The way to Decorate a Bedroom in Old Hollywood Style
If you would like to add timeless appeal to your own bedroom in true old-Hollywood style, then look no farther than the works of actor-designer William “Billy” Haines, spouse Jimmy Shields or interior designer Dorothy Draper for inspiration. Haines, Shields and Draper helped to shape the Hollywood Regency decorating style during the mid-to-late 1930s and outside by mixing Art Deco, Asian furnishings, French Regency, Greek Revival and English design.
Hollywood Glam
To re-create a Haines-inspired feminine boudoir, paint walls in subtle salmon using crown molding, window trim and baseboards in antique white. Insert a wall-mounted white-iron wall-mounted crown over the bed and outfit it with a draped off-white floral imprinted canopy to either side of this delicate gray bed frame using salmon bedspread. Two white wing-back seats and French Regency antique white bedside tables and drier include the finishing touches atop an off-white floral-patterned area rug.
Tufted Upholstery and Soft Romance
A curved, upholstered and tufted sleigh bed put against a wall covered with complete gathered panels ceiling to ground gives a subtle foundation for bedroom love. Three-legged white lacquered end tables, a contrasting black lacquer dressing table and metallic accents cast light around the room. Cover windows with sheer polka-dotted Roman hues. Place a true Hollywood icon — an ochre fainting couch — over from the bed.
An Eclectic Mix
Establish a rusty-chocolate arched headboard upholstered and tufted on a chrome bed framework against a woven suntan-brown display hung on the wall behind. Insert highly polished black Georgian-inspired bedside tables, a pair of deep-maroon velvet Regency seats and a chrome bedroom seat at the foot of their bed — topped with tufted upholstery to match the bed. Black lacquered, white marble-topped tables would be the ideal place to set flowery bouquets to add splashes of color to the room.
A Timeless Boudoir
Create a tufted headboard in soft suede and repaint two inexpensive dressers of the exact same sort. Spray on shiny black lacquer and generate a faux inlay over the dresser drawers using iridescent spray-on gold paint over a stencil of curvaceous design. Insert silver-ring door pulls. Top with two silver bobbin lamps on either side of the bed using flared lampshades. Two lavish minuet-fringed mink-brown throw pillows seals the look.