Design Gallerie

Applying the Principles of Feng Shui in Furnishing Your Bedroom

October 29, 2009 on 2:36 am | In Articles | No Comments

In the last 5 to 10 years, there’s been a ton of articles in the decorating media giving advice on how to decorate one’s bedroom as a personal sanctuary that is sensual, comfortable and practical all at once.

These articles most often suggest following personal style and taste, encouraging readers to stick with the things they love. On the surface, this seems to make a lot of sense. However, why then do we sometimes decorate our bedrooms with pieces we love only to find a month or two later, that the scheme doesn’t seem to make us feel as comfortable or balanced as we thought they would?

What accounts for the disconnect? Could it be that “decorate as you please” is not useful advice?

Yes and no. There is ofcourse no reason why personal taste and style shouldn’t be a major factor in bedroom furniture choices. However, there are some fundamental design principles that must always be taken into account. These fundamental design principles are based on common sense and have been around for ages, but have been reintroduced to us here in the US under the popular label “Feng Shui” in the last 20 years.

For example, in bedroom design, furniture must be placed according to the bedroom inhabitant’s circadian rhythms. What does this mean, you may ask? It is a simple principle, and yet often ignored. If you like to wake up with the dawn, place your bed so that it will be exposed towards the East. This way, you wake up with the dawn, as the sun comes up. Conversely, if you like to sleep til 1 pm, try to limit your bed’s eastern exposure. Place it so that it faces North, or West.

By carefully considering furniture placement, you put yourself in harmony with your natural rhythms and will inevitably feel more in harmony with your bedroom environment.

tiburon bedroom set

The same principle holds true for furniture selection. What we are really going for is harmony with ourselves and the natural world outside through our furniture selection. Feng Shui advocates balance and harmony through a mix of elements: fire, water, earth and metal. Many furniture manufacturers sell all-wood bedroom sets, for ex

ample, which are often less successful because they carry too much of the “earth” element so that a bedroom is overwhelmed. If you have a wood floor, why would you want an all-wood bedroom set. Balance must be achieved.

One furniture line that does an amazing job of mixing wood and metal elements in what I consider masterful Feng Shui design is the Hillsdale Tiburon bedroom collection. Designers of the Hillsdale Tiburon line fully utilize Feng Shui principles, featuring beds with espresso colored wood with delicious metal accents such as silver, satin beige and magnesium pewter. Not to be missed is the Hillsdale Tiburon Bentwood bed featuring a headboard that curves upwards on either end, adding the water element to the strong earth and metal tones. This graceful wave-shaped curve is also echoed on the legs of espresso-colored wood dressers and nightstands, which are highlighted with graceful silver hardware that offers a luxurious contrast.

Tiburon Bentwood Storage Bed

If you need practical storage, check out the Tiburon Bentwood with underbed storage. This style exudes the earth element by providing a heavy, grounded base in which to store extra clothing, again highlighted with the metal elements in the headboard and silvery rounded knobs which balance out the ensemble.

So back to the topic with which we started: By all means choose what you love when you furnish your bedroom and place your furniture, but keep Feng Shui principles in mind to create a balanced sanctuary in harmony with nature and the rhythms of your inner world. That will never go out of style!

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In Focus: Platform Beds

October 23, 2009 on 7:58 am | In In Focus | No Comments

Platform beds are a clever design addition to your bedroom. Sleek and low to the ground, platform beds do not require bulky box springs and can make a room look more spacious. Want to emphasize the luxurious simplicity and clean lines in your bedroom environment? Chose a platform bed.

Design Gallerie offers a range of platform beds in king, queen and full-sizes. No matter what your existing style or dream decor may be, we offer platform beds in traditional, transitional and full-on modern Italian styles.

Our Rosetto line is the epitome of sleek Italian modern, playfully low-to-the-ground, and luxurious in white leather. These uniquely European style beds are glamorous and sophisticated, completely at home in the most avant garde style bedroom environments, and priced at about half of what most Italian-style leather platform beds cost.

Our Hillsdale line tends towards traditional and transitional styles. Featuring headboards and foot boards wrapped in luxurious tufted brown leather — the Carnigan bed offers a cozy, protected feeling that touches on traditional.

The Hillsdale Brookland beds offer a sleeker, transitional look with a headboard and lower footboard wrapped in chocolate brown leather, while the Hillsdale Erickson beds feature easy-to-clean white microfiber and gun metal to create a clean transitional look that will just a touch of modern to your transitional style bedroom.

Hillsdale also offers headboards in vinyl as well as headboard-only models such as the Hawthorn, or the Nova and Sawyer platform beds. Both the Sawyer and Nova models feature extra tall headboards but still maintain the low-to-the-ground look which will allow you to match the platform bed concept with other taller furniture in your environment.

Design Gallerie also offers one leather platform bed style from Canadian maker Night & Day for an unbeatable price. The Coriander Bed set is luxury and style made affordable!

Not sure about which model to chose? Take a look at the different heights of existing furniture pieces in your room and make sure your platform bed won’t be out-done by other furniture pieces already there. Your bed should always be a focal point — if you stick to that principle, you will make the right choice.

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