36 
House & Garden 
CANOPIED BEDS OF TODAY 
The Canopy Lends Importance to the Bed Itself and Where Space Is Limited Makes 
the Day-Bed a Thing of Decoration and Beauty 
HANNA TACHAU 
The canopy re¬ 
peats the color 
of the cover in 
this group by 
C h a mb e r l in 
Dodds, decorator 
One woman I know fell 
heir to a lovely old peas¬ 
ant bed, with slender posts 
that supported a simple 
canopy. Naturally, this 
bed was the piece de re¬ 
sistance around which the 
rest of the furniture was 
gathered and which fur¬ 
nished the inspiration for 
the general scheme. 
I do not mean by this 
that some one period must 
be strictly adhered to, for 
no one but a connoisseur 
could hope to accomplish 
this successfully, but all 
of us can learn to recog¬ 
nize the beauty of fine 
proportion, the value of 
simplicity and suitability 
and to escape the terrible 
mistake of making of our 
rooms a nightmare of 
Dromiscuous horrors which 
masquerade under the 
elastic term of “period 
furniture’’. 
I know another woman of good taste and 
ample means who decided to redecorate her 
bedroom. She eliminated all her old furniture 
except a fine old French consol of which she 
was very fond. Then began her hunt for a 
bed suitable to the size of the room and to the 
exacting demands of this lovely old piece. A 
number of really old beds were seen and found 
wanting. They were either too large or too 
elaborate or too decrepit to serve her purpose. 
They were not in scale with the room and 
were not quite in harmony with the other ob¬ 
jects. Finally, she decided to have built a 
day-bed which resembled the old French “sofa 
or alcove” bed so long in vogue, and this she 
placed sideways against the uninterrupted 
space of a long wall. This wall, however, 
presented another perplexing decorative prob¬ 
lem; it was very difficult to achieve an interest¬ 
ing arrangement for the rest of the furniture 
and pictures. She finally solved the question 
by utilizing a simple draped canopy over the 
bed, which became the central motif around 
which the other objects were grouped. This 
use of a canopy is a legitimate one, for its 
value lies not only as a piece of pure decora- 
This day-bed has 
a canopy of 
white and rose 
cretonne and 
rose taffeta. 
Miss Swift 
I N very early times only 
the essentials in furni¬ 
ture and furnishings found 
a place in the home, the 
perils of them oft preclud¬ 
ing all but those pieces 
which could be easily 
moved when it became 
necessary to beat a hasty 
retreat. Chests of all sizes 
and varieties were found 
to be of great utility, and 
beds were usually but a 
framework of wood, made 
gorgeous with splendid 
hangings that could be 
quickly packed and car¬ 
ried away. 
During the 14th and 
15th Centuries, however, 
bedrooms became charn- 
bres de parade, where vis¬ 
itors were received and en¬ 
tertained and where much 
of the business of life was 
discussed and transacted. 
Upon these chambers, the 
decorators lavished their 
greatest skill and made 
them resplendent with the 
finest stuffs and fabrics. 
The great bed, raised on a 
dais, dominated the room, 
and it was hung with fine¬ 
ly wrought tapestries and 
damasks and velvets, not 
only to accentuate its 
splendor and importance, 
but also to shield the 
sleeper from draughts and 
cold, penetrating through 
doors and windows. 
Lighter Materials 
We in America, how¬ 
ever, are fortunately not averse to fresh air nor 
are we susceptible to draughts, and our ideas 
of hygiene differ materially from those of our 
ancestors. And so we must plan our bedrooms 
to fulfil our own needs and comfort and with a 
recognition of what will be most suitable to 
achieve this result. Already early in the 18th 
Century, when the one huge apartment was 
divided into the smaller boudoir and bedroom, 
the heavy hangings of brocades and velvets 
were replaced by the lighter fabrics of cotton 
and linen, and we can find no more delightful 
materials today than these simple cretonnes 
and chintzes printed from old blocks that are 
not only charming in their decorative possi¬ 
bilities but which accord with all our modern 
ideas of hygiene. 
If properly planned and if the material is 
of good quality, hangings and slip covers can 
be washed without affecting their color or 
shape. The vacuum cleaner is a dust-consum¬ 
ing device that also makes possible the use of 
the more fragile taffetas and silks which can 
be dry-cleaned when they become soiled. 
The use of the canopied bed then, dates 
back to very early times, and our modern adap¬ 
prehension and decision. 
A formal French bed¬ 
room is very delightful in 
the proper place and sur¬ 
roundings, but when such 
a room is entirely unsuited 
to the house and to the 
mode of life of the people 
who are to live in it, it 
would be both foolish and 
pretentious to insist upon 
it. On the other hand, 
very interesting rooms 
have been built around 
one precious possession. 
Suitable Surroundings 
tations of it must be handled with discretion. 
There must be some real reason back of its 
use besides the mere whim or fancy of a woman 
who is furnishing her home without any defi¬ 
nite notion of what she is doing. She may 
happen upon a Louis XVI bed in a shop and 
fall in love with its dainty hangings, but 
whether it has any real relation either in style, 
suitability or color to the scheme of her house 
is often quite beyond the scope of her com- 
