The English Country bedroom design trend
Transform your bedroom into a cosy country retreat that perfectly balances rustic charm with sophisticated elegance. The English country style combines floral patterns, antique furniture pieces, and natural textures to create a luxury that feels both refined and welcoming.
You'll love how this enduring design approach turns your bedroom into a sanctuary that looks collected over time rather than perfectly curated.
What is the English country style?
English country style celebrates comfortable elegance with a mix of traditional patterns and weathered finishes. Your bedroom should feel like it belongs in a centuries-old manor house, layered with chintz fabrics, botanical prints, and cherished antiques.
Unlike the modern farmhouse style, English country embraces ornate details and rich textures while maintaining a casual, lived-in atmosphere.
Natural materials like wood and stone combine with soft textiles to create depth, while inherited or collected pieces add character to every corner.
How to get the look
Statement bed frames
Make your bed frame the room's focal point with a dramatic upholstered headboard in floral fabric or rich velvet. Four-poster beds work brilliantly, too - choose dark wood for traditional appeal or painted frames for a lighter touch.
Add layers of patterned quilts and throw in complementary florals, keeping the look relaxed rather than pristine.
Layer your textiles
Mix multiple floral patterns in coordinating colours, focusing on traditional English garden motifs. Combine large-scale prints with smaller ones, adding striped or checked patterns for contrast.
Layer curtains with sheers and heavier drapes to control light while maintaining that essential country house feel.
Pictured: Willis Gambier Etienne Rattan Bed Frame. Available from Bedstar.
Antique furniture pieces
Add weathered wooden pieces like a vintage dressing table or chest of drawers. Look for items with patina and character - perfect imperfections add to the authentic country house atmosphere. Position a cosy armchair in a corner with a small side table for morning tea.
Many furniture makers now create new pieces with distressed finishes and aged details that capture that coveted English country house feel. These reproduction pieces combine the vintage look with modern durability.
Natural elements
Bring the outside in with seasonal flowers and potted greenery. Your floral arrangements don't need to be fancy - gather small posies in vintage jugs or cluster cottage garden favourites like hydrangeas, roses and foxgloves in vases.
Place larger plants like ferns or palms in woven baskets by windows. Maximise natural light by positioning mirrors opposite your windows—choose aged gilt frames or antiqued glass for authenticity. Layer in natural textures with woven baskets and stone accessories.
Biophilic interior design is a design approach that integrates natural elements and patterns into indoor spaces to create a deeper connection between people and nature. Incorporating greenery like plants, trees, and vertical gardens into the design.
Biophilic design is grounded in the idea that exposure to nature has proven benefits, including reducing stress, improving focus, boosting creativity, and enhancing overall well-being.
Personal collections
Display your favourite collections to create a quintessential English country house feel. Group vintage books, porcelain pieces, or silver frames on your bedside table or dressing table.
You don't need perfect matching sets—mix periods and styles for an authentic, collected-over-time appearance that tells your story.
Pictured: Willis Gambier Antoinette Sleigh Bed. Available from Bedstar.
Warm lighting choices
Layer your lighting with traditional table lamps with featuring pleated fabric shades on brass or ceramic bases.
Add wall lights beside your bed for evening reading and consider a small chandelier as your central light fixture.
Position task lighting near your dressing table to create intimate pools of warmth throughout your space.
Artwork and wall decor
Create a personalised gallery wall by mixing pieces that tell your story. While botanical prints and landscapes are classic choices, include what speaks to you—whether that's family photos, modern art prints, or treasured children's drawings.
Frame them in various gold, wooden, and ornate frames at different scales. Position your largest piece as an anchor, then build your arrangement around it.
Leave space to add new finds over time - English country style is about evolution, not instant perfection. When hanging your art, position pieces at eye level and experiment with the arrangement on the floor first.
Jenny Kakoudakis likes to blog about interiors. She launched award-winning Seasons in Colour in 2014 and the luxury interior design blog All The Pretty Homes in 2024.
When she is not chasing criminals out of the financial system (her day job), she gets creative by redecorating her own home.
