Modern classic

For a scheme that has a classic feel with a contemporary edge, we have customised a smart off-the-peg headboard by painting it in a striking matt black paint. The headboard’s bold shape is balanced with a strong, traditionally striped furnishing fabric and bed linen in a large-scale toile de Jouy pattern. To emphasise the mixture of styles, wall-hung antique plaster cameos are combined with modern chrome floor lights, which provide an unusual yet practical solution to the problem of bedside lighting.

How to make it work
• A bold statement headboard can be balanced with strongly patterned bedlinen.
• If you want to change the colour of furniture you have bought off-the-peg, seal your paint with a clear matt varnish to help prevent it chipping off.

Lilla headboard, £425, Oka. Windermere floor lamp in brushed nickel, £1,303.40; square-cut shade, £63; both Besselink & Jones. Reclaimed plaster plaque, £100, Lassco.

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