CHINESE CANOPY BEDS

A striking piece of furniture, the canopy bed has a long history and still persists today in modern Chinese bedrooms. With high posts at the four corners, canopy beds lend themselves admirably to use as the focal point of the bedroom. The structure is traditionally intended to hang draperies from for a dramatic effect and to change the mood of the room. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Chinese developed a particular style of canopy bed. Usually smaller and more delicate than its European counterpart, the four-poster, the Chinese version typically also has two extra posts on one side, and is often decorated with ornate wooden carvings that feature lattice designs and dragons.

Although classic in style, the canopy bed can be modified to suit modern tastes. Its substantial size and volume sets up a particular spatial relationship with the room, and its placement depends on the configurations of the space. Nevertheless, without the accepted strictures that once applied, all kinds of things are possible, as in the strong statement in the small studio flat at left, where the canopy bed fills the room and is a focal point for the entire apartment. Above all, such beds are three-dimensional sculptures that can be admired for their visual harmonic beauty.

In an otherwise open-plan conversion of a small apartment in a 1930s Shanghai block, the tiny bedroom was designed around the owners’ antique Chinese canopy bed.

A ming dynasty canopy bed with decorative latticework is here used as both retreat and conversation piece in the reception area of a house.

A canopy bed makes an ideal bed-cum-play space for a child, with its room-like coziness and structure to hang and lean things on.

An ornate Qing canopy bed, its openwork decoration partly gilded, in a Peranakan (Straits Chinese) house in Melaka, Malaysia.

The substantial structure of this antique Chinese canopy bed contrasts with a geometrically simple low table topped with sandblasted green glass.