Once you embrace the fact that your bedroom is of a certain size, no matter how small or big, it’s important to decide what kind of feel you want to bring to it.
Human beings spend one-third of their entire lives sleeping, so it’s only logical that the space they use for this has to be given top priority. However, in reality, a great number of people pay a lot of attention to the more public areas of their homes and arrive at bedroom decoration in a sort of “by the way” route. This means you could end up in a room that doesn’t reflect your lifestyle, taste, and preferences.
Bedrooms are the most private and intimate spaces in the house. Whether they’re master, guest, or kids’ rooms, our bedrooms are our safe place to get away, de-stress, rejuvenate and refresh ourselves for the rigors of the day ahead. We also use them to read or study, pursue favorite hobbies such as sewing or knitting, listening to or practicing music, etc.
An important feel that we need to bring to a bedroom is coziness, warmth, and safety. Interior design professionals recommend some clever strategies and smart ideas to create a cozy ambiance in your bedroom.
What Does “Cozy” Mean?
While knowing what it’s like to feel cozy, snug, and welcome in a room, we rarely analyze what exactly this adjective means to us. It isn’t just about a particular style or design feature that makes a room seem so comfortable that we are reluctant to leave it.
It could be a combination of colors, textures, objects, lighting, and temperature control. It may convey the feeling because it’s filled with comfortable furniture, lots of personal knickknacks, childhood memories, or it reflects a remembered past. Photographs, books, comfy chairs and sofas, soft lighting, fresh flowers, and pleasant odors contribute to the final effect.
While it’s a highly personalized concept, visitors would immediately relate to it because it seems to reflect how comfortable the owner of this room is and how he or she seems to fit right in. The cozy style evolves, but you could reproduce it by using easy and inexpensive design ideas. Cozy could also mean different things to different people, based on their experiences and lifestyle.
Some consider the old-fashioned, traditional interior decoration style to be cozy and comforting, filled with old-style furniture, memorabilia, old sepia-toned photos, warm colors, and lights. For others, it may be a minimalist, Scandinavian style hangout with lots of bookshelves and an overstuffed couch. London townhouse and Victorian décor that has survived in some pockets of the world, in clubs and colonial architecture, filled with old portraits and animal oil paintings, would be just the last word in cozy. You can also incorporate a cozy corner in a large room that holds your TV, books, and a comfy recliner.
Which brings us to the conclusion that cozy is quite a personal idea. Once you understand what the concept means to you, work your interior décor theme around it.
Ideas To Make Your Bedroom Cozy
1. Color It Right
Professional designers recommend using warm, neutral shades that could range across the blue, gray, brown spectrum, with shades of red or purple used judiciously. You can play with different tones of these colors in your furniture, wall treatments, flooring, area rugs and accessories Earth tones are great for creating space and warmth in small bedrooms. You can use neutral shades as a base in fabrics and wood for a warm, inviting feel.
For walls, opt for lighter shades so that they don’t clash with your artwork, drapes, or furniture. You can paint the ceiling in a darker hue, with interesting trim on the sides to extend the eye upwards and outwards.
2. Lighting
Remember that we use this room a lot for rest and relaxation. Keep the lighting flexible so that you can darken or dim the room when it’s needed. Double drapes in sheer and heavy provide alternatives. Identify the light source in the room and work with the natural light to provide the changing light of day and night – this keeps you connected with the earth’s circadian rhythms. A light mirror placed strategically can help to bounce the light and reflect it in interesting visual patterns.
3. Furniture
Keep the furniture at a minimum to avoid a cluttered look. Select one or two signature pieces that give an air of comfort and coziness in your small bedroom. The bed is the focal point in the room. Make it perform double-duty by incorporating storage. Position it so that you catch as much natural light as possible.
Avoid dark-colored woods and bulky styles. Compensate for overly angular lines with comfy throws, soft pillows, fat duvets, and pretty sheets. You can play with texture and add various fabrics such as cotton, jute, wool, and silk.
4. Keep Out
Avoid technology in the bedroom as far as possible. If your house isn’t large enough to place your TV, laptop, etc., in another room, create a niche in the bedroom and hide these items with charming crochet or knitted covers in warm hues.
Another no-no in the bedroom is laundry. Home-owners who are cramped for space tend to pile laundry on chairs or other furniture in the bedroom. There’s nothing that annoys you more than a messy heap of clothes – so either stow them out of sight or create a hidden space for laundry in your small bedroom.
5. Splurge On
Ultimately, cozy is a feeling. So pay attention to comfort as well as appearance. Skew your budget towards a top-quality mattress, rich fabrics for bed linen and drapes, good carpets in natural wool, and sheets in a good thread count.
It’s a great idea to invest in good quality wood for the bed, furniture, shelving, cabinets, and closets. Finally, wear something comfortable at bedtime – but make sure it’s also of great quality, stylish and good-looking. This will certainly give you a cozy night’s sleep.
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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