We’ve rearranged the guest room twice already, and we’re going in for round three. There’s a lot that’s “wrong” with this orientation. For starters, we centered the bed under the window, giving it a little room on the left for a nightstand — but it’s so close to the wall on the right that you can barely squeeze in let alone make the bed. (It’s a real climb-over situation.) On top of that, the door opens to a *stunning* view of the treadmill. Now, we love the new treadmill, and we use it nearly every day, but we want our guests to have a homier view when they check in.
You can see our guest room sources here!
Rearranging this room for the third time has me thinking about where the bed is even supposed go in a room. I feel like there are as many rules as there are exceptions to those rules. In clicking through pictures of our house, our old house, our cabin, and every bedroom I ever saved on Pinterest, I’m starting to formulate a plan for this weird layout. Here’s what I know so far:
You can see our bedroom in our last home’s sources here!
Over the years, I’ve learned the bed should probably go on the widest wall. I like a bed that faces the door so that I can get in the bed from either side, and no matter which side of the bed is “mine,” no one ever has too much of a walk-around.
Feng shui says that feet facing the door is fundamental, but that we should avoid having our feet directly in line with the door (they call this “coffin position” ????).
Source (you have to look at the before of this bedroom!)
If you’re working with a room that has handsome paneling (lucky), don’t be afraid to break up that wall with a headboard the introduces a little contrast. Chris and I have put up our fair share of paneling and bead board in our day, and sometimes it’s hard to think of “covering up” your handywork with a bed… and then nightstands… and maybe even a chair. But now I see structurally interesting walls as a great backdrop. Like the jute rug you layer underneath a cool area rug.
I’ve heard conflicting opinions about positioning a bed under a window, but I think when this is done right — the window doubles as art. Two rules of thumb that I’ve picked up in my under-window positioning and Pinning: 1. Choose a low-profile headboard or one with an open frame so you don’t obstruct the window too much. 2. Pull the bed out about nine inches from the window-wall to allow curtains to hang behind.
When I’ve struggled a lot with where to position the bed, the answer is sometimes, “The bed is too big.” We really wanted a king-size bed at our cabin, but no matter which wall we put it on, it dwarfed the room. The room AND the bed looked bigger when we downsized to a queen. Math and interiors… magic.
I think a short, high window practically begs for a bed underneath. What would normally present such a design dilemma looks downright intentional with a hefty headboard underneath. I would also skip the cafe curtains and go with the upholstered option. #textures
Source
If sloping ceilings prevented me from installing curtains, I’d embrace the natural light and play up on some interesting silhouettes for bedside lamps.
We had a few slanted ceilings in our cabin. In the Mountain Room, it felt like facing the door was the best option, even though it meant that the headboard would be “against” the slanted wall. We pulled the bed out just enough, invested in a low-profile headboard that didn’t present a lot of contrast (blending in felt better here), and reveled in the fact that the tallest part of the room was the place where we were standing. Had we put the bed against the window wall, we would have always been ducking, getting into bed.
You can see the cabin bedroom sources here!
You can see the cabin loft sources here!
In the loft, it made sense to position the trundle beds lengthwise along the long wall, with the kids facing each other for bedtime talks. We pulled the beds out from the wall a bit to give the space some breathing room and to save the kids from bonking their heads.
Pushing a bed against the wall or into a corner generally makes things feel cramped, in my opinion. I think the exceptions to this rule are daybeds and twin beds. When you’re working with a smaller-scaled room (a small guest room or a kid’s room, maybe?), tucking a bed into a corner looks charming. Just leave a foot or so on one side for bed-making and, you know, a little end table with flowers on it.
Positioning two beds is sometimes easier than one for me. In Greta’s room (below), adding a second bed for sister/cousin sleepovers solved the equation for me — of course there should be a bed on either side of the window!
You can see Greta’s room’s sources here!
Room with a view? Break all of the “rules.” Who wouldn’t want to wake up to the view of a forestscape (is that a thing?) or a sparkling lake? I’d prioritize my waking view over the view of my room from the door with the exception of… a feeling. When we first moved into our house, we tried our bed facing the French doors. Even though the view was nice — it felt so backwards. We swung it around, letting the doors flank the bed, and slept easier.
You can see our bedroom sources here!
An asymmetrical room also requires some embracing. This room (above) has a slight corner right smack dab in the middle of the dominant wall — a space between two windows that feels like a no-brainer for the bed. I love how she “cheated” the windows and the wall with the white headboard and the art. I also love the pairing of the bedside lamp with the twin sconces. This room is like the “where to put the bed” Master Class. (Are we getting ahead of ourselves?)
Sometimes, I really like the look of an asymmetrical curtain — like the layers of texture on the bed balance the window with a curtain hanging on only one side.
I’m taking this head full of inspiration into the guestroom this week. I know what we’re probably going to do, but I feel really open to the process. I’ll trust my gut even if it means rearranging for a fourth (or fifth) time. This is the fun part! Transformation!
What are your bed-positioning rules?
I’m in California and too afraid to hang anything above my bed (I’ve experienced several earthquakes in my 32 years of life). We currently have our bed in front of a window and planning the same for our remodel
Our plan for our guest room is to build a queen sized murphy bed/built in cabinet to get around some of those issues. It’s going to have to double as our home office, and with one of us working from home 1x week normally (and both of us home FT now…) the “office” part needs to be prioritized over the “guest” part from a function space. That will also open up a ton of floor space and make the room feel bigger. The room is technically a parlor, so it’s got a bump out bay of windows, a set of double doors, another single door, a fireplace, and a window on the wall perpendicular to the bay. The “best” place for the bed visually is with the head in the bay, but it’s the least practical for regular life (also the loudest, since we’re on a city street and that’s the front of the house… and our windows are 1880’s original so they block no sound).
In our master, we shoved a king sized bed, 100″ of full-depth ikea pax, and a 42″ dog crate into a 13×13 room. The room is even more challenging because there’s a door in 3 of the 4 corners. Design-wise, a queen would look so much better but I like being able to sleep well at night. We doubled down on the “cozy” by painting the walls and ceiling dark gray with dark gray curtains/white sheers/white light blocking roller blinds on the one window and it’s a great little sanctuary. Now if I could just make a decision about what to do with the giant blank expanse of pax doors….
Julia, I’m sure your guests are happy to see you and perfectly content! From your photo, it might be deceiving but does the bed fit on the same wall as the treadmill? The window would be to the left of the bed then…art or even a frame tv could be mounted on the wall at the foot of the bed to create the “nice view” you mentioned. I have stayed many places and a pull out sofa is fabulous when there is genuine hospitality.
I’m surprised there aren’t more bedrooms showing a bed in the corner…with the headboard catty-cornered.
My house is small, 1300 sq feet with 3 bedrooms & two baths the bedrooms are small. The master has no full blank wall. For decades, literally, I struggled with where to put our queen size bed. It just did not work well in front of the windows. Then I put it in the corner. What a discovery! No windows blocked, easy access to the closet & bath, ect.
But just last year I was struggling again. I had to move a crib in the master to babysit my grandson & nothing was working. Finally on a whim, I moved the bed right in front of/against the closet entrance. It’s a wide closet (not walk in) that had bi-fold doors. I took the doors down, hung a pretty curtain & it was perfect. I do have to walk all the way around the bed to go into my closet from one side but there is plenty of room to walk behind the bed once I get there. And it faces two windows (both with lake views) on two walls.
It feels almost like the treadmill is the hardest part in here, rather than bed placement. You could consider a crazy idea of building a fold up bed/storage wall, you know the beds that you pull down at night like old motel rooms?
You could also consider making either a screen, or a fabric cover to hide the treadmill when guests visit. From your answers to the comments it doesn’t sound like there is another place to put the treadmill right now, so I hesitate to give another idea but just in case, would it work behind a screen in the music room? A nice carved wood screen perhaps. Anyway, sorry, you’re probably fed up of hearing about the treadmill, but given that it isn’t there, is there a mental acceptance maybe needs to happen that for the time being there is no ‘perfect’ plan for the guest room? So, maybe where it is now works for now?
Last crazy idea, could you leave the bed in front of the window but design a headboard that hides during the day? Maybe slides up from behind the bed frame and clicks in place.