Dreamy Indulgence -- Four-Poster Beds Create A Sweet Sanctuary With Old-Fashioned Charm Or Contemporary Elegance

If all we wanted from our beds was a good night's sleep, we could put a mattress on a simple frame. But we don't. We want more.

Of course, the bottom line is basic comfort. But if a bed provides romance and a sense of protection, and it adds architectural interest as the furnishings in the rest of the house do, so much the better. The bed that consistently delivers comfort and romance while providing the sanctuary we seek is the old-fashioned four-poster.

One of the most popular bed styles across the centuries, the four-poster has remained a fixed point in a constellation of shifting trends in design. It has been the choice of kings and commoners, even fairy-tale folks.

The four-poster has a distinct silhouette. Clean vertical and horizontal planes are formed by head and footboards that are connected by side rails and supported by four posts. These posts rise up and often support a top frame or canopy.

Many four-poster beds have these signature characteristics in common, but they can be radically different in style. By changing any one of the features, the styles can range from traditional to contemporary.

The posts can be carved and painted or cut down to significantly shorter heights. The footboards can be left off. There can be soft curves and carved surfaces or austere linearity when metal takes the place of wood. A canopy can be dressed in silk or left unadorned, or there need be no top frame at all.

Regardless of its style, some four-posters call for down quilts floating in layers, mountains of soft pillows piled at their headboard and curtains surrounding them like a protective cocoon. Or, by contrast, the bed can be stark and spare, laid with little more than a snowy sheet and a few pillows. But whether decorated or bare, it always shows its good bones.

For a traditional look, Ethan Allen's British Classic is a good example. Polished and tapered wooden posts are turned in sensual spirals and end in small ball finials. To keep the look understated, the bed's top frame can be draped with a panel of fine linen for a modern look or a more traditional ruffle. A four-poster in the traditional style passed down from two or three generations ago can carry a contemporary drape and still maintain its coherent style. Such is the enduring versatility of the four-poster.

The Brussels, a four-poster from Domain, is a metal bed with more linear clarity. The clean, straight lines of the posts and the top frame are juxtaposed against the curlicues of the headboard, designed to resemble a centuries-old cast-iron gate. The rear of the canopy is hung minimally with narrow fabric panels that soften the hard lines of the metal posts.

Be aware that swaths of fabric on any canopy will ultimately collect dust, necessitating more rigorous care.

For that reason, four-posters are often displayed au naturel, with and without their canopies intact. Thomasville's iron four-poster, the Havana, has an arched metal canopy composed only of four slender arms that finish in a hoop top. More beautiful without adornment, the canopy looks like sculpture.

If you're seeking the look and warmth of fine wood in a more feminine style, there's the Bar Harbour by Domain, inspired by a carved English bed. This four-poster preserves the traditional silhouette but without a canopy. The bed is carved and painted a cream color, accentuating its romantic feel. The value of leaving off the canopy in this case is that the eye naturally focuses on the hand-carved posts.

Before you spend the $900 to $6,000 that a four-poster may cost, consider that whatever the size of your room, the bed will be the focal point because of the volume delineated by those four corner posts, which can be 6 1/2 feet high. New home construction often includes bedrooms with 10-foot ceiling heights, but more likely your ceiling is the standard 8 feet.

Styles with shorter posts

If you don't want to slice into the visual and actual space with tall posts, you needn't give up on owning a four-poster. Fortunately, there are versions of four-posters with shorter posts. One such exotic bed that resembles a sleigh bed is the Kilimanjaro from The Hemingway Collection by Thomasville. Its posts end in pewter-finished finials in the shape of ostrich eggs, and its head- and footboard are padded and covered with fine twill woven from split-rattan. The overall style is sophisticated and sensual.

The Summer 1999 Horchow Home catalog shows a modified four-poster. It is a magnificently detailed reproduction bed of European design, its posts accented with carvings and gold tones. Massive-looking because of its 73-inch-high solid headboard, this bed hearkens to the Renaissance.

Finally, if an antique bed is more appealing, four-poster beds in period styles are available. But be cautious. Lewis Baer, vice president of Newell Galleries in New York City, warns that antique four-poster beds will probably need to be adapted to today's larger-sized mattresses and box springs.

He says that some buyers adapt the smaller antique beds, when possible, by eliminating the side rails to allow for the wider queen- and king-sized mattresses, or by relying on a good cabinetmaker to construct one headboard from two different ones.

Whether you choose to fall asleep and dream in a four-poster bed in an Old World style or slumber under a modern brushed-steel canopy, what could be more magical and comforting than falling asleep in a sanctuary with such a strong pedigree? The dream is as old as a fairy tale. ------------------------------- Four-poster sources

-- Domain, 781-769-9130.

-- Ethan Allen Furniture, 800-228-9229.

-- Thomasville Furniture, 336-472-4000.

-- Horchow Home, 800-456-7000.