From House & Garden proclaiming that brown will continue to be favored in 2026 to Elle Decor forecasting more patterns and layering, it seems like many of the coming design trends are oriented toward creating cozier, more enveloping spaces. A recent bedroom-furniture trend shares this energy: According to Vogue, designers are collectively embracing the half tester bed.
If you’re not familiar with the half tester by name, you’d likely recognize it by sight. It is similar to a pared-down canopy bed, with a fabric-covered headboard and a valance extending over just the top of the mattress and drapes of fabric on either side.
Canopy, or full tester, beds were developed in medieval Europe to provide privacy and warmth in shared rooms with no central heating. Half testers originated in the early Renaissance, but they had their true moment in the Victorian era. The period’s smaller bedrooms couldn’t accommodate voluminous canopies, opening the door for the half tester, with its purely decorative valence.
The half tester was introduced in the early Renaissance and had a moment again in the Victorian era. Canopy beds were created to provide a sense of intimacy around the bed in an otherwise large room, but by the time the Victorian era rolled, rooms had grown smaller so the bed type was mostly of interest for decorative purposes, according to Britannica. This opened the door for the half tester resurgence in that era, given that the enclosure of a full canopy bed wasn’t quite as important.
When today’s designers are looking to add pattern, color and texture to a room, the half tester bed can pack a real punch. “If it lacks character, a beautifully proportioned tester will help a dull bedroom come to life,” Philip Hooper, joint managing director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, told Vogue. “Frivolous and whimsical, introducing a tester is like building a folly within a room.”
The style can also be more practical than a four-poster or a canopy bed, since it doesn’t the block sight line from a bed to a TV on the opposite side of the room. It’s safe to say that wasn’t a concern when half testers were introduced hundreds of years ago. Still, it certainly doesn’t hurt that the design manages to be both evocative of a different time and well suited to modern living.
