Your king bed frame is more than functional furniture, it's the visual anchor of your entire bedroom. As the largest piece in the room, your bed frame sets the tone for your personal sanctuary, influencing everything from colour choices to accessory placement. Whether you've just purchased a new frame or want to refresh the room around your existing one, this guide will help you create a cohesive, stylish bedroom that feels both intentional and inviting.
In This Guide
Identifying Your Bed Frame's Style
Before you can style around your bed frame, you need to clearly identify its design language. Most bed frames fall into recognisable style categories, and understanding where yours sits helps guide all subsequent decisions.
Modern and Contemporary frames feature clean lines, minimal ornamentation, and often incorporate materials like metal, glass, or glossy finishes. Low-profile platform beds epitomise this style. Traditional frames showcase ornate details, carved woodwork, turned legs, and substantial headboards, often in rich timber finishes. Scandinavian designs emphasise light woods, simple forms, and functional beauty with a warm, organic feel.
Industrial frames combine raw materials like exposed metal and reclaimed wood with utilitarian aesthetics. Coastal and Hamptons styles favour white or light-coloured frames with subtle nautical influences. Bohemian designs embrace eclectic patterns, rattan, cane, and global influences, while Mid-Century Modern showcases tapered legs, warm wood tones, and retro-inspired silhouettes.
If your bed frame blends multiple styles, which is increasingly common, identify the dominant influence and use that as your starting point. A wooden platform bed with black metal legs might be primarily modern with industrial touches, for example.
Colour Coordination Strategies
Your bed frame's colour or finish provides the foundation for your bedroom's colour palette. The goal isn't necessarily to match everything exactly, but to create a harmonious relationship between elements.
Working with Wooden Frames
Timber frames introduce warm undertones that should influence your broader palette. Light oak and natural pine work beautifully with whites, soft greys, sage greens, and dusty blues, creating an airy, Scandinavian-inspired feel. Darker woods like walnut, mahogany, or espresso finishes pair well with cream, tan, burgundy, forest green, and navy, offering a richer, more traditional atmosphere.
Be mindful of mixing wood tones in the same room. While it's perfectly acceptable to combine different woods, ensure they share similar undertones (warm woods with warm, cool with cool) and vary the tones to create visual interest rather than competing for attention.
Working with Metal and Upholstered Frames
Black metal frames serve as a neutral foundation that works with virtually any colour scheme, while white or brass metal introduces specific colour commitments. Upholstered frames in grey provide similar flexibility, while coloured upholstery (navy, emerald, blush) becomes a statement that the rest of the room should support rather than compete with.
Key Takeaway
Choose two or three main colours for your bedroom palette, plus one or two accent colours. Your bed frame should be one of the main colours or a neutral that allows other elements to shine.
Choosing Complementary Bedside Furniture
Bedside tables are the most immediate companions to your bed frame, so selecting them thoughtfully is essential for a cohesive look. While matching sets from the same furniture range guarantee coordination, mixing pieces can create a more interesting, collected aesthetic.
When mixing furniture, focus on maintaining proportion and one unifying element. The bedside tables should sit at approximately the same height as the mattress top for functional reach. Beyond that, you might unify mixed pieces through similar finishes (all warm wood, for instance), complementary shapes (both curved or both angular), or matching hardware.
Consider the storage needs and surface space required. Minimalist platform beds often pair well with equally minimal floating shelves or slender single-drawer tables. Substantial traditional frames can support larger chest-style nightstands with multiple drawers.
Bedding That Enhances Your Frame
Bedding is where you can truly personalise the space and either enhance or diminish the impact of your bed frame. The key is balancing pattern, texture, and colour while respecting the frame's visual weight.
For Statement Bed Frames
If your bed frame features an elaborate headboard, bold upholstery colour, or dramatic design, keep bedding relatively simple. Solid colours or subtle textures in neutral tones let the frame remain the focal point. Add visual interest through varied textures (linen, knit throws, velvet cushions) rather than competing patterns.
For Minimal Bed Frames
Understated platform beds or simple metal frames provide a canvas for more expressive bedding choices. This is your opportunity to introduce pattern through duvet covers, layer multiple textures and colours, and create visual drama through the textiles themselves. The bed becomes a focal point through the bedding rather than the frame.
Layer your bedding in odd numbers: typically three or five cushions arranged from largest at back to smallest at front. Include at least two different textures, and consider a folded throw at the foot of the bed for additional visual interest and practical warmth.
Lighting for Mood and Function
Bedroom lighting should address multiple needs: ambient illumination for general use, task lighting for reading or working, and accent lighting for mood. Your bed frame influences appropriate lighting choices and placement.
Tall headboards with integrated lighting solve multiple needs elegantly, but most frames require separate lighting solutions. Table lamps on bedside tables remain the classic choice, but ensure they're proportionate, lamps should be roughly two-thirds the height of the headboard for visual balance. Wall-mounted swing-arm lamps or sconces work brilliantly with floating nightstands or where floor space is limited.
Pendant lights flanking the bed offer a modern alternative but require careful height planning, they should hang roughly 50cm above the bedside table surface. Consider dimmers on all bedroom lighting to adjust mood throughout the day, from bright morning routines to soft evening wind-down.
Wall Decor and Art Placement
The wall space above and around your bed frame offers significant styling opportunity, but placement matters enormously for visual harmony.
Artwork above the bed should relate to the headboard width, generally spanning roughly two-thirds of the headboard's width for a single large piece, or creating that proportion with a gallery arrangement. The bottom of the artwork should hang approximately 15-20cm above the top of the headboard to create connection without crowding.
For beds without headboards, artwork essentially fills that visual role, so choose larger pieces or arrangements that provide the grounding effect a headboard would offer. The bottom of the artwork should sit where a headboard top might, roughly 120-150cm from the floor.
Mirror placement near beds requires thought. While mirrors can visually expand space, placing large mirrors directly opposite or above the bed can feel unsettling for some people. Side walls or positions where the mirror doesn't directly reflect the sleeping area often work better.
The key to successful bedroom styling is restraint and intention. Every piece you add should either serve a function or contribute to the overall aesthetic, ideally both. Before purchasing additional furniture or decor, ask yourself whether it complements your bed frame's style and colour palette. With thoughtful choices, your bedroom becomes a unified retreat that supports both beautiful design and restful sleep.