How to Design a Primary Bedroom If Your Goal Is Big Attitude
“Sometimes primary bedrooms are boring. I wanted to give this one a little bit of attitude,” explains designer Heidi Woodman about this project in our 2024 Whole Home. Her first mood-setting move: choosing a natural grasscloth wallcovering from Spoonflower with a small, repeating burlap pattern that would stand out—but not compete—with the other elements she planned to bring into the space. From there, she chose Farrow & Ball’s Mahogany for the trim: a deep, chocolate brown that works beautifully with the dual-fabric draperies she had hand-stitched and the Hunter-Douglas motorized woven wood shades.
The patchwork detail on those textiles are echoed in the long lumbar pillow on the bed, which Woodman cased with a vintage quilt, picked up during a shopping trip in the Hudson Valley. “I had no idea what to do with it, but I had to buy it and just stored it away,” she says. Clearly, it was destined to become the centerpiece of this black Serena & Lily four-poster bed. The designer also added layers of rich, but neutral, pigment-dyed sheets and blankets from her favorite French bedding company, Lissoy.
Her lampshade selections were equally considered: “I can’t stand how lampshades are all white. We had little skirts made for our lamps. After all, who doesn’t look cuter in a skirt?” Above the headboard, Woodman hung an antique painting depicting Joan of Arc, discovered at Nickey Kehoe: “I liked that it was an outside setting but not a mountain scene.” At the foot, she placed a Four Hands bench with rounded corners, covered in a dark blue mohair and alpaca weave fabric.
The biggest design challenge of the project was posed in the form of an oddly proportioned niche that she wanted to disappear. Woodman didn’t want to commission a custom console—the obvious but predictable solution. Then, as the saying goes, the stars aligned: A sculptural storage piece by artist Pascal Verbena popped up on her radar. “It was perfect,” she says. “I feel like the room would not be as cool without it.”
“When you get a pattern that’s larger, sometimes it overwhelms a space, and that’s all you can see,” Woodman says of the wallcovering from Spoonflower. “We didn’t want the paper to compete with anything else we brought into the space.”
The Fabricut custom draperies feature two textiles: The base is layered and hand-stitched with cutouts from another fabric, creating a patchwork effect.
Basic white lampshades were swapped for custom Euro-style “skirted” versions in a striped pattern that echoes the ridges of the lamp base.
Drapery Fabrics: Fabricut and Zak + Fox. Lamp: Visual Comfort & Co. with custom shade. Mattress: Wayfair Professional. Nightstand: Noir. Rug: Armadillo.
Woodman considered having a custom console made for this niche but wasn’t very excited about the prospect. “I thought, What am I going to put above it, another piece of art? I don’t love putting art on the walls just to put art on the walls.” When she came across this unit, she knew it was the solution—and it also ironically happened to have plenty of its own niches for layering in pottery and objets. Bookcase: Pascal Verbena. Chair: Four Hands, in Pierre Frey fabric. Accessories: Round Top Antiques Fair.
Thermostat: Trane
Another way to set the mood is with temperature control. Smart thermostats, like Trane’s Comfort Link® IIXL1050 Thermostat, allow you to control the temperature of your space remotely. Plus, Trane’s thermostats learn your temperature preferences, detect when you’re at home, and factor in local weather.
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