How to Decorate a Bedroom
Are you looking for bedroom decorating ideas but don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place! Learn 4 bedroom decorating tips that Domestic CEO used in her own home.
When I moved into my house a few years ago, the first room I focused on decorating was the master bedroom. Honestly, I felt a little pressure when it came to how to decorate the bedroom because I knew it was going to be a room we spent a lot of time in. I wanted it to be a place that would feel cozy to hang out in on rainy days, help us relax and unwind every night, yet livable so my husband or I could escape there to read if the other was watching tv.
I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do with the room at first, but I made one decision at a time and ended up with a room that I absolutely love. Hands down, our master bedroom is my favorite room in the house, mostly because of how it’s decorated. Today I’m going to give you the process I followed. Hopefully, these 4 easy tips can help you to enjoy your bedroom as much as we enjoy ours!
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Bedroom Decorating Tip #1: Sleep In It
When we first moved into our house, I was overwhelmed with the idea of decorating an entire house. This was my first home, and decorating 2,500 square feet of space is quite different than an 800 square foot apartment. It wasn’t until I let myself relax that the rooms started showing me their natural features. One night, before we got to bed, I was laying on the mattress on our floor. I started to look around the room and saw some really cool shadows on the wall. The wall was bright up near the ceiling, darker near the floor, with a really dark shadow line on one wall. I quickly realized that this would look awesome painted on our walls. I woke up the next morning and told my husband my idea, and he thought it sounded cool, so it became our plan.
See also: How to Pick Paint Colors
Now, your bedroom may not actually tell you how to paint it like mine did, but it will probably tell you what features to play up and what you need to cover up. How is the lighting? Do you need to mute the bright morning sun? Then you may want to consider matted, darker colors for the walls and thick curtains to block out the sun. Does the room feel more like a cave than you want it to? Consider bringing in lighter colors and sheer curtains that can make it feel more open and airy. As you sleep in the room for a few days (or even weeks!), you can start to get a feel for the theme of the room that will help give you decorating ideas to make it what you want it to become. The next step is to…
Bedroom Decorating Tip #2: Pick the Big Stuff First
Once you have a general idea of your bedroom decorating theme, it’s time to pick out the furniture. If you are sharing a bedroom with a significant other, I would recommend going out window shopping for furniture a few times together, just to get to know each other’s style. What we found was that my husband’s style was much more modern than mine. While he was attracted to glass and metal furniture, I liked dark wood and soft lines. In going out to window shop over and over though, we were able to discover some common ground.
When we found our bed, we both knew it was the perfect mix of our styles and it was an easy decision to make. We knew we were going to use the paint on the walls as the main feature of the room, so everything else needed to be very simple and clean. We also picked some of our existing furniture to help decorate our master bedroom as well. The chaise lounge from my apartment days would make a great reading corner, and the dresser would provide us with linen storage since we don’t have a linen closet in the master bathroom.
Bedroom Decorating Tip #3: Pick the Fluffy Stuff Next
Once you have the big furniture pieces of your room put together, it’s time to pick out the soft stuff, like the duvet cover, accent pillows, and curtains. I should probably clarify something before I go on: At this point, you should have an idea of how you are going to paint your walls as well as an idea of which colors you want to use, but you shouldn’t have made a final decision on your paint colors just yet. It is much easier to match paint to your linens than it is to match linens to paint. Most paint stores can even use a computer to pull a sample of a color from an item you bring in to make sure your paint matches 100%, so focus on finding accents that you like before you choose your final paint colors.
Picking out bedding is one of the most fun parts of decorating a bedroom, so enjoy this step! Again, if you are decorating with a significant other, I would advise doing a lot of window shopping before committing to a set of bedding. Unless both of you really like bold patterns, I would advise choosing bedding with a neutral pattern as it makes the room feel much more calm. Some examples of neutral patters would be patterns that are a slight shade darker or lighter than the actual color of the fabric, or they are a very small pattern that almost blends together when you look from a distance. The goal of a decorating a bedroom is to make it a relaxing room, and neutral, calming and patterns can help you feel much more chill than big geometric shapes and bright colors.
The next decision is to pick your curtains or window treatments. Don’t get stuck in the trap of making sure your curtains blend in with the wall. If you think of them like giant pieces of artwork that can pull your room together, you will give them the time and respect they require to make the room look great! After searching all over, we realized that we didn’t want to pay for a massive set of curtains for the giant window in our bedroom. So we decided to use 2 different colors of curtains to create a large vertical stripe to contrast the horizontal stripe that would be going up on the walls. What we discovered after getting the room painted and the curtains hung, was that this contrast added enough to the walls that we didn’t have to hang any pictures. It was unintentional, but a definite added bonus that our curtains and the stripe on our wall became our artwork.
Bedroom Decorating Tip #4: Pick the Paint Last
Now that you have your room pulled together, it’s time to make the final decisions on your paint colors. You already have an idea of which colors you want to use, but it’s important to bring home swatches to compare to your bedding and furniture. Even a basic color like brown can have undertones of red, blue, or yellow, and you won’t realize that your browns clash until you bring them into the same room. At most paint stores you can buy sample jars of the colors you are debating between to see how the colors compare in different lighting in your room. Simply bring them home, and paint 24-inch squares of color on your wall. Within a day or two you should be able to make the decision of which colors look best in all types of light.
After you have everything picked out, all that’s left to do is bring it all together. Get the paint on the walls, the curtains hung, furniture assembled, and soft touches in place. With the proper planning and thought up front, actually decorating a bedroom can be done in a weekend.
If you have any questions or comments on this episode, I would love to hear from you. You can post them my Facebook wall, or tweet me your experiences @thedomesticceo.
Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.
Pillows image courtesy of Shutterstock.