Lately we’ve been noticing a comeback of Dickensian curtained beds: canopy varieties with wrap-around drapery and built-in nooks and alcoves that become snug bed-boxes when the curtains are drawn. Both originally added warmth, darkness, and a bit of privacy and make for extra restful hibernation today. All you need is a candlestick for the bedside.
Take a look at a few covetable cloaked examples, many (perhaps not coincidentally) from London and beyond.
Above: A snug bed at The Bradley Hare, a traditional pub with rooms for let on the grounds of the Duchy of Somerset estate, is hung with tasseled curtains. Photograph via The Bradley Hare. Above: In a revived 1790s home in Bath, a guest room features a bespoke wrought-iron canopy bed based on a 17th-century Italian design, hung with wrap-around linen drapery. Photograph by Paul Massey, courtesy of Howe, from ‘Mamma Mia’ Music Producer Nick Gilpin’s Stylishly Revived Georgian Manse. Above: The curtained bed, minimalist edition: This one, in the UK, is wrapped in white Portuguese linen. Photography by Maria Le Mesurier from Can Minimalism and 5 Kids Co-Exist? A Design Couple’s Child-Friendly, Clutter-Free Home. Above: An alcove bed fitted with pale pink dress-silk curtains and a quilt in Patrick Williams’ 1850s East London apartment. Photography via Berdoulat from Out with the New: Reinventing the Past in a London Remodel. Above: A guest bed in a London townhouse redone by Retrouvius is paneled is in reclaimed pine cheese boards and hung with trim terra-cotta curtains. Photography by Tom Fallon courtesy of Retrouvius, from A Rustic Townhouse Remodel by London’s Masters of Salvage. Above: A sophisticated take, from To the Manor Born: Luxury and Elegance in a Restored 18th-Century Home. Photograph courtesy of The Modern House.
Above: The RU Suspension Bed Canopy by designer Rose Uniacke hangs from the ceiling by wrought-iron hooks and is available in all sizes, from single to super king. Above: And an unfussy setup for wee ones: Bunk beds hung with curtains just might make bedtime a bit more appealing, as seen in this Jersey Ice Cream Co. project in the Catskills. Photograph by Tara Mangini from The One-Month Remodel: A Catskills Guesthouse by Jersey Ice Cream Co.
