Where do you hide your gubbins? For many, it all gets stashed under the bed. Valances – also known as bed skirts – are therefore essential decorating tools. “It’s almost the only thing you need in your room,” says Emma Burns, managing director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, who almost always uses them in her design projects. “A bed looks naked without it.”
Valances have been used since at least the 16th century. “A bed would have a complete set of ‘furniture’ that would include full side curtains, a canopy, a coverlet and three or four valances,” says interior designer Rose Uniacke, whose Suspension Bed Canopy (from £2,700) and made-to-order valances (from £552) are a homage to this history. Aside from looking good, valances were used to prevent drafts. You can also find them on sofas, armchairs and above windows.
Now, when space is in increasingly short supply – according to a survey by storage solution experts Clever Closet, 78 per cent of British homes lack storage space – valances offer a historic solution to modern clutter problems. “They’re incredibly practical, seamlessly concealing [under bed] storage,” says Amy Hemmings-Batt, founder of Coco & Wolf, which makes valances (from £149) out of Liberty fabrics. “A design hero that marries form and function? That’s always something to love.” They are also very versatile. “It’s a fantastic cost effective way to make a normal bed look special and expensive,” adds Elizabeth Kelly, co-founder of SKRT, which makes sustainable valances (from £195) from printed linen and cotton sourced from India. I intend to use my valance to cover up a practical but ugly divan bed with drawers.
While bed skirts have typically been more of a made-to-measure affair, newer options are becoming increasingly accessible. “More and more of the decorator’s toolbox is available to everyone, rather than just being locked away in their own address book,” says interior designer Nicola Harding. Homeware designer Alice Palmer started making valances three years ago when she couldn’t find an off-the-shelf option that she “really loved”. Today she makes some of the most sought-after skirts (from £295) on the market. “I love how effortlessly they add texture,” she says of her bold, ruffled designs.
“As a general rule, the more fabric you have around you, the more cocooned you are,” says interior designer Octavia Dickinson, who creates valances and matching bedroom sets from her own collection of fabrics (from £116 a metre). “Ample fabric is a true luxury, so when you see a beautiful high bed – I like to design beds up to 75cm high – with a long-gathered valance, it makes one feel comfortable.” In one project, Dickinson updated an Edwardian four-poster with a pomegranate headboard and an azure bed skirt; in another, she used a busy red botanic print. Similarly, Trove, the lifestyle and furniture arm of Studio Duggan, can create luxurious valances (from £1,800) from fabrics by the likes of Pierre Frey and Antoinette Poisson.
Just as there is a mattress for everyone, there is a valance for everyone. “For a more feminine room we’ll have a gathered valance,” says Nicole Salvesen of interior design studio Salvesen Graham. “If we want it to feel more tailored, we’ll do inverted pleats.” Adds Harding, who has recently created a handsome corduroy headboard and bed skirt for a project: “If it’s a straight-sided bed skirt with a kick pleat on the corner, it’s much more masculine than you might think of when you say the word valance.”
More muted – but no less beautiful – valances come from Secret Linen Store and Piglet in Bed, who have off-the-shelf options for those who want to match their skirts with their bedsheets and drapes. “Our valances are a happy medium – not overly frilly or too plain,” says Piglet in Bed founder Jessica Hanley. You could also make your own: Jess Gray, marketing manager at East Sussex fabric shop Merchant & Mills, recommends doing so in one of the shop’s extra wide linens – “a ticking stripe has a classic feel without feeling dated”.
SKRT’s Elizabeth Kelly points to a new age of bolder bedroom schemes. “The grey era has, luckily, gone,” affirms Burns. “Colour, pattern and the opportunity to consider every element you can decorate is here. A valance is no longer considered to be over the top. It’s just a basic necessity.”