How To Pair Nightstands, Beds & Dressers

QuestionIs there a recipe for success when it comes to pairing dressers, nightstands, and beds?

AnswerThere isn’t an exact recipe, and it really depends on your style and your home. Sometimes people think of a bedroom as a place to match furniture and keep things more cohesive. For example, a lot of websites and stores sell bedroom sets. However, at Studio McGee we always like to mix styles to give a room more of that thought-through, designed look. Layering pieces of different styles, wood tones, and materials always bring more dimension.

QuestionDo you try to avoid using the same material on all three of these pieces even if they are contrasting in style?

AnswerTypically, in any room, Shea and the design team try to stick to a maximum of two contrasting wood tones, meaning we might do a nightstand in light oak and a dresser in dark mahogany. We do consider black wood a neutral, but with a black, wooden bed, seeing as the nightstands and the bed are right next to each other, you may want to choose something other than wood to pair with it to bring more warmth.

QuestionHow do you bring more warmth into a bedroom with the materials? Is there such a thing as too much texture?

Answer
We love upholstered beds because they add a softness that contrasts really well with metal, certain woods, or other cooler materials. However, if you do an upholstered bed that doesn’t mean you can’t pair it with a different warm texture like a caned nightstand. In our opinion, you can never have too much texture.

QuestionWhat do we need to consider when it comes to the functionality of bedroom pieces?

Answer
We always like to consider storage in a nightstand, whether it’s open on the bottom to make room for a basket, or it’s all drawers. There are times when you don’t have a lot of room for a dresser, and sometimes people forget to take advantage of that nightstand space for storage.

QuestionWhat is the first piece we choose when designing a bedroom?

AnswerTypically, we start with the bed, but there are times when we fall in love with a nightstand or dresser first and then find pieces that work with it to build the room from there.

Bedrooms: suggest not using the entire set and add your rugs. Looks like you may have wall to wall carpeting, bur you can layer. A padded headboard would be a great addition, use a piece in a more unique way, add great bedding and even wallpaper and/or paint, using the rugs as the base for inspiration. Rooms will be refreshing and interesting.

Living room: given you have two sets, assume you are selling one. Unfortunately you may not get very much and may be asked to split up the pieces. Keep you favourite pieces and be open to adding new, ie: an updated coffee table. Can’t say enough about using the right accessories (art, lighting, cushions) and I’d be looking at adding a light rug, which will set the tone for the entire room.

Hard to provide suggestions that may resonate with you, without seeing your rooms and other furniture, etc.

All of my furniture is old sets from my grandparents. When staging our house for resale I wanted to make it look more contemporary to appeal to a wider market. I broke up the sets between rooms and added a lot of inexpensive contemporary chandeliers, lamps, chairs, pillows, bedding, and end tables from Wayfair and TJ Maxx. I kept the rugs neutral jute. It was like a fun puzzle playing with how to mix and match everything. Also, do you have any storage like a basement or attic? If so, think about keeping parts of the set in storage. Maybe in a few years you'll have other ideas of how to swap pieces in and out.

If you do decide to sell, remember you can always keep one piece from a set for sentimental purposes. I had my mom's childhood bedroom set growing up. It is great quality from the s. The set is long gone but I kept one bedside table and still use it next to my bed. There is another mismatched but old bedside table on the other side. They compliment each other well. great together.

Here are photos of the some of the sets, and my bedroom (formerly my mom’s, so still her style). I’ll include a photo of the living room.

I have two living spaces to fill. Mine (living room, bedroom and kitchen) and a basement apartment i just had built (same rooms to furnish). It’s likely that I’ll end up living in the basement apartment at some point, so i designed it for my tastes. I also have a lovely renter coming, and she has great taste.

I will probably mix and match a bit, but it’s really hard for me to upset the way my mom had things. In our home growing up, we had a matching set of more formal furniture (Henkel Harris) in the living room, a bedroom with furniture from the same collection, another bedroom with a darker cherry set, and the more simple shaker-ish style of the von hohen in the family room. It was all very intentional.

The ideas here are very helpful, and make me excited to look around, particularly for more modern rug choices, curtains, lamps and so on. Thank you for all the replies!

First up, the HH, bedroom set and end tables. I also have a tallboy to match, and there’s a desk that’s currently in the bedroom. I’ll consider moving that to the living room. There’s also a coffee table in the LR set. I also have some more eclectic pieces to throw in the mix, like an antique corner cabinet and a chinese cabinet. I think they could be a good addition to keep things interesting, but i have to out if there’s room for them!