Your bedroom is your sanctuary. It is your Fortress of Solitude where you can barricade yourself away from your worries, stresses, and anxieties. When designed correctly, you should walk into your bedroom and feel like you are truly home. This will allow you to relax more meaningfully, sleep more deeply, and recharge more fully. And, lest you think it’s not worth the effort or expense, imagine how your life would be improved if you could tackle your daily challenges relaxed and well-rested.
Fortunately, beginning to improve your bedroom design can be pretty simple. Here are four ideas to help you get started!
- Find great bedroom furniture
- Discover your color scheme
- Evaluate your layout
- Decluttering
Find Great Bedroom Furniture
Your bedroom should pamper you; It should be like an emotional spa where you can unwind and the end of each day. This means that you need to love your bedroom and you need to design it in such a way that it can love you back. You can begin to accomplish this by being very intentional about the furniture you place in your bedroom.
Designing your bedroom is like painting a masterpiece. The walls are the background and the pieces of furniture are the main objects in the foreground, with the bed itself as the main focal point. So, what’s the point? Don’t settle for bedroom furniture that you don’t love. Bedroom furniture needs to be stylish and functional, so if your bedroom furniture is outdated, unstylish, or falling apart, it’s time for an upgrade. Remember, your bedroom should be your sanctuary, so if a piece of your furniture doesn’t deserve to be in your sanctuary, get rid of it!
Furniture style
The first question is whether you like the look and feel of your current bedroom furniture. When you think of your bed, your nightstands, your dresser, and any other furniture in your bedroom, does it feel like you? And more importantly, does it feel like the you that you want to be? Your bedroom is the most personal and intimate room in your home, so allow yourself to experiment with your style and design, knowing that it won’t be on display for all of your guests. Bottom line: you don’t have to worry about impressing anybody, your goal with bedroom design is creating a space that aligns with who you are and/or who you aspire to be. Be yourself and have some fun with it.
In considering your bedroom furniture style, ask yourself whether you would prefer matching bedroom furniture or mismatched, eclectic ensemble. If you like things to match, a full bedroom set is probably a good choice. If you fall in the eclectic camp, you have free rein, just make sure that you like the way they all mix together.
A few popular styles of furniture include traditional, mission, transitional, modern and shaker, but the list is as long as you want it to be. Most styles will fall somewhere within those buckets, but as with all design, there are rarely definitive lines and much is left to interpretation. For example, our Hartford TV Bed (which is our most popular TV bed style) is shown here in a white finish with shaker trim. Because this is somewhere between traditional and modern, the Hartford could simply be called “shaker” or it could also be deemed transitional.
Furniture function
There is nothing more frustrating than an object that doesn’t perform its function well. Think of a shopping cart with one bad wheel. Now stop thinking about that before it ruins your day. As furniture builders, we care immensely about the function of our furniture, so here are a few things to consider in order to ensure that you are choosing furniture that will function well. First, avoid cheap, knock-down furniture. This means you need to consider the quality of your furniture. You want as much real wood as possible, you want sturdy construction, and you want high quality hardware. The door hinges and drawer glides your furniture use will affect how well they work and how long they work.
Another clever way to make your bedroom furniture function better is through introducing technology like TV beds and adjustable bases. By adding a TV bed you add a little extra tech to your bedroom to allow it to more effectively take care of you. Pro tip: a TV bed with an adjustable base is a match made in heaven. So, why not have both?
Color Scheme
Do you want your room to feel bright and airy? Or do you want it to feel moody and cocoon-like? Depending on how you answered that question, you should evaluate the color palette that your bedroom is using. If you like bright and airy, consider using whites, beiges, light grays, and some light colors. If you want your room to feel quiet, protected, and cocoon-like, consider dark colors like dark grays, browns, and some reds.
What if you have boring walls? You can still spice up your color scheme by using other elements of your room. So, before repainting, consider:
- Adding a splash of color and texture with your bedding.
- Add a couple of throw pillows to add color within a small budget.
- Add an accent chair in the corner of your room. If your room is bland, choose a fun color to change it up.
- Get new hardware on your furniture. Change out your out-dated handles with new, more exciting handles. You’ll be surprised how much this changes the color scheme of your room.
Finally, no matter the mood and atmosphere of your room, everything matches with greenery. Find a plant you love at your local nursery or hardware store and add it to your room. Indoor plants can have health benefits since they create oxygen, but you’ll also be amazed how much style they can add to your room. Oh, and if you are like most of us, you’ll kill the first one or two plants you get. Don’t beat yourself up, indoor plants can be temperamental.
Here is where furniture can also make an impact. The color or finish of your furniture can make a big impact on the overall color scheme of your room. And, no matter your color scheme, you can get a TV bed to match your room. We offer several standard finishes for each bed as well as dozens of others that you can order by special request.
Layout
Open space is an important element of your bedroom’s design, just like white space is a critical element of art and graphic design. When things are packed together too closely your room will always feel cluttered. Even after you have cleaned, you will always feel a little cluttered. Clutter (which we will discuss in a minute) causes anxiety and will lead to restless nights and a desire to avoid your bedroom. On the other hand, if things are too spaced out, your room may feel empty and void of decoration.
Finding the balance of open space in your room will ultimately come down to how you feel; some people prefer wide open spaces, while some prefer a cozy collection of decor. A good rule to follow is if you have a small room, consider reducing the footprint of your furniture. For example, find small nightstands, or use a floating shelf to replace your nightstands altogether. Another thing to consider is how much room you really have for your bed. A queen size bed is about 60” wide and a king size bed is about 80” wide. That 20″ makes a big difference in a small room. So, make sure you measure! Most people just want the biggest bed they can fit in their room, but consider whether it will make your space feel cramped. If so, it’s probably worth it to downsize one notch.
Declutter
One of the best ways to create a bedroom that soothes and relaxes you is to declutter. Remove unnecessary items that are taking up space. Have you ever noticed that you tend to sleep better in a clean room? If you’re like most, you’ll find that it is easier to find peace and tranquility in a room that is clean and free of clutter (we have found that this may not hold true for teenagers😉). Here are a few ideas to declutter your bedroom:
- Move your hamper. Placing your hamper behind a closet door or into your bathroom will remove one item from your bedroom and give you a little open space.
- Trade out open shelves. Instead, use drawers, closets, or cabinets that have doors. This way, you can maximize your storage space while still maintaining a clutter-free room. A captain’s bed is a great option here too.
- Hide your TV in a TV bed. TVs are big, ugly, black squares. They ruin good bedroom design and add cords and clutter to your bedroom. By concealing your TV in a TV bed, you’ll remove one large source of clutter.
- Get rid of unused items. We tend to accumulate items as time goes on and, usually, we don’t realize how much unnecessary junk we have until we move. Go through your closet and remove any clothing you haven’t worn in the last year and move items that aren’t currently seasonal into storage.
- Organize your closet. Some people prefer to organize their closet by type of clothing, but you can also try organizing by color, by occasion, or any other method. The idea is to create harmony and order. Pro tip: go get all new hangers that are the same color and size, this small thing will level up the organization to your closet.
- Clear your nightstand. Nightstands accumulate junk. Stock your nightstand with the items you truly need and relocate everything else. Here are some common items to consider: fingernail clippers, chapstick, phone chargers, earplugs, books, self defense items. Keep it minimal and keep it organized.
- Here are a few more decluttering ideas!
Wrapping Up
We want you to love your bedroom. Our goal is for you to walk into your bedroom and feel the weight of your stress and anxiety lift off of your shoulders. Your bedroom should be your sanctuary, so invest a little time and money into creating a sanctuary that soothes you. We build our TV beds to enable you to design a bedroom that looks, feels, and functions well. We even offer matching cabinetry like nightstands and dressers if you want a full bedroom set. So consider a TV bed while you design your bedroom, we believe you’ll love what you find.
