Bedroom furnishings: Why clothes rails and linen chests have no place here

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This: A good bed flatters the back - and the eye. Especially when it's part of a successful ensemble. We explain how to achieve this.

Tristan Auer designs his Parisian sleeping area as a room within a room. Rusty brown curtains and a copper headboard mark the elegant bunk. Francis Amiand / Humbert & Poyet

Wondering how to decorate your bedroom? Here's how to do it.

You rarely buy a new bed on a whim. Especially those who choose one of the increasingly popular box spring beds usually have high expectations: Enormous couch comfort, restful sleep and best the end of all back pain are to guarantee the new acquisition. In fact, the SUVs among the sleep systems have a lot to offer in this respect and also appear "stately, cozy and cuddly," as Tina Daamen, Head of Style & Visual Merchandising at the traditional Munich-based house Bettenrid, puts it. However, relaxation and a feeling of security are not just a question of the height of the bed and the firmness of the springs: the bedroom only really becomes a personal retreat when the entire furnishing is just right.

The main thing, harmonious: The rococo headboard decorates the bedroom of an airy vacation home in Catalonia.

Manolo Yllera, styling: Patricia Ketelsen

"A bedroom has to feel like a nest," says Parisian interior designer Tristan Auer. "It can't be too cozy at all." That doesn't automatically mean velvet curtains and pillow stacks (Auer himself installed a bedhead of cool copper in his apartment!), but on the other hand, avoid a basic misconception: What's good for falling asleep doesn't have to look good for falling asleep. "Neutral tones" are very popular, as Tina Daamen has observed, and they may have their place in Scandinavian-influenced interiors, for example, but sometimes they are likely to be the result of a lack of decision-making or poor planning. If you don't buy a bed until you have a concept for the entire room, you can choose from a wide range of textiles for the headboard and mattresses at premium brands such as Schramm or Hästens or at specialty stores such as Bettenrid, or even have your own fabric applied. "You can be just as creative in the bedroom as in other rooms," says Tristan Auer. But even though it's the most private and individual room in the home, the rituals surrounding "switching off" are so similar that you can follow a cross-style checklist.

In London Kings Cross, Sophie Ashby furnished an apartment. Eye-catcher in the bedroom: the Fornasetti wallpaper by Cole & Son. In front of it the bed with capitated headboard and identical wooden table and industrial lamp.

Philip Durrant, Plimsoll, Kings Cross

Beds deserve exceptional surroundings: Florence Lopez surrounds the rare Nakashima bed with an upbeat vintage jungle.

These things have no place in the bedroom.

The room itself doesn't need to be huge, "rather small and intimate, yet tailored to the body like a well-fitting suit," Auer thinks. Clothes rails, linen chests and even mute valets have no place in the bedroom, interior luminaries from the legendary Billy Baldwin to India Mahdavi agree; they are too much a part of the world of daytime and busyness, plus they are reminiscent of hotels, which should generally be avoided. If a separate dressing room is not possible, think about dividing the space, at least by a screen. An elegant solution can also be not to move the bed against a wall as usual, but to choose a model with an appropriately high and projecting headboard, possibly with "folding ears", and to place the storage space behind it and thus out of sight.

"It can't be too cozy."

Tone on tone in bedroom colors -the space by Bruce Bierman Design might seem bland if it weren't for the framed portrait and oversized headboard.

Eric Piasecki / Otto, Bruce Bierman Design

Bedroom decor: Books are the cozy secret weapon

This does not mean that the sleeping area should be as empty as possible. Essential next to the bed are one or two nightstands - at about lying height and large enough for a book or tablet, reading glasses, a glass of water, etcetera - plus glare-free, dimmable reading lights (unless they are integrated into the headboard). Either the tables or the lamps should be identical; both can appear too stiff. Add a small armchair, a nice plant, a TV if you can't do without it - and Billy Baldwin's secret weapon of comfort: books! The lighting should be "soft and indirect and not catch the eye," says Tristan Auer. You can therefore do without a ceiling light altogether (in any case, it should never be placed directly above the bed, just like a sporadically flashing smoke detector); but since reading lamps alone would be too dim, appliques at head height on both sides of the bed make sense instead. Foot cuddlers and fairy tale shades Textiles are the royal road to coziness - but absolutely individually dosed. In an urban, airy space, a plush Chesterfield bed is more likely to look oppressive than soothing. But "a lot has changed in box spring beds in recent years," as Tina Daamen of Bettenrid points out. "There are more delicate foot shapes, and much lighter fabrics are chosen for the covers than in the past, usually with linen or cotton content."

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