A bedroom wall with a pale oak headboard panel with softened corners between two ranks of dark fluted panels, wall lights glowing — 01StartThe wall

A padded charcoal headboard quilted into a grid of soft squares between fluted panels, with lit wall sconces and a marble-effect floor — 02BuildThe headboard

A smoked-glass wardrobe door open on a dressing module lit by LED strips, with three drawers beneath and the floor reflecting the glow — 03RevealThe light

The Kisii Residence Episode 5 of 5

Bedrooms Worth Waking Up In

Fluted walls, padded headboards, sage-green wardrobes and a glass door that lights up when you open it. The bedrooms of the Kisii Residence, one by one.

Kisii, south-western Kenya
1 min read
5 crafts

Follow the work

Two beds, two walls

Behind the pillow

In one bedroom the headboard is a single sweep of pale oak, its corners softened, hung between two ranks of dark fluted panel. In the next it is padded charcoal, quilted into a grid of soft squares and flanked by the same fluting. In both, a pair of wall lights does the reading, and the sockets sit exactly where a hand will reach for them.

The padded headboard wall seen from further back: charcoal quilted panels, fluted columns and wall lights above a polished floor — Fig. 03Seen from the door, the headboard becomes the room’s centre of gravity.

Side view of the oak headboard and fluted wall, the polished marble-effect floor reflecting the window — Fig. 04The polished floor throws the wall back at you.

The oak headboard panel and fluted flanks in place in a bare bedroom, sockets at bed height, before furniture arrives — Fig. 05A headboard wall in place before the room is furnished — sockets set where a hand will reach.

Sage and taupe

Two wardrobes, two moods

The wardrobes start from a palette: a muted sage in one room, a warm taupe in the next. Matte doors with long black bar handles. A tall open column of shelves at the end of each run, so there is always somewhere to put the things you like to see.

In the sage room the end panel carries a softly rounded top corner — a small, deliberate gentleness at the place where a hip or an elbow might catch. Between the doors sits a panel of smoked glass, bronze-grey and mirror-dark.

A long run of sage-green wardrobe doors with black bar handles and a smoked-glass section, a window bench at the far end — Fig. 06A muted sage run, with a window bench waiting at the far end.

Sage-green matte wardrobe doors with long black handles beside a bronze-grey smoked-glass door — Fig. 07Matte doors, long black handles, a panel of bronze-grey glass.

A taupe wardrobe wall with matte doors, long black handles, a smoked-glass pair and an open shelf column, doors closed — Fig. 08The taupe room, doors closed: quiet, matte, still.

Angled view of the taupe wardrobe run with its open shelf column, smoked-glass doors and marble-effect floor — Fig. 09The open shelf column carries marble-effect shelves.

The taupe wardrobe wall across a polished floor, the smoked-glass doors reflecting the grid-pane window opposite — Fig. 10The smoked glass holds the window opposite like a painting.

A sage wardrobe wall with a central smoked-glass display section above drawers, flanked by double doors and an open shelf column — Fig. 11A central glass display above drawers, doors either side.

The sage wardrobe wall with an LED-lit oak shelf column at the end and a window bench in the foreground — Fig. 12At the end of the run, one column carries its own light.

The door that lights up

Open it

And then the surprise. In the taupe room one of the smoked-glass doors is more than a door: its black frame swings open on a dressing module lit from within — LED lines down both sides, a hanging rail above, three drawers beneath.

Close it and it is a quiet slab of dark glass. Open it and the polished floor lights up with the reflection.

Close it and it is a quiet slab of dark glass. Open it and the floor lights up.

The taupe wardrobe with its black-framed smoked-glass door swung open to show a lit dressing module — Fig. 13Open: the black-framed glass door swings back on a lit dressing module.

Front view of the lit dressing module with hanging rails and three drawers inside the open glass door — Fig. 15The module from the front: hanging rail, shelf, three drawers.

A tall view of the taupe wardrobe with the glass door open on its lit module — Fig. 16Close the door and it is dark glass. Open it and the floor lights up.

Somewhere to sit

A window, a bench, a view of the trees

Under one tall window, a built-in bench in the same sage as the wardrobes, its drawer fronts closing flush. You can sit here to put on shoes, to read, or to look out at the trees. It is the quietest piece in the room.