Did you know that we spend nearly a third of our lives sleeping and resting? It’s only logical that we pay enough attention to the space we use for them.
People often spend a lot of time, effort, and money decorating the public areas of their homes, such as the living room, and give low priority to designing their bedrooms. Apart from storage and color schemes, we seldom consider making this room a comfortable, personalized, and cozy sanctuary.
At the end of the day, everyone wants a space that’s warm, inviting, and super restful. However, from a practical point of view, you also need a functional space for storage of various kinds, the right amount of lighting and seating, temperature control, and access to fresh, clean air.
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Different Styles of Bedrooms
There are various themes and styles that you can choose based on your preferences, budget, and needs. It’s wise to pick a relatively neutral theme that can be changed easily as your requirements and tastes change. Selecting an over-the-top theme or style just because it’s trending right now could box you in if you’ve spent a whole lot of money on it. No matter how big or small the available space, you can create a flavor of ease and peace using clever techniques.
Typical themes include:
- Rustic or country style with lots of craftwork, floral designs, pine or white-wood furniture, and lots of woodwork.
- Modern minimalist décor includes neutral or dull colors, clean lines in furniture and accessories, metal instead of wood, few if any accessories, geometric patterns.
- Industrial is a popular theme, especially in converted lofts or warehouses. Here the bedrooms may be part of a flowing, open design, with sliding doors for privacy and separation. Exposed brick or concrete walls, exposed pipes, ducts and shafts, metal windows, distressed look furniture, and large open windows or skylights with metal rafters on the ceiling.
- Ethnic or Scandinavian themes are great if you can keep consistently to the theme. Choose colors, accessories, fabrics, and furnishings in keeping with the style.
Create A Cozy Bedroom
1. Evaluate and Know the Space:
Take a good, long look at the room and understand its shape, size, and dimensions. This gives you a handle on how much it can hold, the things you need, what goes where, etc. The analysis gives you a better understanding of light and air sources. If there are odd corners and inaccessible spaces in the room, decide what you’re going to do with them. These spaces can be converted into hidden storage spaces or hold bookshelves, accessories, or lighting. You can also create a cozy alcove for your hobbies, reading, or quiet time if they’re large enough. A vanity mirror cleverly placed in an odd niche gives you a dressing nook and also reflects light.
2. Opt For Natural Products:
There’s nothing that says “cozy” and warm more than natural products such as linen, wickerwork, rattan, wood, brick, or stone. Use these materials as much as possible to create a natural environment – they go a long way in providing a restful and safe ambiance. Avoid the use of too much plastic and metal that have reflective surfaces. These give an artificial and hard look to the room.
3. Play With Texture:
A comfortable, cozy room has myriad textures that appeal to our sense of touch. Fill your bedroom with fabrics and accessories in different materials. Fat, fleecy rugs and throws, fluffy cushions, sleek silk drapes, wickerwork baskets, wrought iron bedposts, soft rugs and carpets, living plants, and flowers are some great examples. You can also use fabrics such as jute, grain sacking, wool, rough cotton, raw silk, etc., judiciously, based on the overall theme of your room to provide different textures.
4. Right Lighting:
It’s important to remember that your bedroom is used primarily for rest and sleep. Human beings are conditioned to rest in the dark. Ensure sufficient light control through thick drapes that can be drawn to reduce light. You can also create different moods through lighting and candles. Avoid harsh overhead lighting and substitute it with cleverly placed lamps and task lighting for reading, sewing, etc. You can create extra coziness through dimmers and incandescent bulbs. Himalayan salt lamps are trending right now, and they give off a soft pink glow while promoting better breathing. For a festive appearance, choose fairy lights draped across your curtains or bunched inside a fishbowl.
5. Art Matters:
We generally display favorite pieces of art and sculpture in the home’s more public areas. But you can create a cozy ambiance in your bedroom with traditional art prints, restful landscapes, and seascapes, abstracts in muted colors, or art prints of famous works such as Monet’s Water Lilies series. You can decorate your room using the artworks as a focus by picking colors from them to match your soft furnishings and accessories.
6. Personalize:
Having cherished and familiar things around you creates a warm and cozy space. Family heirlooms, a shawl or throw knitted by your grandma, old sepia-tinted photos, baby photos, Victorian botanical prints, etc. are a great way to personalize your bedroom and make it warm and inviting. If you have an old, tattered silk quilt or Japanese kimono, cut it neatly and frame the pieces to create an interesting wall-display.
7. No Tech:
No matter how small your home, it’s important to separate your work and living areas. Apart from this, the buzz of electronics, blinking lights, and machines’ constant hum can interfere with your sleep pattern. Many people have also discovered that having their TV sets in the bedroom creates nightmares, disturbed sleep, stress, and agitation when they’ve gone to sleep after watching a horror/crime show. A National Sleep Foundation study reveals that electronics in the bedroom interferes with our circadian rhythms. Leave your laptop behind when you enter the bedroom.
Ensure that the theme is generally in sync with the theme you’ve used in the rest of the house to give an overall consistency.