How to Pair Nightstands, Beds & Dressers

One of the questions we’ve received the most lately is:

“How do you pair dressers, nightstands, and beds?” And it got us thinking, how do we pair dressers, nightstands, and beds?

Like many aspects of design work, it can be difficult to pinpoint an exact formula or step-by-step guide because our process rarely looks the same from project to project. However, we wanted to dive into this topic and identify a few patterns to help you navigate selecting these pieces.

We sat down with our lead designer, Kelsie Lindley, to pick her brain on the topic and ask her some of the questions we have received, and today we’re going to share her answers with you!

Keep scrolling to see some examples and read what Kelsie had to say about selecting the three major pieces in the bedroom: the dresser, the nightstand, and the bed:

Is there a recipe for success when it comes to pairing dressers, nightstands, and beds?

I wouldn’t say there’s an exact recipe, and it really depends on the client and the home. Sometimes people think of a bedroom as a place to match furniture and keep things more cohesive. However, we always like to mix styles to give a room more of that thought-through, designed look. Layering pieces of different styles, wood-tones, and materials always bring more dimension.

From The McGee Home

Shop the pieces

Let’s talk more about materials. Do you try to avoid using the same material on all three of these pieces even if they are contrasting in style?

We actually just finished doing a project where we struggled with this. We had a wooden bed, and we found wooden nightstands that we liked, but we felt that it fell a little flat, so we decided to go in a different direction. Typically, in any room, we try to stick to a maximum of two, contrasting wood tones, meaning we might do a nightstand in light oak, and a dresser in dark mahogany. We do consider black wood a neutral, but with a black, wooden bed, seeing as the nightstands and the bed are right next to each other, you may want to choose something other than wood to pair with it to bring more warmth.

From our SM Ranch House

From our Modern Lake House

How do you bring more warmth into a bedroom with the materials? Is there such a thing as too much texture?

We love upholstered beds because they add a softness that contrasts really well with metal, certain woods, or other cooler materials. However, if you do an upholstered bed that doesn’t mean you can’t pair it with a different warm texture like a caned nightstand. In my opinion, you can never have too much texture!

From our Calabasas Remodel

From our SM Ranch House

What do we consider when it comes to the functionality of bedroom pieces?

We always like to consider storage in a nightstand, whether it’s open on the bottom to make room for a basket, or it’s all drawers. There are times when you don’t have a lot of room for a dresser, and sometimes people forget to take advantage of that nightstand space for storage!

From our Swan Lake House

What is the first piece we choose when designing a bedroom?

Typically, we start with the bed, but there are times when we fall in love with a nightstand or dresser first and then find pieces that work with it to build the room from there.

From our Cove Remodel