Sweet Dreams

Look above and you'll see a photo of one of my all-time favorite bedrooms, which is located at Clos Fiorentina, couturier Hubert de Givenchy's home in the South of France. Named the "Bunny" bedroom in honor of Bunny Mellon, Givenchy's dear friend and frequent houseguest, the bedroom is a pitch-perfect blend of high style and casual chic, grounded- literally- by that crisp straw matting.  (Don't even get me started on that marvelous floral-print bed linen and Provençal quilt.)

What strikes me most about this room's bed canopy is that while it's cosseting, it is not smothering and heavy like many festooned and draped beds can be.  Givenchy's version is cool, casual, and comfortable thanks to the profusion of printed cotton, just the type of fabric one wants to lounge upon in the South of France.  And I have to say that this whole ensemble would look just as smashing here in America, too, where a more casually-dressed canopy bed would be right at home in this country's more casually-dressed interiors.

Although I have yet to find another canopy bed that appeals to me as much as that in the Bunny bedroom, I did manage to scare up some other examples that, while varying in degrees of frill and formality, are all beautiful in their own ways.  Some are quite architectural in shape while others look noble in their formal fabric swags and curtains.  And maybe one of these days, a canopy bed may just find itself in my own bedroom.  In the meantime, it's always fun to dream.

In the country house of Spanish designer Paco Munoz, two 19th c. Spanish beds are dressed in a Bennison fabric.

The two beds above can be found at Skogaholm manor, Sweden. The metal bed was designed to be collapsible.

An elaborate canopied bed at Château de Bagnols, Bagnols, France.

Yet another Swedish canopied bed, this one residing in a manor house near Uppsala, Sweden. The Gustavian tester bed is topped with baroque finials and boasts a c. 1750 silk-embroidered spread.

A charming bed canopy in a house on the Esplanade des Invalides, Paris.

A bed and bedroom covered in a Chinoiserie print chintz. This room is also located in, no surprise, Paris.


Givenchy photo from The Givenchy Style by Francoise Mohrt; photos #2-6 from House & Garden, 1985 and 1992. #7-8 from The Finest Houses Of Paris.