Design A Niche Bedroom

Along with outdoor fire pits, outdoor kitchens, outdoor meditation rooms and soaking tubs, the most current client request has been an alternate arrangement for sleeping when one’s spouse A) snores, B) tosses and turns, C) tends toward night owl behavior, D) conducts overseas business, E) awakens at the crack o’ dawn, F) suffers insomnia, G) is addicted to late night talk shows, H) requires white noise recordings to sleep which are too loud, and, well, the list goes on and on. Not that spouses are trying to escape their better halves constantly, but for better or for worse, attentive designers are often required to address this situation.Whenever spatially possible, clever architects and builders are drawing into their plans a master suite whose bedroom includes some sort of anteroom or attached sitting room. Along with the requisite separation of water closets and clothes closets, this anteroom has become a requisite in the luxury home market. When space appears tight, the choice is often to shrink the master bedroom with less abundant space for side tables, and sofa seating groups in order to accommodate an anteroom. This configuration actually encourages sleep versus all other nighttime activities such as reading, TV watching, etc., that can interrupt the two primary necessities of the bedroom: sleep and …!

According to sleep psychologists, eliminating TV watching, newspaper reading, checking emails, Instagram and Facebook or talking on the phone an hour before sleeping contributed to a 75 percent better night’s rest. The negative effects of sleep deprivation have become a recent cause cèlébre among medical journals and talk show hosts. By eliminating the television, phone charger and telephone from the master bedroom, and placing all of these in the master anteroom, one has already supported a better night’s sleep. However, issues of the alternative sleep option still crop up. Essential to the anteroom is a comfortable location to stretch out.

This can be accomplished in a number of ways. A traditional daybed sporting a conventional single box spring and mattress is ideal for this purpose. Though quite clunky as a single mattress in the standard single size of 39 inches wide and 75 inches long, with a bit of searching, and for no extra cost, a 33-inch-wide single mattress can be found (Long’s Bedding of NYC supplies these). A standard metal frame or “Harvard Frame,” can inexpensively support the box spring and mattress. Do make sure that the overall sitting height of the top of the mattress is no higher than 18” because, ideally, one would like to use this daybed as a sitting area with an average seat height. It can be flanked by perhaps two chairs and sport a coffee table to place readings books, a carafe of water, a glass and one’s cell phone. This can become an attractive seating area.

But how do you dress this flat mattress so that it doesn’t appear like a bed? When ordering the mattress, for a little extra money, you can provide your own fabric. I prefer supplying a soft cotton or linen to the mattress company as I find textural fabrics such as chenille, nubby linens and wools to be uncomfortable to the bare skin when sleeping. To provide back support for sitting, I recommend about four pleasantly plump, 50/50 down and feather pillows in a decorative or matching pattern. More than four pillows becomes a nightmare to throw off, yet fewer provide too little back support. I often place a long back bolster or wedge to aid in the pitch and comfort, but this also becomes a fifth piece to throw off in one’s bleary-eyed state.

The box and metal frame can be disguised with a tailored dustskirt. Or a more contemporary platform, custom-faced with an exotic wood veneer or even mirror (which allows it to recede and disappear) is effective.

The traditional Napoleonic, Biedermeier, or antique French daybeds, often dressed with a small canopy or baldaquin, from which hangs two curtain-like panels that drape over the daybed sides or can be pulled back behind rosettes, or held back by tie backs. Though visually stunning, these daybeds are frequently too short lengthwise to accommodate a 21st-century spouse.

With limited space, a sofa is always a healthy option for the restless mate. With one long, loose seat cushion versus two or three cushions, the sofa becomes a more comfortable spot for a late-night hibernation. In fact, if the upholstery has loose back cushions, the space accommodating the loose back cushions supplies extra shoulder width.

Billy Baldwin championed the St. Thomas sofa. This stylish sofa featured a single cushion, button tufted to resemble a mattress, and snugly slid into tightly fitted back and arms. With no backward pitch, this sofa allowed you to lie flat without rolling toward the back, as one typically does on regular sofas.

Although the sofa or daybed located adjacent to or within the master bedroom may seem a precursor to sitcom divorces, many have found this option not only rescues the disturbed sleep but enhances the union, smoothing the irritating bumps in the nocturnal road.

I am frequently asked about this option by clients. Yet along with this request, I am asked that this request be in very close proximity to the master bedroom. So, if separated architecturally by a sitting room, I suggest double doors or pocket doors which can offer distance from the snore roar, but closeness in spirit.

The choice of the separate sleeping option is a delicate matter, yet when approached with a design solution, most breathe a sigh of relief. Not only can sleepless nights be avoided effortlessly, but marriages can be saved.