With antiques in the house becoming the trend- when decorating the house, it is a great idea to carry the antiques into the bedroom as well. There are several ways you can do this, from something as bold as changing your bed to an old fashioned four poster bed to adding cozy reading corners to focus on particular objects. Here are few incredible ideas for creating stunning bedrooms by blending antiques into bed room décor.
If you go for particular bedroom idea, more often than not, it gets restricted to one kind of style, but if you are trying to introduce antiques into your bedroom, you don’t have to stick to anything, change it up as you want to. By making it an eclectic mix of things, you can create stunning bedrooms that not just add style but also have an element of coziness to them. Fusing the vintage with the modern is pretty easy because it allows you to make the bedroom rather luxurious too.
Four poster antique cot with mirror at the headboard and canopy on the 4 posts
An instant addition to your bedroom to give it that olden charm is that set of mirrors that have been lying in the attic for the last fifty years. Mirrors that are set in heavy wrought iron with patterns and designs are exceptionally beautiful when you put them on the walls next to the headboard of the bed. A great way of introducing them into your room could be to put them behind the lamps on your side tables. They will reflect light and give your bedroom a very inviting warmth and makes it cozy in the night.
A great idea to use up all of those mirrors of different sizes and shapes is to cluster them all together, on a wall that does not have windows will reflect sunlight into the room in various angles brightening up the room quite a bit. Clustering things can also work with other nick-knacks as well, making them an instant collection. Dotting them with photo frames also add a personal touch to the whole display, drawing attention to them.
An intricately carved headboard with a mirror and antique designer embossed porcelain tiles on an antique four post cot with canopy
If you are creating a quiet corner to read in your bedroom, you can create the right ambience by displaying books and maps. Old school, dark wood tables with an antique table lamp or a globe that you may have can be a starting point, pair it off with a modern reading chair to finish it off. This is also a great way of using books for decorative purposes.
Just because it is the bedroom, a lot of antique enthusiasts don’t stick to brand new furniture or expensive décor. The edge of the room can be softened by mixing up and matching furniture from flea markets and antiques that could be re-purposed. A lot of times, antiques from different eras can pair up surprisingly well together as well. A very young reader of this blog, by way of holding on to her connection with her grandparents has paired a newly varnished light wood table with a chest re-purposed into a window seat, making a wonderful study table and reading corner.
The advantages of having a big bedroom cannot be ignored. Not only does it allow for more than just the bed to go into it, a lot more can be done to it decor-wise to give it a fancy olden style look. The easiest thing do, especially in a big room is to get a four poster bed. If the room is big enough to be able to hold it without seeming like it is the only thing in the room, there is a lot to work with. A four poster bed, with solid wooden beams is something that most of us have seen at our grandparents’ at some point or the other. The furniture in the rest of the room though will have to go with the bed, while that remains the focus of the room.
A highly carved rose wood antique cot with four posts and canopy
One of the most fun ways of decorating a bedroom is with a clever mix of the old and the new. And one of the best ways if doing this is to set off the different distinctive materials against each other. If you have one of those fancy old-fashioned antique beds with a very attractive head board, set it off with mirrors and glass in the right places, creating an illusion of light and air, drawing attention to the headboard itself.
Mix of antique four post canopy cot with new wardrobe with mirrors
Introducing a color scheme is very important is you are making a fusion of the trendy with the antique. It is important though, that the furniture is not the only the thing that has to match the objects in the room. The color of the surrounding walls, not necessarily all of one kind also have a grave impact on the manner in which it is painted. It all comes down here too to the warmth of the room, based on walls and the lights in it. The most popular colors remain browns and beige and off whites which make the object places draw attention to it, especially for bedrooms that have a fusion of old and new objects.
An intricately carved four post antique cot with canopy can be re-purposed as a divan with arrangement of bolsters and pillows
As parting words, before you decide what you want to do in a bedroom with the look of the antique, play around with ideas before you decide what exactly you want. If you keep it light and casual, it can be changed around often enough, adding to the variety of it. The best way to make things work is re-purposing what you already have for a brand new look. The conversion of ottomans that are not very comfortable into side stools and boxes into center tables is gaining popularity. These “extra” bits of furnishings can also be used to place other antiques as well, serving a dual purpose.
Balancing the comfort of the bedroom with the uniqueness of antiques is art, much like antiques themselves. There is no way of saying which the perfect percentage of antiques vs. other furnishings in a room is. Play along with what you want to do and have fun!
Note: The pictures shown in this articles are taken from the antiques collections of Y. KrishnaMurthy .
Article by
Vineetha Rao Suravajjala