Blissful Bedroom

Make your bedroom a d�cor priority with a plan, some paint and smart accessories

By Barbara Ballinger
CTW Features

Image courtesy Kaaya Home

We often overlook the bedroom when it's time to decorate. Why? One reason is because guests just don't see our bedrooms as much as our considerably more public rooms.

But with increased stress at work spurring the need for more relaxation at home, as well as medical talk of insufficient sleep contributing to obesity, the bedroom is a smart place to focus design attention early on in your decorating timetable.

Function and comfort are the steadfast rules to furnish this space. You need to select the right type of frame, headboard, sheets, blankets, coverlet and pillows. To make the room aesthetically appealing and mentally remove you from the dirty dishes, you need to make it attractive.

For the bed itself, consider a platform style that stands about a foot off the floor, says Robin Strangis, a Minneapolis-based designer with Loring Interiors. Be sure to buy the right mattress for both comfort and the right look, she says. An Asian-style bed works well, says Chicago designer Tom Segal of Kaufman Segal Design.

If your bed requires a headboard, choose one that's sleek and clean looking. Black enamel and teak are good choices, says Sue Pelley, of Easton, Md.-based Interiors by Decorating Den. If your bed can make do without a headboard, push your bed up against the wall and place some large square or rectangular pillows there for softness, Pelley says.

While busy, small-scaled patterns look more traditional, don't eliminate all pieces of pattern. Big, bold geometrics work if used sparingly, Pelley says. Apply the same rules when selecting a coverlet, duvet, pillows and dust ruffle. Add cache through a textured fabric such as satin, silk, taffeta, chenille or velvet, Pelley says.

You want to eliminate as much clutter as possible, including collections with numerous objects. Building storage in closets will reduce the need to keep too many things out. But, you also want to avoid making the room appear sterile. To tie it all together, paint your walls in a color found elsewhere in the room, or paper it in a contemporary grasscloth. Window treatments should be kept simple.

The danger in doing anything stylish is that trends come and go. To avoid redoing your bedroom, or any other room in your home, too soon, make choices that you can alter fairly easily and inexpensively, such as changing a wall color or coverlet. Also look around your home and perhaps switch art, swap-out family photos or books, says Strangis.

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