Account Account Back to Top Cart Chat Chat Crate and Barrel Crate and Barrel CB2 Crate and kids Crate and kids Crate and kids Crate and kids Crate and Kids Hudson Grace Hudson Grace Menu Search

3 Ways to Style Bay Windows

When I bought my house a few years ago, I was drawn to a lot of its original details. The house was built in 1912 and still retains many design features from houses built at that time: crown molding and frame rails, douglas fir wood floors, and beautiful bay windows in the living room.

Bay windows project hexagonically outward from the main walls of the room, forming a mini bay in the room (which I suppose is how they got their name). They can be a bit challenging to style since they give the room extra square footage that’s not quite big enough for modern furniture. My boyfriend and I tried a bunch of different couches in the space before we realized that it was making our already small living room look even smaller.

 Garbo Leather Wingback Chair

I eventually figured out that the trick was to work with accent chairs. For this post, I’ve styled my favorite accent chair from Crate and Barrel, the Garbo Leather Wingback Chair, in three different styles within my living room. I like to call this first style Minimalist Book Nerd:

I’ve paired the Garbo wingback chair with its matching ottoman and a console table that I use to stack a small desk lamp and all the books I’m currently reading. Because I work as a food blogger, I’m always flipping through a ton of cookbooks for research for my work — it’s nice to have them accessible in such a cozy spot.

The Remi Console Table

Living room with a blue sofa and a Garbo Leather Wingback Chair
The Remi Console Table is especially wonderful in this space.

It’s wide enough to hold books and a desk lamp comfortably, but not so large as to be taking up unnecessary space. The living room doesn’t have a whole lot of square footage, so I really appreciate the Remi’s efficiency. Because the entryway also immediately flows into the living room, the Remi also semi-functions as a landing table with entryway lighting.

We lived with that configuration for a while until winter came along. While it was perfectly functional and suited for my needs, it was a little bit on the cold side. I reluctantly moved my cookbooks to a proper study and we decided to try and cozy up the space a little bit more with more textures and colors:

 Garbo Leather Wingback Chair with two different colored pillows, next to a lamp and a basket with blankets.
The leather ottoman was perfect for stretching out when reading.

We added the ivory sheepskin underneath the rug to match the existing fluffy pillow and give our toes something to snuggle into. While the leather ottoman was perfect for stretching out when reading books, leather tends to run cold in the winter — the ivory sheepskin definitely helped warm things up. We also set up a large basket full of extra pillows and blankets next to the chair so that we could always have easy access to all our favorite cozy things. In fact, it was so cozy that we fought over that spot all winter — the winner would get the chair, and the loser would be relegated to the couch by him or herself. So somewhere along the way, my fiancé suggested that maybe we get an extra chair to fit in that space. And it worked!

We’d always struggled with having enough seating in our small living room; as I mentioned before, squashing a second couch into that space was a little too awkward and clunky. The second chair added much needed extra seating. Plus, the two chairs together became a beautiful visual highlight to the room and drew even more attention to the bay windows themselves.

The Good Chair

Living room with a blue sofa and a Garbo Leather Wingback Chair

This is now our favorite spot for date nights In and movie nights. It was sorta crazy how much of a difference that second chair made! No more arguments over who gets “the good chair,” extra seating, and lots of cozying in with a bottle of wine and our favorite movie.

So when styling bay windows, I’d say it’s important to think about how you use the space and what you’re hoping to get out of it. My advice is to skip the couch and find a pair of your favorite accent chairs to style with. Accent chairs can give you much more versatility with design that you can adjust throughout the year to fit your needs like we did.

360 Spin App Store Go Previous Next Previous Next Down Previous Next Up Down Left Right Up Submit Bar Code Bar Code Yes Yes Down Left Right Up Close Close Copy Credit Card Crib Curbside Pickup Custom Blue to Teal Grey to Black Off White Orange to Red Purple Tan to Brown Yellow to Green Design Services Crate Design Services Dimensions Edit Edit Email Error Expand Expand Best Sellers Best Sellers Easy Care Easy Care Family Friendly Family Friendly Genuine Leather Genuine Leather Highly Durable Highly Durable Linen Look Linen Look Stain Resistant Stain-Resistant Textured Textured UV Resistant UV Resistant Velvet Velvet Woven in USA Woven in USA Filter Gift Gift Card Gifting Group Gifting Help Home Delivery Layout Column Layout Grid The Design Desk at Crate The Design Desk at Crate The Design Desk at Crate The Design Desk at Crate and Kids Doodlepad Handy Hudson Grace Crate and Barrel - The Wedding Registry Crate and Barrel - The Wedding Registry The Frame Location location Location Minus Move Down Move Up Pause Play Phone Play Play Plus Price Tag Print Begin Quote End Quote Receipt Registry Registry Returns and Exchanges Rotate Counter Clockwise Rotate Clockwise Warning Sectional Sectional Security - Locked Security - Unlocked Share Shipping Show More Start Over Facebook Houzz Instagram Pinterest TikTok Twitter Youtube Success Swatch Text Message Thank You Manager Venmo Venmo Verified Reviews Pause Play Replay Pause Play Replay Hide Show Zoom In Zoom Out Zoom Out