Off-Center Window Above a Bed? Add Curtains

There is something about a great makeover that just checks all of the boxes! My client had a bedroom that when it was designed was super on trend at the time. Fast forward to over 10+ years later and suddenly the dark and traditional style patterned wallpaper and furniture and huge headboard felt really heavy and outdated. Our goal was to give a bedroom a makeover with a light and bright spa feel, and also felt current for today. Also, she had a few challenges we needed to solve like an off-set window I discovered was hidden behind the bed and a sloped ceiling. It was certainly a challenge but wondering how do you tackled an off-center window above a bed? Add curtains!

This post contains affiliate links. See our affiliate and sponsor disclosure here.

An off-centered window can provide a room lay out challenge

When we first started talking about redoing her bedroom, I had no clue there was even a window behind the headboard! It was part nice surprise and part ” Oh shoot, how are we going to handle this?”. The other issue with this room is that when you look at the left side of the bed, the ceiling actually slopes down near the top, creating for us not only a smaller window on that side of the house but a big challenge. You can see why my design brain was definitely turning in circles. And most designers will do everything they can to not put a bed in front of a window.

Off-set windows can be a challenge but aren’t impossible to overcome with a few design tricks

The combination make the bed placement tricky because I didn’t really want to call that the center of the room with its asymmetry, but it would make it even weirder with the window. So we had to make some decisions on how we place the bed and how we solve the problem of the offset window. We also decided to remove the shades and let more natural sun light in during the day.

Don’t shy away from placing your bed in front of the windows

The first thing we decided to do when, approaching her bedroom redesign, was to open up the window that was hidden behind the very tall headboard and paint the wall a very light blue green color to bring some lightness to the space. We decided to look for a lower solid headboard was in budget and would open up that window and create a focal point. It suddenly became an entirely new room!

Add the drapery panels to make the window appear centered

The biggest challenge when the bedroom windows that are offset and not centered where the be that would be placed you to the slope in the ceiling. We decided to solve that issue by actually placing the curtain rod very high and wide and leaving enough space and a little bit of window poking through the center to bring in light. We scooted the curtains over as far as we could to make them look as centered as we could. This along with the curtains , created the illusion that the window was much bigger than it was. This allowed us to be more free with the placement of the bed and center it to include non-sloped part of the ceiling wall. The room isn’t super wide, it’s more long, so it also gave the clients enough room to place the dressers they needed for storage and have enough room to walk around them. We also added a mirror to bounce some light across the room back to the windows.

Changing the tone of the bedroom furniture from dark wood to light wood with cleaner lines can change the entire feel and mood of the room

It was also decided that we wanted to also swap out the furniture for something much more modern feeling. By swapping out the heavy furniture for something lighter in tone, it made the room feel much lighter in general. The West Elm Acorn series of furniture which included the nightstands, long dresser and armoire were perfect.

See how this bedroom received a whole new look with a modern bohemian feel

We replaced the tall dresser with more of a armoire style piece and the two nightstands. They were a little bit lower that the old ones with more convenient storage. In the end, the room ended up feeling very light. With the white bedding,and a little bit of color popped here and there it is open and relaxing. We also played with various pillows and greenery as you can see as they change in the pictures to get that right feel.

With a new table lamp on each and some greenery to each nightstand, adding new decor gave this bedroom makeover a natural spa feeling. It’s amazing how by creating that wall of curtains and opening up the window the room feels much bigger and much less cave like. And love how the client has the option of changing the mood in the room by changing out throw pillows and blankets.

The client wanted somewhere to read so we also added a very small sofa at the very end of the bed. She had one there previously and we wanted to do that again so she could fold her laundry or she hang out in her room. At 48″ inches it fit right across the end of her queen sized bed. She was kind enough to send me the image above of how it looks now with the couch in place so you could see it. It adds layers to the room with the small couch in front the the drapes in the back. We opted to not put artwork over the nightstands at this time or a lot of knick-knacks to keep it clean-looking.

All in all, were super happy with how the room turned out! Look at that natural sunlight with the light window coverings and those off-center window above a bed…gone by adding those curtains! I know the client loves how much brighter and more open it feels.