20 Genius Ways to Place a Bed in Front of a Window

Most people will do anything to avoid placing their bed in front of a window. After all, if there’s a view involved, you want to be looking at it from bed — not have it be behind you. And don’t get me started on how a bed, especially one with a dramatic upholstered headboard, can block what little natural light you might get in your space.

But placing a bed in front of a window needn’t be a design drag. In smaller bedrooms and rentals with awkward spaces, sometimes this layout is unavoidable. And you know what? This setup can actually shine under the right circumstances and with a little bit of careful consideration.

The following rooms make placing a bed in front of a window look not just doable, but also desirable. Get inspired by these picks — many of which were sourced in real homes from the Apartment Therapy house tour archive.

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Worried about the visuals of a headboard or bedding interrupting the line of sight that a window usually draws? Offset that visual by installing a chandelier or an oversized pendant ceiling lamp, which draws your eyes in immediately. The modern bubble ceiling pendant shown in this small bedroom within a historical Illinois home offsets the intersection of an upholstered bedframe in front of the room’s only window.

In a bedroom where there is more than one set of windows to let light in, selecting a window treatment that provides full privacy may be the key to making a bedframe look natural in its position. Don’t be afraid to choose a curtain or drape that conceals window panes to the naked eye while still allowing light to filter in. In this historic cottage in Charleston, South Carolina, woven traverse curtains allow natural light to flood this bedroom while providing visual relief from the intersecting headboard.

Make your bed placement look effortlessly chic by deliberately tying the room’s upholstery into a cohesive look with uniform finishes. Balancing curtains with a headboard creates harmony in this focal space, adding warmth, texture and a sense that this layout was truly destined to be. In this midcentury-modern Los Angeles home, a neutral color palette is reinforced by supple linen curtains that mirror the texture in a minimal-leaning wooden headboard — the cohesion keeps eyes drawn to the center of this bedroom.

It’s bound to be controversial, but if you’re working on a guest room layout where windows are simply not circumventable, maybe it’s time to “downgrade” your bed. Mirrored twin beds help frame the double single hung windows in a historic Charlotte, North Carolina, cabin; this allows natural light to pour into this guest room, all while avoiding the strongest beams ending up directly on one’s pillowcase. A twin bed can be less obstrusive when placed in front of a window, as it often gives you more room for elements like this vintage bedside chest, shown above.

If your layout won’t allow you to frame your bed in front of a window symmetrically, don’t fret — allow the window frame to meld into the background by covering it up. A nestled bedside table or even a chaise or armchair can help prevent your eyes from noticing the juxtaposition of a bedframe and the window in your bedroom. In this sunny Art Deco-style apartment in Los Angeles, a low-profile bedside table conceals the window frame behind it, making the layout less noticeable overall.

In this 520-square-foot NYC apartment, the bedroom ceiling and walls have been painted in Benjamin Moore’s Vanderberg Blue (721), which creates a cozy, cocoon-like effect in the space. You hardly notice that the homeowner, who worked with a designer friend, put the bed right in front of the window, thanks to the bed’s finish, which almost blends right into the blue backdrop.

Color-drenched, seamless swaths of surfaces keep the room from feeling like the bed is an intrusion in this spot. The size of the window also helps to keep to this design move from making the room feel off-kilter. Plenty of light is still pouring in.

Want to put your bed in front of a window? Then try this pillow styling trick, which can take up less vertical and horizontal space on your bed, which, in turn, also means less of an obstruction for your window. Instead of rows of pillows lined up vertically — sleeping pillows, decorative pillows, and even accent pillows, all sitting upright — use a simple, horizontally stacked arrangement.  In this London flat, the pillows barely graze the windowpane!

You can make a bed work in front of a window even if the bed isn’t centered on the main window wall. That’s exactly what this couple learned in their Brooklyn rental, where it just made sense to move the bed into the far corner so they could set up a little lounge spot in their larger-than-average primary bedroom.

Sometimes, putting your bed in front of a window can open up your floor plan to accommodate a second purpose in a room, be that a small desk setup for working at home or a little loveseat for a reading nook or dressing area.

A major downside of putting your bed in front of a window is that you can’t look through it. However, if your room has double-corner windows like this tiny Santa Barbara cottage, putting the bed in front of one of them still lets you take advantage of at least one view while you’re lounging. (And I imagine that view is pretty stunning in Santa Barbara.)

While every detail of this Los Angeles bedroom is picture-perfect because it was decorated by the professional home stager resident, your eye can’t help but be drawn to the bed. The bold auburn shade and the dazzling curvature of the headboard make the bed such a focal point that you don’t even realize it’s placed against the windows.

Sheer curtains are great for providing privacy while still letting in natural light. They can also bring attention away from the window behind your bed by making it look like a large, ambient light, as seen in this San Francisco studio apartment.

This beautiful, bright, black-and-white bedroom in this Louisiana ranch house features a bed in front of a window, but it doesn’t cut down on the amount of light in the least. That’s thanks in part to the fact that the bed itself is wrought iron instead of having a huge headboard. But the white walls and decor certainly help keep this room crisp and bright as well. 

A different way to fashion a bed in front of a window? “Turning the bed sideways allows you to keep the visual of the entire window and allows for all of the natural light to come through into the living space,” says Isfira Jensen, CEO and principal of New York’s interior designer at Nufacet Interiors. “Additionally, with this layout there is free and easy access to the window and you are not subject to the more varying temperatures sleeping directly in front of a window.”

The bed in this tiny Brooklyn studio is a perfect example. It is situated in front of the window, which allows for an open space in the middle of the room — but sleepers can still see out the window. 

If you’re forced to have a bed in front of the window but you’re concerned about blocking light, try a bed that’s low to the ground, which Jensen says allows the window to frame the bed and act as a visual headboard.

The floor bed in this eclectic New Jersey loft is a brilliant solution to this space-saving issue. “The view and natural light offered by the window enhances the openness of the space,” says Jensen. “This windowscape combined with the bed becomes a harmonious focal point in the room.”

If your bedroom has two windows instead of just one, try situating the bed in front of both windows instead of one. This gorgeous Maine bedroom does just that, and the results are stunning. 

Avoid looking like a bed in front of the window is blocking the whole window by hanging your curtains higher. “Raising the curtains as high as possible also draws the eye upward, thereby giving the illusion of higher ceilings,” says Jensen. “This small-yet-effective trick, elevates the look of the entire room.”

Here, Emily Henderson placed her curtain rod all the way at the ceiling in order to create the illusion that less of the window is covered by the bed. Of course, a metal bed frame helps here as well. 

In an ideal bed-meets-window situation, this is what we’d all be dealing with: a large window, centrally located in a room. Take your cue from The Decorologist and pop the bed underneath, add some blinds or curtains for style and practicality, and bam — couldn’t be simpler (or lovelier).

Let’s say you have a smaller window where your bed needs to go. That can look great, but if you’re after a more formal look then use curtains to visually widen the window — extend them to just slightly wider than the bed itself, as shown in this Brooklyn apartment.

“Using curtains to trick the eye is an old trick used by the pros and serves brilliantly in this example,” says Jensen. “Using this tip serves to give this area of the room a cohesive look, ensuring the bed placement, window, and curtains look intentional.” You can also use this trick to make a just-off-center window look like it’s centered over the bed.

Another way to go about this is to put the bed in front of a window that isn’t in the center of the room. This San Francisco apartment shows how cool this can look; the bookcase next to the bed is shorter than the bed, which allows plenty of light to enter the room despite the close placement of the bed to the window. While the space is admittedly pretty busy, you have to admit it’s expertly balanced. 

When a bed needs to go beside the window, the look is almost always more casual, although it has a relaxed charm. If you can make use of the windowsill as a bedside table of sorts, it almost becomes a feature. “This is a clever option because not only does it capitalize on the view from the window, but it also eliminates the need for extra furniture, which maximizes available floor space in a small setting,” says Jensen.