Turn your bedroom into the sanctuary you’ve always wanted this autumn…

As the crisp autumn air finally dissipates any last hopes of a ‘proper summer’, you might be thinking about preparing your home for the colder months. Perhaps it’s time to get the winter duvet out, along with the winter coats; or perhaps it’s time to go the whole hog and give your bedroom that much-needed makeover?

Why not take a look at the following bedroom styles to get some inspiration…

French Bedroom Furniture

French furniture is the ideal way to turn your bedroom into a relaxing retreat. In particular – Louis Philippe style furniture – with its softly rounded lines and scrollwork, will add a sense of luxury and opulence that can prove irresistible after a hard day’s work.

It goes without saying that the most important item of bedroom furniture is the bed. So why not choose one that was made to be the centre of attention? Crafted from premium grade solid mahogany timbers, a traditional sleigh bed can transform your bedroom – from plain, dull and dreary to chic, elegant and enticing. It’s an ideal choice if you fancy something a little different to a classic oak bed.

Sleigh Solid Mahogany Bed

Our Sleigh Solid Mahogany 3 Drawer Bedside Tables are designed to be the perfect accompaniments to the Sleigh bed. Characterised by elegantly flared cornices, curved feet and antiqued button handles they complement the gentle curves and clean-cut lines wonderfully.

Rustic Bedroom Furniture

If you prefer oak wood furniture, you might want to consider investing in rustic bedroom furniture. Our ever-popular Rustic Solid Oak range (pictured) is ideal for contemporary and traditional homes alike. Crafted by skilled joiners from premium grade solid oak, it’s distinguished by softly rounded corners, antiqued drop bar handles and a subtly aged finish. 

Rustic Solid Oak Bed

For a charming country-cottage look, try decorating your rustic bedroom furniture with pastel coloured soft furnishings, such as cushions or throws. Alternatively, if you want a contemporary yet classic look, try adding splashes of bold primary colours. The furniture will create a timeless appearance, while the daring colours add an edgy, contemporary feel.

For more ideas and inspiration, take a look at our entire collection of wooden beds. They each form part of larger ranges, which means you can find matching bedside cabinets, chest of drawers and dressing tables.

Oak Living Room Furniture

Oak Bedroom Furniture

Is oak furniture is more than just a pretty face?

The grain of real solid oak, with its subtle variegation that hinges around a distinctive sumptuous light golden colour, is not just a thing of beauty. The tightness of the grain is a clue to its strength and durability. It also means that it can be worked into intricate forms without causing weakness.

Again, these intricate details needn’t be purely decorative. A feature of truly high quality wooden furniture is the use of hand crafted dovetail joints. Usually hidden away in drawers, these joints are traditionally very strong, and can only be made using high quality wood. Oak is perfect for this kind of joinery.

Is oak furniture easy to live with?

In a word, yes. In fact, as long as you steer clear of poor quality furniture (which is built using oak veneers, not solid oak), then you will find oak furniture is one of the easiest types of furniture to care for.

Simply dust your oak furniture without using spray cleaning products (these will crack the timber), and give it a light coat of Danish oil every so often and you don’t have to do anything else at all! Simple.

Cotswold Furniture

Cotswold Furniture is Steeped in History

The Cotswolds have a rich history of design, especially in the fields of Cotswold furniture, arts and crafts. Inspiration is said to be due to the stunning scenery and beautiful architecture of the area. There is one person who should also be given credit for the reputation of high quality Cotswold furniture: Ernest Gimson (1864 – 1919).

The Forefathers of Cotswold Furniture

Modern Cotswold furniture owes much to Ernest Gimson, as he helped kick-start the movement. Born in Leicester and trained as an architect, he moved to the Cotswolds in his early thirties “to live near nature” where it is said his creative stimulation was at its highest.

After a brief stay work took his to Somerset, but it wasn’t long before he moved back to Cirencester in Gloucestershire where he set up a Cotswold furniture workshop to indulge in his true passion of Cotswold furniture design. This Cotswold furniture was hand crafted from solid hardwood by highly skilled craftsmen under the renowned cabinet-maker, Peter van der Waals.

Painted Solid Oak
Cotswold Furniture

Cotswold Furniture has an Exceptional Reputation

The Cotswold furniture that he designed in this time was highly structural and obviously drew on his architectural experience. A reputation quickly grew that Cotswold furniture was strong, well crafted, high quality and attractive. This reputation lasts to this day with original pieces fetching thousands of pounds at antique auctions.

Oak Furniture Land Continues the Cotswold Furniture Standards

Oak Furniture Land is based very close to where Ernest Gimson set up his Cotswold furniture workshop. Our designers are influenced by the same idyllic scenery and the history of the Cotswold furniture industry. We use this to blend Cotswold furniture traditions with other international and modern designs to create a vast choice of unique designs and ranges.

The legacy of beautiful, sturdy, high quality hand crafted Cotswold furniture runs through the company and our staff.

Mirrors are all too easy to overlook when it comes to furnishing a room.

The possibilities of mirrors throughout the home should never be underestimated.

There are, of course, the practical uses for mirrors – most especially in the bathroom, where virtually everyone has a mirror. Many people have a mirror on a dressing table as part of your bedroom furniture for applying makeup and a mirror in the hallway. All of these applications for mirrors could be seen as purely practical. However, when you look at them from a home decor point of view you will notice the benefits mirrors have in their given rooms, and apply that to the rest of your home.

Mirrors – simple mind control!

Mirrors and Space

Of course, you may just want to use it to look at yourself in, but the use of mirrors around the house is also a wonderful way of creating the illusion of space.

Obviously, unless you’re standing directly in front of a mirror the reflection you’re seeing is a general image of the room, and when the eye is drawn away from the mirror this image is perceived by the brain as being just another part of the room, which in turn makes your subconciuos think that the room is larger than it is.

Mirrors and Light

Another great way of using the natural properties of mirrors is to throw light into dark spaces of your home.

How many of us have at least one room in the house that has a dull corner where the natural light struggles to reach? You can’t even liven it up with a vase of flowers! I’d say most of us.

One way of reinvigorating it is to put a lamp in there. This then takes up space and you end up illuminating an area of limited use, even during the day. You also need to run mains power there if there isn’t any already. This is not only a poor solution, but it’s not very environmentally friendly either!

By far the simpler solution is to hang a mirror so that the ambient light from the rest of the room is reflected into the dreary area. The mirror will give you a more balanced feel to the room and make it look bigger at the same time.

A nifty way of softening this effect is to put a small, leafy pot plat directly in front of the mirror, making the plant seem bigger than it is whilst also shedding a little dappled shade at floor level.

These are great tricks that interior designers use all the time, and are well worth remembering if you’re selling your house.