When you’re designing or redesigning a bedroom, you want the final result to feel natural. But how do you achieve that organic feel in multiple bedrooms that are different sizes and intended for different people? Believe it or not, the way to achieve a comfortable bedroom has much more to do with fitting your bedroom furniture to the space than with the sophistication of your décor. This involves starting with the purpose of the space and lifestyle of the person or people who will use the room most regularly. In addition, you’ll need to choose how to allocate your budget, match your bedroom set to the room’s size and shape, and maintain a consistent style.
Before considering anything else, designing a room requires that you start by fitting the space to the users. For a bedroom, this means asking yourself who will live or sleep there. For example, are you outfitting a guest room or a kid’s room? Will you be the primary user, and do you have a partner who will share the space? Of course, designing a room to fit your needs is much easier than designing one to fit anyone else’s. After all, you understand how you’ll use your bedroom and the specific pieces of a bedroom set that best fit your lifestyle. Most importantly, consider the types of furniture that the daily use of a space will require. For instance, if you have a walk-in closet, you may not need a dresser taking up more floor space. If the room is for a young child, a toy box trunk might make more sense than a vanity. Determine exactly which items you need to include, and which you don’t.
Once you know what you need, you can consider how to spread your budget. In some cases, a complete bedroom set might prove to be the best deal. However, it’s often the case that a particular piece will be the focal point of the bedroom. This might be the bed or another large, visible piece, like a dresser or mirror. Since this piece will set the tone for the space, prioritizing quality and setting aside a reasonable portion of your budget will help ensure that you are happy with the result. Of course, quality is about more than appearance. You want your carefully selected bedroom furniture to be functional, rather than frustrating. We’ve all experienced the moment when a dresser drawer drops out of place and gets stuck at an awkward angle. Keep in mind that you, or whoever SOMETHING the bedroom most, will use this furniture daily. Investing in quality will keep your furniture functioning seamlessly. Generally, furniture that calls attention to itself does so for the wrong reasons, because it either sticks out stylistically or because of a failure to work quite right.
Now that you have a grasp of the pieces of furniture to include in the room, you’ll need to factor in how the size and dimensions of the space factor into this decision. For instance, in a smaller city apartment, though you might use all the pieces of a complete bedroom set, you might not have room for all these separate pieces. In this case, you’ll have to prioritize the pieces that maximize your ability to use the space, either for storage or by eliminating elements that are redundant. You might think about how a bathroom vanity can make up for the loss of a nightstand, or how a mirror and trundle bed will help open up your space much more than a bunk bed. Perhaps the best way to keep your space feeling natural and comfortable is to keep it from becoming overcrowded or cluttered by furniture that doesn’t fit. Even for larger bedrooms, complete bedroom sets leave at least two-thirds of the floor space open to allow free movement and avoid stubbed toes in the dark.
Finally, after all the practical considerations that play into creating the atmosphere of the bedroom, you should also consider the purely aesthetic elements. Identifying a clear stylistic direction for the furniture design and décor of the room before you begin looking for furniture is the best way to make a space feel consistent and complete. This doesn’t mean you have to simply choose a standard style to maintain; in fact, designing a space with overlap between two styles is a fantastic way to make it feel like your own and prevent the “showroom” impression of a cookie-cutter design. If you aren’t confident in your ability to style a space effectively, a complete bedroom set is a great way to avoid having to match pieces. When in doubt, clean lines and minimal clutter are a great start. With each of these key aspects of interior design in mind, you’ll end up with bedrooms your houseguests will envy. Just don’t be surprised when they ask you if you hired a professional.
