The State Bedroom

When Harewood House was built, a State Bedroom, reserved for visiting royalty and fitted out in the most elegant of styles, was regarded as an essential status symbol and Thomas Chippendale was commissioned to furnish it. By the time Sir Charles Barry carried out major improvements at Harewood in the 1840s, State Bedrooms had passed out of fashion and this chamber became a sitting room for the 3rd Countess. Chippendale's spectacular bed was dismantled and stored in the Stable Block where it lay, half-forgotten, until being rediscovered in the 1970s.

In the 1990s, with the financial assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund, restoration work began. Expert advisers, carvers and gilders, mattress makers, silk weavers, seamstresses and craftsmen and women all over the country worked to restore this masterpiece of English furniture to its former glory.

Chippendale was responsible for the complete suite of furniture in the room. The Diana and Minerva commode with its ivory inlay and nobility of line is often referred to as his finest creation.