Beds under windows: a design do or don’t?

When designing a bedroom, your bed is undoubtedly the most important element. In some spaces, placement might seem obvious, while in others, you may have to give particular consideration to the room’s features. Where to put a bed in combination with a window is a much-discussed interior design question. To get it right, you’ll need to balance your design desires, temperature considerations and the natural light.

Make the most of natural light and views

If you have a room with a view, you may be tempted to wake up facing it every morning. However, design experts say that if your window faces East, where the sun rises, placing the bed either facing it or right beside it could be counterproductive. You may find your sleeping pattern disrupted in the summer, and may resort to keeping the curtains closed for longer to block the light – while also blocking the view. Instead, placing your bed facing toward the window, but not directly under or opposite it, could be the ideal solution.

Of course, if your bedroom windows face another cardinal direction, you can still design the rest of your room around the windows to enjoy your stunning panorama.

Consider temperature and air quality

It may be frowned upon in Feng Shui, but sometimes climate creates solid reasons for putting your bed under the window. For example, in a less-than-expansive bedroom, it’s better to block a window than a radiator. Covering the radiator will limit its efficiency, lowering temperatures and raising heating bills.

In warm climates, placing the bed under the window can encourage air flow and allow your body heat to escape at night. If you have windows that can open at the top, take advantage of this feature to create better air circulation and help to cool the room with natural convection currents.

Use a bed under the window to solve design dilemmas

It’s not uncommon for windows to disturb the symmetry of a room. In these instances, a bed is a fantastic design tool. Placing the bed on the opposite side to the window will add an extra focal point and hence create a more open, balanced space.

However, when the window is in the middle of the room, you’re faced with a challenge. Placing a bed underneath can block light, tangle with the curtains and make it tougher to open and close the windows. Nonetheless, there are instances when you can effectively place a bed under the window. Choosing the right luxury bed will make a big difference. A low frame, for example, ensures that neither the view nor the light are blocked. Another factor is the shape of the frame. Matching dimensions to the size and shape of the window frame will restore symmetry and balance. Alternatively, opt for beds with curtains and you won’t need them over the window.

Choosing the right furniture for the room can also make a big difference. For example, selecting the ideal bedside tables can blend the form of the bed with the window frame, and choosing matching wardrobes and chests of drawers will tie the room’s geometry and décor together. So when it comes to bed placement, don’t consider it in isolation. Map out the room as a whole, and you’ll find harmony in your space.

Why You Shouldn’t Place a Bed Under a Window

The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

A good night’s sleep is crucial to good health: It is during the overnight hours that the body regenerates and prepares you for the next day. That’s why it is so important that your bed provides strong support and protection—and why a good, solid headboard is so highly recommended in feng shui design.

In addition to a good headboard, it’s best to have a solid wall, not a window, behind your bed. When you sleep under a window, your personal energy weakens over time, as it has neither proper support nor protection. If this arrangement is not possible, there are some simple solutions for correcting the problem of a bed under a window.

Placing a Bed Near a Window: Bad Feng Shui

In good feng shui design, the head of the bed is never placed directly under, parallel to, or directly across the room from a window. Sleeping with direct exposure to a window can create a number of practical problems that can lead to poor sleep, decreased vitality, and potential health issues:

• Noise from outdoors can lead to stress and anger, and thus negative chi, or energy.
• Pollution from the outdoor air can be unhealthy and disrupt sleep.
• Light entering the room, particularly bright light, can raise your level of alertness during sleep, disrupting your natural sleep cycle and diminishing restfulness.

The ideal placement for a bed is with the head up against a windowless wall, to provide solid backing, and as far as possible from both windows and doors. The bed also should not be aligned with a door, particularly the bedroom door (as opposed to a closet door or bathroom door). If it’s simply not possible to place your bed anywhere besides under a window, you can minimize the negative effects of a less-than-ideal placement by using a headboard and window coverings.

Using a Headboard

If you have to sleep under a window, a strong and solid headboard is non-negotiable in good feng shui design. The best headboard for feng shui is made of solid wood or upholstery (and also solid), is tall but not disproportionately tall for the bed, is attached to the bed (rather than the wall), and has rounded sides and corners (no sharp edges).

One of the central feng shui concepts is to protect and shelter the bed as if by a mountain: A solid wall serves as a mountain symbol, as does a good headboard.

Adding Window Coverings

Good window coverings for feng shui may include room-darkening shades to block light, but shades should be paired with fabric drapes or curtains for softness and a sense of flow and movement. Preferred materials are wood or other natural materials for shades or blinds. For curtains and drapes, choose natural fabrics, such as cotton, linen, or silk. It’s best if drapes or curtains are heavy so that when you close them at night you create a feeling of a solid wall behind you.

Fun Fact

The dark void of an uncovered window at night creates an imbalance of Yin energy in the bedroom. This can allow desirable chi in the room to escape through the window at night. An uncovered window also lets in noise and light that can disrupt sleep and promote negative emotions and chi.

Cover your windows only at night. During the day, it’s fine to open the drapes and shades and let in nourishing sunlight and air as well as the flow of chi. However, if you want to take a nap during the day, close the window, shades, and drapes to ensure restful sleep without the disruptive forces of energy flow, light, and noise.

50 Ideas for Placing a Bed in Front of a Window

To put or not bed headboard against the window? The issue is increasingly of concern to many home owners, charmed stylishly decorated bedrooms by designers. As you would know, there are a few traditional ways in placing your bed inside a room. Most are unspoken rules like the bed should face the door, space on either side of the bed should be available, and blocking windows with the bed shouldn’t be done among others.

What “a Bed Under Window” Means

A bed under the window means a bed in which your head is right under the window (when you are lying in bed/sleeping.)?How many times have we been told you cannot put a bed in front of a window? Probably by people in my very own profession too. It’s one of those old school rules that are made to be broken. The bed is the centerpiece and focal point in the bedroom. Here are 50 Ideas for placing the bed in front of a window. Here are several rooms that make a bed and window pairing look not just doable, but desirable.

Practicality of Feng Shui Rules. How to place your bed for good feng shui?

Bed is the important components in the bedroom. A correct placement, positioning and direction of the bed with Feng Shui principle are very important to help you keep health as well as bring success in work and business. Now, let’s take a look at how to place your bed for good Feng Shui.

There are some practical reasons why you want to avoid window bed placements, but sometime you have no choice. If you sleep with your window open and only a window screen separating you and the outside world, you are in a vulnerable position to elements, intruders and even large animals. Another risk is illness from exposure to damp night air or cold winter air from leaky window frames. Before you place your bed underneath or in front of a window, try to find a better placement to ensure you have a restful sleep each night. The headboard that you choose is very important in feng shui bed placement. It should be sturdy. Using no headboard or a shaky headboard will not be conducive to good feng shui.

Whether it’s the only option or just the best one, here’s what to do with a window behind the bed. It’s totally okay to put your bed up against the window.

Proper Feng Shui Bed Placement

“At nighttime your body needs strong support, as well as protection, in order to do its best with the work of regenerating itself. This is the reason a good solid headboard is highly recommended in feng shui. In addition to a good headboard, you always want to have a solid wall behind your bed. When you sleep under the window, your personal energy tends to get weaker in time, as it has neither proper support, nor protection.” – Feng Shui Tips and Solutions for Bed Under Window. Rodika Tchi, Feng Shui Expert.

For the best feng shui bed placement, the wall you put your bed on must be a solid wall, meaning without windows. If it is impossible to place your bed on a solid wall and it must be on a wall with a window, then the window covering must be solid so that light from outdoors cannot be seen in the bedroom as you sleep as this will have an unsettling effect on your body rhythms.

“When a bed is placed under a window, it brings in negative chi to the occupant’s health. The window brings in rushing energy that flows through and causes one to be restless. In addition, the negative chi may impact one’s financial situation.1” – Is It Bad Luck to Place My Bed Under a Window. Patty Tran, Feng Shui Writer and Author

Remedies for Bed Underneath Window

If you have no choice and must place your bed underneath a window or in front of it, there are several things you can do to reduce the effects of the chi energy moving in and out of the window. Symmetry is key here, so make sure if you are going to put your bed in front of a window or windows that it lines up in pleasing, balanced way. Proper feng shui bed placement is essential in creating a restful, peaceful, sensual and happy bedroom. There are few important things to consider.

1. Cover Window with Heavy Draperies

Cover window with thick heavy draperies that completely cover the window and block any light. With a colorful or strong choice of curtains framing the bed, the window, the curtains and everything in between become one big and bold visual focal point. You can open the draperies during the day to let in positive chi energy, but when you sleep, make sure the draperies are pulled tightly closed. This will in effect block the chi energy from rushing over your bed while you sleep.

2. Use shutters

If your interior bedroom has shutters, keep the lower portions closed. Same applies for any bottom-up blinds. It will help give a solid visual barrier for your bed to be placed in front of.

Some feng shui practitioners recommend installing blinds and then position the slats in an upward position to redirect the chi energy. Roman blinds in the bedroom – the best option for those who wish to install a bed headboard to the window

3. Headboards Create a Wall Effect

You can use a headboard to offer an effect of having a wall between you and the window. There are two things you must consider when taking this approach.

Substantial headboard: Make sure your headboard is sturdy, strong and high. A heavy headboard that is very high can offer you the protection of a wall. Pay extra attention to accessories and art; consider them when planning that wall’s entire composition.
Allow space between wall and window: You need to make sure that you leave enough space between the wall and headboard so the chi energy can still flow within your room. The rule of thumb is to leave enough space so you can walk behind the bed.

4. Keep your bed clean.

Be sure not to store anything underneath your bed. Clean under your bed for dust and debris which will be sure to collect. Do this on a regular basis. A clean bedroom is conducive to a good night’s sleep.

Best advice: Implement these feng shui steps in order to protect your health and well-being, but also see how can you change your circumstances for better in the future. Don’t worry about any rules. You ideally know what looks right in your space, so if you’ve found a bed-in front-of-a-window solution that works for you, go for it!

Do you have your bed placed in front of a window? How have you made it work? Do you have advice for those looking to rearrange their bedroom this way?

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