Let’s take a moment to look at the origins of the classic four-poster bed: you know the one I am referring to – a grand wooden structure, with an integrated roof (called a ‘tester’) and dressed with fabrics. An imposing addition to any bedroom, the bed is believed to have its origins in 13th-century Austria. In its earliest and most basic incarnation, it was made up of four posts that supported a wooden tester at the top, from which a canopy of furs and fabrics was hung. It made its way to the United Kingdom a couple of hundred years later, favoured for its opulence and practicality, and has been a staple in impressive country houses ever since.
These days, inventive designers are reinterpreting this concept and turning it into something new, contemporary and, in some cases, radical (if such a word can be used to describe a four-poster bed). What is key is that the essence of the four-poster is retained, but a fresh use of materials, unexpected motifs or surprising proportions have turned it into something quite thrilling. Though many of these examples are bespoke designs by interior designers, there are a handful of product designers catching on, too. Chris Cox of Cox London’s ‘Forest’ bed captures the concept of a deconstructed four-poster perfectly: in the place of a classic four-poster with a tester, two trees appear to be growing from the top corners, with a branch-like iron frame making up the perimeter of the bed. For Chris, the romantic and whimsical design not only adds a highly decorative element to any room, but also allows space for lights above the bed and, unlike a classic four-poster, is ‘unlikely to dominate a smaller bedroom’.
Also scaling things back is Nicola Harding, who sells a four-poster bed through her product design studio NiX, which subtly updates the familiar frame. The ‘Out for the Count’ bed offers a traditional gothic silhouette, punctuated by three-quarter-height posts in each corner. Unlike the other, grander beds sold through NiX, this one has a distinctly more playful, light-hearted feel. The three-quarter-height posts have proven particularly useful for Bianca Fincham, who found they were the solution to her conundrum of how to fit a four-poster bed into a space with pitched ceilings. ‘I had long dreamed of a traditional four-poster in that space as I wanted it curtained to block out light and provide some privacy. But we just couldn’t make it work with the ceilings,’ she explains of her former shed-turned-guest-cottage in Cornwall. ‘As a holiday rental I wanted to avoid an upholstered bed, and this style adds a little modern grandeur to the room. It’s a relatively small space but the open feel really makes it feel much larger,’ says Bianca of Nicola’s design.
There is plenty of inspiration to be gleaned outside of the off-the-peg options, too. One particularly daring example is Rachel Chudley’s bed at home. 'I love antiques and I’m always inspired by them - it’s the contorting and subverting of these traditional ideas that make me excited to design',' says Rachel. Like Nicola Harding, the interior designer opted to hold onto the corner posts of her bed, but went as bold as possible on her design. Hers are like chains that snake their way up from the bed towards the ceiling. ‘I was inspired by some 1980s Franz West lamps after sourcing one of these bendy-chain beauties for a client. I started to think about furniture that could benefit from a twisted chain, and the drama they could bring to a four-poster. I designed the chains to twist straight out of the metal frame,’ she explains, adding that the ‘the twists accentuate the feeling of height in the room, which has tall ceilings’. The bed adds a hard, industrial edge to the eclectic space, which also features a lace café curtain, floral upholstery and Moroccan-style lighting. The result is an arresting aesthetic that doesn’t conform to any one style, instead borrowing elements from several and allowing them to create a pleasing tension with one another.
Also playing about with scale, though arguably in a slightly quieter way, Rachel Aisling Walker has a lot to say about tampering with the elements of a four-poster. ‘I often suggest variations on the traditional style. In the bedroom of my Camden townhouse project, I chose to create a hanging canopy bed,’ she says. The bed, pictured above, might appear to be a standard (if very lovely) four-poster bed, but in fact, the canopy is suspended from the ceiling, allowing floaty linen to swish freely around the sides. ‘It has the presence you’d expect from a four-poster – yet because there are no solid verticals, it has a more airy, romantic feel to it. The curtains add softness to the space and create a pleasant enveloping effect, without being heavy or claustrophobic,’ explains Rachel, adding that, often, when designing a bedroom ‘that lacks the scale for a full canopy bed’, she instead opts for an alternative that ‘uses curtains behind the headboard but leaves the end of the bed clear for a more pared-back look’.
Whether it’s a light-touch approach you favour or a full, Chudley-style renaissance, there is one lesson to be learned: gone are the days of four-posters being a hallmark of classic country houses. As Rachel Aisling Walker so succinctly puts it, ‘For such an archetypal piece, the options are endless.’
