik's master bedroom in last year's Baltimore Symphony Decorators' Show House was a wrought-iron bed made by McLain Wiesand. "Everybody loved the iron-bed look," he says. At $3,000 and up, however, the cost of a custom-made bed can be prohibitive.
* Four-poster and canopied beds
Don't think of the homey four-poster your grandmother had. Think of the four-poster by Marge Carson with pewter and silver detailing on rich wood. The newest posters are slender and elegant -- far from the traditional heavy look. they benefit from the softening effect of being draped with a sheer fabric. Intriguing and slightly exotic, four-posters and canopies are part of the romantic look that consumers seem to be craving right now.
Canopies can be quite simple or an elaborate and integral part of the setting, with fabrics matching or coordinating with bedding, draperies and upholstery in the room.
Along with the variety of new styles in beds, manufacturers have introduced all sorts of bedding to dress them in. Fashion designers like Emanuel Ungaro, Gianni Versace and Ralph Lauren have launched lines of bed linens in enticing fabrics, patterns and colors. Five or six years ago, many Americans had never heard of bed accessories like duvets and swags. Now the most fashionable beds are dressed in them. People enjoy the look of pretty bedclothes; they'll even change the look of bedclothes with the seasons.
And what's next in fashionable beds? Nancy High of the American Furniture Manufacturers Association says we'll be seeing more whimsical detailing, such as headboards that look like a white picket fence.
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