Décor can reflect gender in very direct ways.
As one of the most intimate rooms in the house, bedrooms say a lot about comfort and who’s in charge. Color, style, window treatments and accessories play key roles in creating a specific mood. In these three bedrooms there’s a real guy-thing going — which I don’t see very often. So I’m naturally intrigued by what helps each of them transmit that vibe.
Often it’s a neutral color. The symmetrical, gold-embossed natural leather folding screen sets the mood in this wonderfully streamlined bedroom by Stephen Sills and James Huniford. Think of how the same room would look if the screen was yellow or green floral? Or even black lacquer? The simplicity of the bedcovering, no-frills natural fiber area rug and additional spare furnishings read as the opposite of “girly.”
Sometimes it’s texture. Belgian fashion designer Edouard Vermeulen’s stunning guest room seems inspired by the old-fashioned reddish-brown cordovan leather and the kind of shoes worn by the pre-Nike generation. Those leather-covered side chairs and Baroque-style bureau even look shoe-polished, no? A bleached-white wood floor sets off the walls dramatically and the soft peach-color bed cover and wing chair are just variations on the theme.
Or it can be pattern. The bedroom in a famous London house that once belonged to the 19th century dandy Beau Brummell (TCM sometimes airs the 1954 namesake movie starring Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor) was, for some fifty years, the “his” room for an aristocratic couple who had separate sleeping arrangements. Back and beige striped wallpaper evokes men’s suit fabric and old-school ties. That certainly provides a handsome backdrop for ebony accents of framed art on the bed wall. Floral stripes of the curtains and bedspread are definite softeners but the dark wood tones of the table and bureau clearly have a “men’s club” attitude. Another light floor – this time pale wall-to-wall carpeting – seems key to keeping such a dark room from taking on a cave-like quality.
