If you are shopping for a whole new set of furniture for your bedroom, you will probably be a bit bewildered by the array of styles and designs that are available in the market currently. You will find both the furniture you thought you wanted and the furniture you didn't even know existed, everything from antique, faux-antique, modern, contemporary, rustic, transitional and so on. The smartest thing you can do is to take your time to research all available choices, which, nowadays, is easily done over the Internet. Learn all you can about the different furnishing styles, compare prices and, most importantly, develop a clear idea of what you yourself can live with. Make a note of the things you need - a bed, an armoire, a mirrored dresser, a couple of nightstand with drawers, armchairs, stools, and so on - and decide if you want to buy an entire bedroom furniture set all at once or would rather prefer to build up a set with separate pieces. You should consider whether the color, shape and size of the furniture will be in harmony with your existing bedroom décor; you can measure your bedroom area to get an exact idea of how the furniture will fit in it.
Furniture
Like the furnishing for the rest of your house, bedroom furniture too should be a matter of personal preference - your taste and your comfort should be paramount. That said, you should also consider utility and fashion factors. Do you want bedroom furniture that is easy to maintain or do you have the time for high-maintenance furniture? If you have children and pets, for example, it probably won't do to have furniture that is just too precious to be touched. Then, you should consider if you can endure the furniture you have chosen for many years to come or will it seem rather retrograde in just a few years time? A good design, they say, never goes out of fashion, but it requires the right setting all the same. So do you have the proper space?
The reason many people seem to go for modern and contemporary bedroom furniture is that this kind of furnishing, apart from looking good and being easy to maintain, is usually more in sync with the current life-style. It comes in a variety of space-saving shapes, often with built-in storage areas, so you'll have no trouble making the smallest bedroom look open, uncluttered and pleasant. Being light-weight, it is also easy to shift the furniture around and give your bedroom a different ambiance from time to time.
The term 'Modern', as applied to furniture here, refers mainly to the furniture designs that were created by the Bauhaus School of Design in Germany in the period between the two World Wars. Founded by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus school pursued innovative designs that were remarkable - especially in light of the Baroque style of furnishings that were in vogue at the time - for their clean lines and radically simplified forms, and the emphasis on functionality. The Modern Furniture Designs incorporated materials like steel, glass and plastics, creating an unheard-of feel of visual lightness and space.
The advent of the Nazis and the outbreak of the Second World War caused many of the Bauhaus designers to leave the country and immigrate to the United States. They brought their modern design concepts in this manner to a new and receptive land, where they were, variously, adapted, assimilated and transformed into further innovative concepts.
A good example of 'Modern' bedroom furniture is Gustav Hassenpflug's Folding Table. When not in use, the table-top can be folded down to a mere 4 inches. Another great and space-saving furniture piece is the platform bed, originally designed by Mies Van Der Rohe . It has a simple design that looks good in any kind of bedroom and it offers storage space inside, which is a boon if you have a small area.
When we speak of 'Contemporary' in furniture design, on the other hand, we mean the styles and trends that are current today. Contemporary furniture design can be inspired from modern design, from antique design, from ethnic design, from rustic design, from fine art, from nature, from technology, from just about anything out there; it can blend in a variety of ideas. If you like imaginative and creative bedroom furniture that stretches the conventional and might just border on the eccentric, then contemporary furniture is for you. Contemporary bedroom furniture seeks to extend design boundaries with startling and elegant contours, without sacrificing comfort and functionality. It is sleek, unembellished and can come in muted or bold colors. It comes in different materials - recycled steel, aluminum, chrome, glass, wood, faux-wood, and with fabrics like linen, cotton, jute, silk, organic hemp, recycled polyester fabric, wool, natural latex foam and so on - but more and more emphasis these days seems to be on staying non-toxic and eco-friendly.
