Bedroom Wall Art
The bedroom wall is the one you fall asleep looking at. It should earn that.
Every other room forgives a wrong choice. An office recovers from something too bold; a kitchen moves past the art because it has work to do. A bedroom that gets the wall wrong makes itself felt at six in the morning and last thing at night. The plate above the bed is the most-seen object in the house.
I drew magnolia, peony and lily of the valley for exactly this wall. Not because they are the obvious flowers, but because all three have something in common when you draw them: they are built around a quiet centre. The magnolia holds its cup. The peony opens slowly, then all at once. The lily of the valley bows. You can look at all three for a long time without running out of things to see. That is the only real test for a bedroom wall. They sit inside the wider botanical art prints range at the restorative end of the catalogue, where they belong.
Bedroom wall art earns its place when it holds up at close range in low light. Magnolia, peony and lily of the valley: three studies drawn from the living specimen, for above the bed. From €41.
Key Facts
| The three plates | Magnolia, Peony, Lily of the Valley |
| Frame | Natural oak or light walnut, wide cream mount |
| Spacing | 6 to 8 cm between frames |
| Wall colour | Warm white, linen or pale sage. Not bright white |
| Height | Bottom of frame 25 to 30 cm above the headboard |
| Price | Paper from €41. Canvas from €92 |
| Collection | The Garden |
The three that carry the bedroom wall
Drawn from the specimen. Each links through to its own framed print, from €41.
The magnolia takes the centre. It has the most presence of the three and the most architectural branch: hang it at the height you would naturally rest your eye on when sitting up in bed. The peony goes beside it, not below: it is the fullest thing in the group, with enough colour and depth to balance the magnolia without competing. The lily of the valley is the one that makes the group read as a group. Its bells hang downward, the stem arches, and the whole plant seems to be paying attention to something just out of frame. It gives the three a quiet direction.
Why the bedroom wants the quiet ones
The problem with most bedroom wall art is that it was chosen standing up. The space above a bed is seen primarily from two metres away, from a horizontal position, by lamplight. A plate that looks interesting in a gallery reads as noise from a pillow.
Strong silhouettes are fine in a kitchen or an office, where you pass by rather than settle in. A stag beetle is perfect above a desk. Above a bed it is still there at midnight and still there at seven in the morning, and that is too much to ask of anything with mandibles. The right species for this wall are the ones with an interior life: specimens where the more you look, the more you find. None of them demands to be looked at.
Frames behave differently here too. Natural oak and light walnut catch the warm fall of a bedside lamp and go nearly cream. The frame stops being visible and the plate floats. Dark frames, exactly right for a study, create a focus that the bedroom does not need.
How to hang them above the bed
The number that matters most is the gap between the bottom of the frame and the top of the headboard: 25 to 30 cm. Closer and a pillow will eventually touch the frame. Further and the plates start belonging to the wall rather than the bed, and the connection between the two is most of why they work.
Three plates in a row across a standard double bed (140 to 160 cm wide) should be hung 6 to 8 cm apart. Tighter than a gallery, looser than the specimen-cabinet grip that works in a study. And centre the group on the bed, not on the wall. The bed is the anchor. The plaster is just the background.
Drawing the magnolia and the peony
The magnolia I drew before the leaves came. Spring magnolias open before the tree leafs out, so the specimen is unusually clean: bare dark branches, nothing competing with the flower. The cup is what the whole drawing is built around. Every other mark follows from that shape. I worked outward from the centre, petal by petal, the same way you would look at the flower in a garden.
The peony I drew at full open, which gave me roughly two days. A peony does not hold its peak: the outer petals fold back a little more each morning, and by the third day the whole flower has changed its mind about itself. I went back to the same plant three mornings in a row. The drawing in the plate is from the second morning, when the flower was as open as it was going to get without beginning to drop.
The lily of the valley I drew from the root up. Most illustrations show only the flowering stem. I wanted the whole plant: the broad paired leaves, the arching stem, the bells in sequence, and the red berries that appear after the flowers finish. It is a more complete portrait, and it is why the plate has a different quality from the other two. More like a field record than a studio arrangement.
Questions people ask
What makes a print work above a bed?
It needs to hold up at close range, in low light, without demanding attention. Most wall art is chosen from a standing position; the wall above a bed is seen lying down, by lamplight, for years. The subject should have something to offer at that distance and at that hour. Bold silhouettes and graphic subjects work elsewhere. Here, the specimens that reward slow looking are the ones that last.
How high above the headboard should art hang?
The bottom of the frame should sit 25 to 30 cm above the top of the headboard. Any lower and a pillow will eventually make contact; any higher and the plates lose their relationship to the bed and start reading as general wall art instead. Centre the group on the bed width rather than the wall width. The bed is what they belong to.
One plate or three?
Three in a row reads as a considered set, a collection rather than a choice. One large plate makes a different argument: the scale turns a botanical study into something the room organises itself around. Both work above a bed. The real question is whether you want the wall to be the background to the room or its focal point. If you are not sure, start with one large magnolia. You can always add to it.
What frame colour suits a bedroom?
Natural oak or light walnut, with a wide cream mount rather than a narrow white one. Pale frames disappear into the warm light a bedside lamp produces; by evening they read almost the same colour as the wall. Dark frames are right for a study or a library, where contrast and weight are the point. In a bedroom they create a focus the room does not need and the eye cannot fully relax past.
How do I get these as framed prints?
Each plate is printed and framed to order by Saatchi Art and shipped worldwide. Paper from €41, up to 76 by 102 cm, canvas from €92. Canvas needs no glazing, which matters in a bedroom where reflected light from glass can be distracting at night. Paper under glass gives a slightly crisper reproduction. Both are archival.
The wall that settles the room
Magnolia, peony and lily of the valley all sit in The Garden, the collection drawn for rooms that are meant to slow things down. It holds the full restorative half of the catalogue.
Buy framed prints from €41 ›Original botanical art by Fiurdelin · archival giclée from €41 · framed & shipped worldwide via Saatchi Art