How To Make A Bedroom Restful In 5 Easy Steps

Is your bedroom everything it can be?

Does it inspire you to quiet your mind?

Does your bedroom make you feel peaceful?

The goal of a bedroom is to promote rest. Almost everything about a great bedroom is effortlessness… but the decorating. Apply these five steps to a master bedroom, kid’s room or guest room and you’ll have a house full of well rested happy people.

Step 1: Color Palette 

Start with color. Color plays an important role in how we feel. Certain colors, like fire engine red or tangerine orange or bright sunny yellow make people active, this is not what you want in the bedroom. Select colors which are soothing and easy on the eyes to promote relaxation. Blues, greens, certain neutrals, pastels, nothing too hot or vibrant – otherwise it can keep you up at night.

Step 2:  Comfortable mattress

The best investment in any bedroom is the mattress.  The ten year old mattress likely needs to go. Today they suggest replacing a mattress every seven years. Not only does the support and cleanliness tend to fail, sometimes the size needs an upgrade. Please don’t relegate the worn out double mattress to the guest room, unless you don’t like your guests.

Step 3: Headboards are necessary

Bedrooms need to feel safe to be restful, part of this comes from a sense of permanence. A mattress/boxspring on a frame without at least a headboard screams temporary. Nice upholstered headboards are relatively inexpensive and easy to find. You don’t need a great big bed, you need a headboard. Headboards visually they balance the bed in the room and help to solidify the bed as the focal point. Did you think something else could be the focal point?

Step 4: Remove useless furniture

One can never rest surrounded by unnecessary furnishings. No matter how big or small the bedroom, they all have the exact same requirements:

• bed
• 1-2 bedside tables with lighting

We may also have or need a dresser and possibly a place to sit, but nothing else is necessary. The last thing a bedroom needs is furniture filling every wall, same can be said for artwork. Pare down, remove all which isn’t absolutely necessary. This especially includes toys!

Step 5: Nice bedding makes a difference

Nice doesn’t have to mean pricey, buy the thread count or weave which feels restful to you. Let’s revisit color palette for a moment, nix the busy patterned bedding and opt for solids or limited patterns which are tone on tone or have much less than a handful of colors. Avoid big patterns with lots of colors, these will ever be restful, even with your eyes closed.

Bedrooms are one of the least expensive rooms to decorate and DIY worthy. Luxury is a component of relaxation and visual luxury is created with repetition, balance and an easy color palette. When a room is easy on the eyes it is comfortable and promotes restful relaxation.

Additional photos: Elle Decor, HGTV, Victoria Hagan via Dering Hall