Here are two ways to transform your bed into an ocean dream: The Kelp bed and the Coral Bed. They can even be combined into one Kelp and Coral bed. If you love the ocean, this could be a unique adventure in bedroom decor for you!

To turn your bed into a kelp forest, start with a four poster bed, without the canopy over head. Using long ribbons of silky green fabric, cut with large scalloped edges, anchor the "kelp" under each foot of the bed, and wind the kelp up the bed posts, spiraling the fabric around the post but leaving lots of space in between each twist. At the top of the post, add a bit of wire to the fabric and have it continue to reach up past the end of the post.

Some species of kelp have bulbs filled with air attached to help the leaves to float up where the sunlight feeds them. Coated light bulbs on the end of stiff wavy wire wrapped in the same fabric, and reaching up from the top of the bed post towards the ceiling will look like the kelp's buoyancy nodes, and provide a fun way to light your bed for reading or romance (depending on the color of the coated light bulbs).

Additional kelp plants can be added to any part of the bed frame, but will need stiff wire sewn into the fabric kelp leaves to keep them erect. Headboards can be upholstered with the same fabric in the shape of the leaves, or with one continuous piece of fabric with a silk screened image of kelp on it.

To turn your bed into a coral reef is more labor intensive, but you don't need a four poster bed. Trace both of your hands onto fabric the color of live coral (the white ones are dead), and cut them out. Sew each pair together so that the right side of the material forms the outside surface of a glove. Then slip a wire into each finger and stuff the rest of the space with wool. Now you have a pillow with 5 bendable fingers. Pull and twist each finger in a different direction so that it no longer resembles a hand. Attaching many of these in a row and layering them on a piece of the same material that is then attached to the bed frame, head and foot boards etc. creates the look of a coral reef, and is still soft and flexible when you run into it.

A sock slipped over half of a toilet paper roll and then stuffed down part way into the tube is the base of a sea anemone. Just add a ring of long faux fur to the sock where it covers the upward edge of the cardboard roll, and it will look like it has soft tentacles waving in the current. These can be added for spice in-between the coral; vary the colors.

A fish mobile could be dangled over head, and pillows resembling tropical fish would be the perfect touch to accessorize the coral reef bed.
The characters from the movie Finding Nimo would make excellent pillows for this bed. Dory and Marlin would be perfect for the pillows you rest your head on, and Crush and Squirt would be great for elevating your feet, or just cuddling.
Whether you are making the kelp bed or the coral bed, your choice of materials matters.

To make your kelp or coral features safe to touch and pretty, you'll want soft silky, bamboo or 100 % organic cotton fabric. Both are hypoallergenic, non toxic and eco friendly, although bamboo fabric is softer, silkier, and resists bacteria and mold.

If you are making a bed that combines kelp and coral, make the kelp leaves out of the lustrous bamboo fabric, and make the coral out of the organic cotton. The looser and rougher the weave, the more it will look like real porous coral.

I hope you enjoyed the ideas in this hub. It is copyrighted, so please if you choose to share an idea elsewhere on the web, provide a link back to this hub.