by Janette Peel

Created on: August 19, 2008   Last Updated: September 18, 2008

Give your bedroom a truly romantic look by swathing your bed in billowing clouds of sheer muslin. It's not expensive and you'll be delighted with the results.

The bedroom is the one room in the house where you can really crate the scheme of your dreams. Only the chosen few see inside this room, so you can experiment to your heart's content and plan a fabulous boudoir fit for a princess. For a touch of fairy-tale escapism, try draping festoons of floating muslin or voile at the head of your bed.

You don't have to have a four-poster bed to achieve this look. An inexpensive canopy in a style reminiscent of old-fashioned mosquito nets works miracles fitted above a bed; you can buy these nets ready-made at little cost. You can, however, also make your own quick-and-easy version by hanging generous lengths of muslin, sufficient to envelope the entire bed, from a hook set in the ceiling.

If muslin draping all round the sides of a bed seems rather too confining, there is a visually pleasing alternative. Try draping swags of soft fabric around a square or circular framework mounted over the bed at ceiling height.

Fabric choices are not strictly limited to plain white; an array of patterned possibilities is readily available from most major department stores. Delicate sprigged patterns are ideal as a complement to a purely feminine bedroom, while muslin depicting celestially inspired patters of stars, suns and moons makes a strong design statement. If you are feeling really adventurous, try dying the fabric to a soft all-over shade of pink or peach, or you could tie-dye it for a dreamy, cobweb-like effect.

Sheer drapes can dress a four-poster bed dramatically while retaining an airy look. Drapes can hang from loops of sheer fabric, stitched across the top edge. Generous bows may catch the drapes to each pole of the bed.

It is hard to believe that simple metal framing, fixed out from the wall behind a bed, can form the support for cloud-like festoons of muslin. The muslin can be looped loosely in place so that it hides any evidence of the metal framing.

Patterned voile curtains, can be draped over a while pole set at the head of a bed, to create a floating, romantic looks. A pastel colored bow can add a purely decorative final touch on the end of the pole.

Children will love playing under net or dotted voile canopies, suspended over a spacious day bed.

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