Buying bedroom furniture can be a little overwhelming, with so many options to choose from even the most basic piece of furniture leads to an ocean of design questions. What kind of bed? What style? Should it have a headboard and footboard, one or neither? Completing the full bedroom suite leads to even more questions.

Fortunately, the answer to most of these questions comes down to one of two things.

1. Personal preference
2. The size of the room.

To give you an idea of where to start and what bedroom furniture you might want to furnish your master or guest suite with, we offer the following guide.

The Basics

Before you review the differences in the most common furniture pieces for the bedroom from the type of bed to your nightstand consider the following three questions:

1. What do you need?
2. What is the decorating style?
3. Are you shopping matching sets or mixed and matched pieces?

Lastly before shopping, set a realistic budget which considers that you're about to make a major purchase.

What Do You Need?

Consider what the room needs to do, who the room is for and why you are shopping in the first place. Are you shopping for a bedroom apartment? Replacing old furniture? Or have you finally moved into the house of your dreams with a new master suite?

Don’t forget to take your own lifestyle into account. Do you sleep alone? With your partner, how about the kids or pets?

What Decorating Style Do You Want?

With many distinctive styles to choose from and since the bedroom set will include most furniture your bedroom, we’ve collected the top five most popular styles to choose from and their defining characteristics:

Traditional

A traditional bedroom set reproduces the classic décor feeling often with French flair. Emphasizing elegance and simplicity, featuring deep colour and wood tones, decorative details, and a variety of ornamental elements.

Modern

Simplicity at its best, modern furniture sets are defined with clean, crisp lines, a plain design with few ornamental details (if any) and a neutral colour palette, often in a glossy finish.

Contemporary

Contemporary style is best described as the “here and now” style. Often confused with modern styles contemporary furniture is fluid in its design with smooth shapes and curved lines. Featuring glossy finishes on a neutral colour palette and few (if any) ornamental details.

Pro Tip: Contemporary is an ever-changing trend that shifts with the style of the times. Be prepared to revamp your bedroom at least every decade if you want to stay in trend!

Transitional

The transitional style borrows the best from the modern and traditional styles. The design offers a unique balance of classic elegance with modern material, allowing the style to blend plush and noble furnishings with steel and glass elements.

Mid-Century Modern

Known for its iconic furniture pieces in modern design. The mid-century modern style celebrates functionality more than anything else and rebels against traditional ornate designs. Rosewood and oak were most used  in the manufacturing featuring curved designs and natural wood grain patterns.

Do You Want a Matched Set?

Depending on your personal preferences and decorating style of choice it may not be the best choice to choose a complete matching set of furniture. In a traditional or formal designed room, a matching set will look stunning but in more casual settings it may feel boring, even suffocating. Instead, choose a variety of pieces that complement but do not perfectly match each other.

Basic Bedroom Furniture

Start with the basics, the standard bedroom set includes a bed, dresser and one to two nightstands.

The Bed

Your bed is where you will spend most of your time while in the bedroom. As such choosing the right bed is essential. Here’s a list of the most common bed designs and styles to choose from and their key characteristics.

Sleigh Beds

Contrary to widespread belief sleigh beds to remain a staple in modern or traditional rooms due to their timeless design. Characterized by their outwards rolling headboard and footboard resembling a horse-drawn sleigh.

Four-Poster Beds

This bedframe features four posts, one at each corner of the frame. Modern clean lines keep this bed in style and is best described by grand and luxurious, used as a status symbol by the elite of yesteryear why not continue to do so?

The Canopy Bed

Simply the four-poster bed but with their drapes and canopy covering. Mostly used with a traditional style but with a little modern makeover any canopy bed will become the showpiece you wanted for your modern bedroom.

Platform Beds

Featuring a raised platform or frame which supports the mattress without the need of a box spring. Considered the most economical out of all bed styles for that reason and being smaller than the standard bed allows the platform bed to be the focal point of smaller to average sized rooms, making the room appear larger and more spacious.

Panel Beds

Featuring an all-in-one bed frame the panel bed has its headboard and footboard attached directly to the frame, without the need for spindles or slats. With the headboard and footboard being vertically flat this bed sits right on the wall. Some panel beds feature decorative headboards to accommodate fresh design styles.

Motion Beds

Motion beds are similar to the look and feel of platform beds with one key difference, the bed frame is electronically adjustable. The bedframe allows the frame to support our spines natural “S-Shape” by adjustment in the head and foot of the bed, with the push of a button.

Standard Bed Sizes

Size	Measurements In Inches
Twin	39x75
Twin XL	39x80
Double / Full	54x75
Queen	60x80
King	76-78x80
California King	72x84

If you are buying just a headboard, check to see that it matches the frame/mattress size.

The Dresser

We consider the dresser to be the second most important piece of bedroom furniture. Its where we keep our clothes. A double dresser typically consists of two columns of three drawers while a highboy dresser might have five or six drawers in a narrow configuration. The term “drawer dresser” refers to a dresser that has only drawers. A “door dresser” describes a dresser with a door placed in the center, which opens to reveal pull-out trays, a cubbyhole, or a set of shelves, depending on the style and make. A door dresser tends to be larger than a drawer dresser.

The Nightstand

Designed to stand at a proportional height level with the bed to keep all your nighttime essentials within easy reach. They maximize storage space, featuring both open and closed storage for a variety of items. While some even offer lined drawers to protect your most delicate items.

If you are buying a nightstand separately, choose one that is on the same scale as your existing furniture selection. for example, a small narrow nightstand will be dwarfed by a king size bed with a large headboard.

Additional Bedroom Furniture

A part of the basic bedroom furniture listed about some bedroom suites add additional pieces to the set, mostly being mirrors or chests.

The Mirrors

In relation to your bedroom suite your mirror has multiple styles to choose from, is a leading enhancement for your bedroom’s style and contributes to the overall feel of the room. There are four diverse categories that bedroom mirrors are divided into, the full-length dressing mirror, the full-length cheval mirror, the mounting mirror, and the tri-fold mirror.

The Full-Length Dressing Mirrors

Your full-length dressing mirror not only gives your image from head to toe but, as with any mirror can enhance your bedroom décor, making it feel more spacious. Found in two variants this mirror is either permanently fixed to a flat surface such as your wall or come with their own stationary stand.

The Full-Length Cheval Mirror

Like the dressing mirrors the cheval mirrors allow a full image from head to toe. Unlike the dressing mirrors however, cheval mirrors are freestanding and fastened with hinges to a frame. This allows free angle rotation for better versatility. Enhance your bedroom by pairing with your dresser or chest and make the room feel more spacious!

The Mounting Mirrors

The mounting mirrors are single mirrors mounted on the wall over the dresser or attached to the back of the dresser itself. One of the most common mirrors in the bedroom, this mirror type is offered in most bedroom sets and scales to the size of the dresser.

The Tri-Fold Mirror

A common variant to the mounted mirror, the tri-fold mirror has three sections, two of which are adjustable. The main wider section is flanked by two, hinged narrower segments, some options allow you to fully close the mirror. Typically, the tri-fold mirror is mounted to the dresser, but it can also be fastened to the wall by securing the center section only.

The Chests

Similar and often confused with the dresser the chest is an upright piece of furniture that varies in size and versatility. Like the mirrors the chest can be divided into four categories: Chest of drawers, Tallboy chest, Chiffonier chest, and the door chest.

The Chest of Drawers

Simply referred to as a chest, is an upright piece of furniture that has several rows of drawers designed to hold clothes and other personal items. The chest is the better choice for smaller bedrooms than the dresser because of the vertical build.

The Tallboy Chest

A Tallboy chest is a tall set of drawers in two or more sections; the bottom section being larger than the top and acts as a table like base for the top section which sits on long legs. Modern designs see the tallboy constructed as one unit with architectural detailing such as molding and false fronts, imitating the traditional tallboy look.

The Chiffonier Chest

The chiffonier chest is a narrow set of drawers typically used to store lingerie and undergarments. They are the smallest style of chest due to their narrow structure and can include a small cupboard placed either above or bellow the set of drawers.

The Door Chest

The door chest forgoes the majority drawers and instead uses a small cabinet or shelving units, sometimes a combination of the two. Enclosed by hinged doors and place above a set of drawers. Often used as a small television stand in the bedroom and often resembles an armoire but is smaller in scale.

Bedroom Accent Furniture

Bedroom accent furniture enhance your décor while improving the functionality of your room, by adding focal points and personal touches that create visual interest.

bedroom vanities

Bedroom vanities give you a place to organize your toiletries and makeup. Many come with a matching bench or chair to allow you to sit while doing your makeup or brushing your hair. They can include adjustable mirrors and drawers in a number of sizes and designs.

Bedroom benches

The bedroom bench is a unique piece of furniture and acts as a practical yet decorative way to disguise clutter. They can range from upholstered benches to chest benches for added storage.

The storage chest

The storage chest resembles a large rectangular box with a lid, designed to store blankets, comforters and seasonal clothing made from cedar due to the wood’s natural ability to repel insects and keep its fresh scent for years after harvesting.

The Armoire

Traditionally an armoire was a tall cupboard that included shelving, used to store clothing or linens. Today, however, the traditional armoire has evolved and adapted into a versatile piece of furniture intended for a variety of uses.

The Wardrobe Armoire

The wardrobe armoire is a perfect way to add more storage to bedrooms without a closet. Conveniently store and organize clothing, bedding, and accessories. While keeping your suits, shirts, and blouses neat and tidy, hung from the clothing bar. The armoire is an airtight environment, protecting your clothing from the sun and humidity.

The Jewelry Armoire 

The jewelry armoire is specifically designed for safe storage of your jewelry and valuables. They are characterized by a number of stacked drawers for storing jewelry, side doors complete with hooks for hanging necklaces and lined compartments or drawers to prevent valuable rings, earrings, and bracelets from being scratched. They are freestanding, sitting directly on the floor or resting on legs.