The ideal bedside table is the keeper of your night-time needs
It is often the little things that improve our lives. Yet we take these things for granted. Things like remote control, refrigerators that keep vegetables perfectly crisp, and carpets that feel soft under our feet. Can we live without them? Sure. Do we want to live without them? Probably not. Bedside tables are among those pieces of furniture that you might think you can do without. Bedside tables are small and not used throughout the day. Some people might say, what is the point of them? But bedside tables are pieces of furniture whose absence you will sorely miss. It sounds trivial, rolling over in the early hours of the morning, half asleep, and not have to reach down to the floor to find your water or tissues. But there is nothing worse than fumbling around in the dark. Nothing is better than being able to reach out in the dark and touch something, when you need it, on your bedside table. But how many homes have bedside tables? When you’re a guest for the night, it is something you notice. Where will I put my phone? My book? Without a bedside table, there’s no place for a bedside lamp. There are few things worse than having to get out of bed to turn a light on or off. For a small piece of often-overlooked furniture, a good bedside table can be a real lifesaver. Whether old or new, whether a rustic or contemporary bedside table, these are pieces of furniture that have high levels of functionality and utility.
A table that is as beautiful as it is useful
But you’d expect a high level of usefulness from any piece of furniture. Furniture wasn’t created to fill a space with something that merely pleases the eye. But being human beings, we love pleasure and items that please the eye. That’s why we like art and collecting interesting homewares. If we were not like this, all furniture and homewares would be about as aesthetically pleasing as a wooden box. But some people do use wooden boxes for bedside tables, for coffee tables, for many household purposes. You might remember the first home you ever lived in as an adult. We’d kidded ourselves that the look was rustic and BoHo. But maybe even then, we tried to dress up that our plain pieces of furniture, perhaps with a pot plant, some books, or a housewarming gift. Now you’re at Empress Homewares and running your more discerning eye over their bedside tables. These tables are a big step up from those wooden boxes. There are antique wooden bedside tables and bone inlay bedside tables. These tables are not just spots to put your book and a glass of water at night. These bedside tables are decorative and ornamental. This is furniture that inspires you to give your bedroom a whole new look. You don’t want dowdy linen or a chipped bedhead beside such glamorous tables. If that sounds like a lot of work, it isn’t. Some well-chosen pieces of furniture and homewares can transform the look and atmosphere of an entire room. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Empress Homewares has several entry-level bedside tables. These include the Genie Table made from reclaimed wood (unlike a wooden crate, this table has a washed patina and etched design in the tabletop) and is both beautiful and modesty priced. Such furniture can be a cost-effective springboard to makeover your bedroom.
How designers work with key pieces of furniture like beside tables
Seasoned interior designers have some golden rules for re-imagining bedrooms. A common theme is to keep it simple. We’ve all been in rooms that are busy and cluttered. It doesn’t matter how precious the furniture; it still looks cluttered. Interior designers constantly talk about focusing on a few key pieces of furniture. In a bedroom, the bed is the centrepiece. They then branch out into supplementary pieces of furniture like bedside tables. However, most modern beds are fairly plain to look at. All the attention and care goes into the mattress. This then gets dressed with linens. Bedside tables are the good-looking bridesmaids to the bed. Contemporary, curvaceous, and sleek. A modern bedside table like the bone inlay floral grey bedside table will turn your eye as soon as you walk into the room. This table is all long sexy legs dressed in grey resin and made from ethically sourced camel bones. But good-looking tables do need to be dressed. Bedside lamps are a natural starting point, however, a collection of high-quality homewares can also lift the look of the room. As backdrops to such fine tables, designers suggest subtle wall colours and decorations that complement rather than clash with the tables.
Furniture that’s ignored but worth its weight in gold
For a piece of furniture that many people ignore, bedside tables can make your life so much easier. That’s why stores like Empress Homewares invest heavily in developing relationships with artisans and craftspeople who can make them. Because they have nurtured these relationships over the years, Empress Homewares now has the best range of unique bedside tables in Adelaide. These are not mass-produced flat-pack tables. These tables are distinctive, one of a kind pieces. That means the table you see online or in-store now (perhaps that Tibetan vintage side table cabinet) will never be for sale again once sold. This is fabulous if you are the lucky new owner, but not so great if you missed out. On a happier note, because these tables are unique, the range and choice constantly change. New bedside tables are always arriving. There could be a bright new contemporary bedside table next week as nice or nicer than an earlier table you had your eye on.
Adelaide’s finest bedside tables are at Empress Homewares
That’s the joy of shopping and the pleasure of visiting places like Empress Homewares. Their stock is constantly moving and when you find a bedside table that’s right for you, you can buy it knowing it’s a one-off, a unique price of furniture that will give your bedroom a fresh and sophisticated new look. Empress Homewares on The Parade in Norwood is open seven days a week and cordially invites you to pay a visit.