Designer Graeme Harris says bedroom manufacturers are falling way behind kitchens and bathrooms… 

I have just read Mark Waddy's piece on the state of the bedroom market and after the lacklustre showing by bedroom manufacturers at both the Interiors show and later at KBB Birmingham, while I don't dispute any of Mark's figures, I do disagree with the opinion that the bedroom market has some opportunities for those who look. 

Mark says the bedroom market has huge opportunities for those who look and are bold enough to take advantage of the current state of bedroom design. 

But the bedroom market was down to £620 million in 2009 and will only receive a small bounce to £635m in the next 12 months. And cheap imports from Eastern Europe and the Far East are driving down prices and now accounting for the lion's share of the market. 

So what do you do if you're a bedroom manufacturer? How do you fight for your market share and ensure people want to buy your products? Judging by the evidence at the Interiors show and KBB Birmingham, what you do is take your old carcass options, sometimes decades-old in design apart from the colours, put a new door on it probably a gloss slab with a contemporary handle, finish it off with a plinth around the bottom and maybe a cornice round the top, and expect customers to be so blown away by your "new" range that they all rush to place an order. 

Bedroom manufacturers moan that the bedroom is still seen as the poor relation in the KBB sector, because when people visit each other's homes, they are far more likely to see the kitchen and bathroom than the bedroom. 

There is some truth to this, but do most people visit the kitchen? Probably. Do most people visit the bathroom? Probably not. Most people visit the downstairs cloakroom, but bathrooms are not seen as a poor relation to kitchens. 

Why? The designs! 

Most bedroom designs today are so similar to what they have been for the past couple of decades that everyone can see that they are the poor relations. If bedroom manufacturers want their market to be taken seriously, they need to take their designs seriously. 

I'm not saying we do away with what there is currently, but bedroom manufacturers need to offer a genuine next-generation product as well. They need a step change in their designs similar to the one that occurred in bathrooms when they went from just fully-fitted designs with a plinth to include the European wall-hung modular designs.