DesignLife App's Essential Guide To Bedrooms

Is your bedroom in need of a revamp?

Read on to find out to get all the essential elements of your bedroom just right.

The Bed

Everyone knows getting a good night’s sleep is essential. There’s a plethora of mattresses to choose from so you’ll need to do your research carefully.

Options you can choose from include traditional sprung, pocket sprung, memory foam, gel, latex, hybrid (which as the name suggests combines elements of a sprung mattress with a latex or memory foam topping), pillow top and if you’re feeling really adventurous, waterbeds!

But in all honesty, nothing beats trying out a mattress for yourself. So, head to your local bed store, shed your inhibitions and get ready to try out a few until you find your dream one.

Choosing the right base is important too. Divans, which incorporate storage space are great if you want space to stash away extra pillows, duvets and bed linen. If you choose to opt for a traditional bedstead there’s a huge range of designs and materials available so it really does come down to personal choice. Just remember to measure carefully to make sure you have enough space to move around the bedroom comfortably.

The Lighting

Bedroom lighting needs careful consideration, on one hand, you need enough light but on the other you don’t want it to be overbearing.

This can be solved by installing multiple lighting sources throughout the room. Start with a good central ceiling light which is connected to a dimmer switch to allow you to adjust the atmosphere.

Bedside lamps, whether wall-mounted or placed on bedside tables are a good idea for reading and mean you don’t have to turn on your central light if for example you need to get out of bed in the middle of the night.

If space allows, wall lights are useful too but mostly what is important is natural light. If you’re not blessed with huge windows or your bedroom doesn’t get a lot of light, using large mirrors opposite windows can help.

The Furniture

To avoid an over cluttered bedroom, which won’t help aide a restful night’s sleep, getting your furniture and storage sorted is a must. Wardrobes come in a whole range of materials and sizes and can be configured to your exact needs.

Before choosing the style, consider what you need to store. For example, if you have lots of long dresses, then you’ll need a tall wardrobe with a high hanging rail. If you have lots of knitwear, you might want to consider incorporating shelves, so you can neatly stack folded jumpers and cardigans.

Other furniture essentials include a chest of drawers or two, bedside tables (look for ones with at least one drawer so you can hide away anything you don’t want on display and if you have room a dressing table is a good idea too. If you are working with a large space, or simply want somewhere to relax, a comfy armchair or chaise longue is well worth considering.

The Flooring

As the bedroom is one of the lowest traffic areas in the home, you can afford to be a little bit more luxurious with your flooring without fearing it getting ruined. A soft, deep pile carpet is a especially comforting, but if you’re keen to have floorboards or other wooden flooring, then adding a large luxurious rug close to the bed to avoid cold toes on winter mornings is a good idea.

Colour and pattern wise, it’s probably best to keep pattern low key and colours neutral that way should you want to change other decorating elements such as wallpaper and paint colours, you won’t need to change your flooring too. But if you have got your heart set on a bold carpet, then remember to keep the rest of your space fairly neutral to avoid sensory overload!

The Décor

Decorating your bedroom is ofcourse entirely down to personal choice. You might want to go bold and beautiful, streamline contemporary, retro or classic.

Whatever you choose, Instagram and Pinterest offer a million ideas for how to decorate your bedroom. If you’re a changeable sort of person, and get bored easily with a scheme, then paint rather than wallpaper, is probably the better option but if you’re feeling brave, a boldly wallpapered wall, particularly behind a bed can create a strong style statement.

If you want to play it safe but still have an interesting space, painting or papering your room in neutral tones provides the perfect backdrop for patterned rugs, accessories and window treatments.