✨ Interior images are AI-generated. Items shown are similar to those in the video.

Colonial Tropical

Bedroom with a herringbone floor and a different lamp on each side

The thing that took most work in this room is the floor and it barely gets looked at: herringbone boarding, laid piece by piece and needing fifteen to twenty per cent more material than a straight-laid board. Above it, two matching nightstands with two lamps that don't match, a pendant on one side and a table lamp on the other. It isn't an oversight: when the two sides of a bed have neither the same space nor the same wiring, insisting on the same lamp means giving something up.

Suelo en espigaLámparas asimétricasListones verde oscuroMural tropicalVerde olivaTerracotaCornisa de luzPerfil doradoPanel a medidaDormitorio

Design keys

Dark timber herringbone boarding, the point of the chevron aimed towards the far end of the room.
A cylindrical pendant on one side and a table lamp on the other, matched in colour temperature and differing in form.
Slat bands lacquered in dark green, the same green that appears in the mural and the bed linen.
A slim gold profile running along the mural's edge, the only line separating paper from slats.
A tropical mural filling the headboard wall with a plain band above it to the cove.
Terracotta only in the three central cushions, against the olive covering the whole bed.

Furniture and decor in this design

Items shown are similar to those in the video, not necessarily identical.

Click-system herringbone laminate flooring

A short plank with a click tongue-and-groove reproducing the herringbone pattern without gluing or a specialist fitter. It's considerably cheaper than solid timber herringbone and much quicker to lay, though the bevelled edge shows close up. When ordering, check both pieces are included, left and right, because the pattern needs them alternated and they're sold paired in the same box.

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Dark green lacquered slat panel

A panel finished in colour at the factory, which in a dark tone is practically compulsory: the backing between slats can't be reached properly with a roller and painted at home always comes out lighter than the visible face. In a deep green choose a matt finish, because dark satin returns the reflection of every light source and turns the band into an uneven mirror. Check the edge comes lacquered too rather than raw.

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Spacing jig for fitting slats

A set of blocks the same thickness as the spacing you want, placed between slats while they're fixed. It's what makes a made-to-measure panel look factory-built, because measuring each gap with a tape accumulates error and on a three-metre wall the last slat ends up out of true. If you don't buy them, cut several blocks from the same offcut instead, but cut them all at once and from the same piece.

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Olive green linen duvet cover

Washed linen in a muted green, the tone that holds up beside a leaf-heavy mural without competing with it. Linen always creases and that creasing is part of the finish, but in a dark colour it shows the packing folds more for the first few weeks. Wash it alone the first few times, because dark plant-based dyes release some colour in the first washes.

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Tall lacquered skirting board

A skirting of ten centimetres or more, which is what suits a patterned floor because it closes the perimeter where the herringbone is cut against the wall. Lacquered white or in the wall's tone it disappears; in the floor's tone it becomes a dark line dividing the room at floor level. Check the top edge is square or minimally profiled, because heavily worked mouldings gather dust and clash with a contemporary floor.

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How to get this look at home

Herringbone has a direction and it has to be decided before opening the first box. The point marks where the eye is pulled: aimed at the far end it lengthens the room, laid parallel to the wall it stretches it sideways. Deciding halfway through laying is no longer possible.
Allow fifteen to twenty per cent more material than the room measures. In herringbone every piece is cut at an angle and the perimeter generates offcuts that can't be reused, so a budget per square metre falls short if calculated like straight boarding.
If the two bedside lamps differ, match the light rather than the form. Same colour temperature and similar brightness is what makes the asymmetry read as a decision; two identical lamps with different bulbs, by contrast, read as a mistake.
With lamps of different types, check what height each one's light source sits at. A pendant dropped to nightstand height and a lamp standing on it end up lighting the same band, and that's what makes the two sides of the bed look even though the fittings don't resemble each other.
If the slats are lacquered in a dark colour, order them factory-finished. The backing between slats doesn't take a roller well and always ends up lighter than the visible face; in a deep green that difference shows from the doorway.

FAQ

What should you know before laying a herringbone floor?

Three things, and none of them is the material price. The first is direction: herringbone draws a continuous arrow and the point pulls the eye, so aimed at the far end the room looks longer and turned ninety degrees it looks wider. The second is waste: cutting at an angle against every wall generates a lot of unusable offcut, and you need to buy fifteen to twenty per cent more metres than the room measures, considerably more than the usual five or ten per cent for straight boarding. And the third is labour, usually double that of normal boarding because it's laid piece by piece and any deviation accumulates. In small rooms it's also worth choosing the short piece: with long staves the pattern never completes and the motif is lost.

Can the lamps on each side of the bed be different?

They can, and sometimes it's the only sensible solution. The two sides of a bed are rarely alike: one has a window, the other a narrower passage, and often the wiring only reaches one side. Forcing symmetry then means giving something up, whereas a pendant where there's a ceiling point and a table lamp where there isn't resolves both sides without building work. The rule for making it work is simple: what has to match is the light, not the object. Same colour temperature, similar intensity, and each lamp's source at a similar height. What doesn't work is the opposite, two identical lamps with bulbs of different tone, because then the difference looks like carelessness rather than a decision.

Is it worth making a slat panel to measure instead of buying one?

It depends on whether the wall matches factory formats. A commercial panel arrives with the slats already mounted on a backing, the spacing resolved and a standard height, so it goes up in an afternoon; the problem appears when the wall isn't a multiple of the panel and it has to be ripped lengthways, because a slat split in half is left at the edge and that half-round shows. Building it from loose slats costs considerably less in material and allows any size, but the whole result depends on one thing: that the spacing between slats is identical at both ends of the wall. For that you need to cut a spacer block and use it between each piece, never to measure each gap with a tape. On ordinary walls the commercial panel pays off; on awkward shapes, like a diagonal wall or one with an opening, loose slats work out better.

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Bedroom with a herringbone floor and a different lamp on each side

Design keys

Furniture and decor in this design

How to get this look at home

FAQ

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