Dreamy Beds

As I was reading my copy of Architectural Digest Designers' Own Homes, it struck me that a third of the thirty designers profiled slept in fabric shrouded beds. Some, like Leonard Stanley and Lee Radziwill, had more formal canopies and bed curtains, while others went for simple panels hung at each bed post. And one designer- Michael Taylor- had a rather grandiose 17th c. Spanish gilded bed hung with voluminous curtains. (You can see it above.)

The book was published in 1984, and perhaps poster and canopy beds were in vogue at that time. What I find interesting is that this type of bed found favor amongst both the devotees of traditional design as well as those who worked in a more contemporary idiom. Even Albert Hadley got into the act with his version, one that was simply dressed so as not to obscure the beauty of his antique bed.


Designer Leonard Stanley's bed was draped in antique velvet bed hangings.



Lee Radziwill's early 19th c. English four-poster bed appears to have been decorated with a printed glazed cotton fabric.



The bed of designers Loyd Ray Taylor and Charles Paxton Gremillion, Jr. was a blend of tailored, masculine bed draperies and frilly bed linen.



As one might expect, Sally Sirkin Lewis took a more modern approach to her bed, wrapping each poster with contemporary brown bed curtains.



Albert Hadley allowed his late 18thc. English lacquered bed to be the star of the show by crowning it with a very simple canopy.




A rather elaborately outfitted canopy bed, this one in the home of the late designer Rubén de Saavedra.




Diane Burn's lit à la polonaise was draped in two hundred yards of gauze.



Joseph Braswell's tranquil bed was simple and luxurious: neutral colored panels gathered at each corner. The headboard wall was covered in mirror.



The late Kalef Alaton chose tailored draperies for the corners of his headboard only.


All images from Architectural Digest Designers' Own Homes.