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The bed was easy, they say with a trellised four-poster onto which they could attach a voile of some sort, and use batiked material for the sheets and pillowcases, that covered the look perfectly.
Another used a voile hanging from the ceiling to give the illusion of a four poster! But the ethnic nightstand seems perpetually out of reach.
What comes to my mind immediately is a natural rattan that is totally unpainted.
Rattan is made in the West Indies, thus it fits well in a West Indies bedroom without sacrificing the utilitarian necessity of a nightstand.
If you have been to the West Indies, you may have noticed that they make the most wonderful tables out of three sticks and two copper plates, one large and one smaller.
The sticks will hold up the platters and bingo you have an ethnic nightstand.
West Indies furniture has a tremendous amount of turned wood in it, just one row after another in much of the furniture.
Thus, purchasing a nightstand that has those tiny turned "bars" on the outside of the nightstand sounds absolutely perfect and will bring that West Indies flavor to your bedroom very adequately.
If you have an old armoire though, use a jig saw to cut out a rectangular opening in the doors, and you'll have room to put in a rattan insert or bamboo insert into it.
Then you can buy nightstands of the same color wood, and cut out the sides of the nightstands and insert the same bamboo or rattan insert.
This will bring forth the West Indies look to even the nightstands! You could bring the nightstands together with perhaps pineapple shaped bases on the lamps that you put on each nightstand.
Carrying a theme through is what makes personal decorating so very much fun.
One very artistic lady used a butler's tray as her nightstand, you know the kind that folds up but have an X in the leg portion when it is open? She purchased the "nightstand" out of the same dark wood that her hand carved four-poster was made of.
The effect is absolutely startling as far as the nightstand goes!
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