Leanne Ford’s Unexpected Bed Placement Is Actually So Brilliant

When you move into an older home, the chances of there being a fireplace (functional or not) in your bedroom are pretty high. Although gorgeous and packed with so much character, styling a bedroom around a fireplace can be tricky because you may feel as though it has to remain the focal point of the room. But interior designer Leanne Ford just showed an unexpected way to put your fireplace to work, especially if it’s in your bedroom.

“We have a charming fireplace in our bedroom, but truth be told, we don’t actually use it,” Ford wrote in a recent Instagram caption, continuing, “so we put our floating bed frame right splat in front, in the center of the room. It’s a better layout for how we truly live, and the mantel remains a beautiful place for beautiful things.”

Not only is putting your bed in front of a fireplace stylistically a good idea — think of the mantel and all its decorative space as an ornate frame around your bed (a simple piece of art) — but it could also be strategic for storage. If your fireplace isn’t functional, yet you still have access to the firebox, you can use the space to store things like suitcases, bins of offseason clothes, packing supplies, and other things you only reach for once or twice a year. 

Even if your fireplace has been boarded up, as is the case with many old apartment fireplaces, placing a bed or another piece of furniture in front of it is a great way to distract from the blank board and put more emphasis on the remaining decorative mantel.

With this layout, both the fireplace and your bed become the focal points of the space. The flow of the room will also feel better because rooms are often designed with fireplaces at the center so that everything feels more symmetrical and evenly spaced. No more having to sleep in a cramped corner!

Take a page from Ford’s book and try moving your bed in front of your fireplace, and your bedroom’s design and layout might just click into place.