Welcome to the next installment of “How to Make Your *insert room* Better”. The concept started out a little as a joke with our first living room post but it turned out to be pretty popular so we thought let’s keep these good times rolling! But we also get it. As a deep lover of checklists, these posts would be a dream for me. Sure there are always going things that could be added but knowing that if I did these # of things and I would have a nicer-looking bedroom… heaven.
I’ve actually been thinking a lot about my bedroom lately, despite it likely being the last room on my MOTO list. But I think a lot of people tend to put their bedroom design on the back burner because it’s mostly just where we sleep and it’s not a room that usually gets a lot of foot traffic from our guests. And if they do, phrases like “I’m so sorry, it’s such a mess” or “please don’t judge it, I’m not done decorating it yet” come tumbling out of our mouths. Well, we deseve better, no? We should have a bedroom that when we walk into it we immediately are greeted with a sense of calm. So let’s get into the 12 ways to make that happen.
1. Add A Bed Blanket (Textured Or Patterned)
Just to be clear this isn’t your average-sized throw blanket. It’s bigger and we like to style them as the top layer at the foot of a bed. They just make your bed more inviting, cozy and are an extra layer for those chilly nights. Let me show you what I mean.
Left Blanket (similar) | Right Blanket
Here we have two different neutral yet textured options. I love how in the mountain house bedroom, the green blanket is a nice bold contrast to the greige bedding. Then in Suzanne’s bedroom, the cream knit bed blanket complements the rest of the bedding but its visual texture adds so much. Plus it just looks cozy, right?!
But maybe you’re a pattern person in which here are two great examples. In Julie’s bedroom on the left, she went for that awesome embroidered blanket. The pattern is bold but the colors are more muted working perfectly with the general color palette and vibe of the room. Then in Emily’s old basement guest room, she used her favorite large throw blanket/coverlet. It adds another layer of pattern that breaks up the solid blue quilt underneath. All in all, they add a ton of personality to these rooms.
2. Try The Single Long Pillow
Emily has been raving about this bedding hack for years! She (and most of us) love a bedding setup that only takes a minute to create and even less to destroy. So if you spend more time than you’d like with your decorative pillows (I always think of that scene in Along Came Polly, IYKYK) then this one is for you. Let’s keep our knives in our kitchens and make life easier and a little more modern with the single long lumbar decorative pillow.
Look at these beds and tell me that your bed-making stress level didn’t just go down 7 points. Simple and can truly translate to any style.
And in terms of color and texture mixing rules it’s always the same. Keep it within the room’s color palette and then decide if you want to play with a contrasting or complementing color to the bedding. Then you can decide if you’d prefer a pattern or a solid with a fun texture like Em did with this faux leather lumbar in her mountain house bedroom.
3. The Right Sized Rug
Ha. Did you think we wouldn’t bring this up again? We did because again it’s important. Here is our mostly official bedroom rug size rule:
RULE: Ideally your rug should have at least 24″ on all three sides of your bed. Our typical sizing rules are: for a Twin go for a 5’x8′, a Full 6’x9′, a Queen 8’x10′ and a King 9’x12′.
But of course, you also want to consider the size of your room. That’s why I’m a very big fan of taping things like rugs out before you buy.
We like rugs to be on the larger side because you don’t want most of your beautiful rug hiding under the bed. We recommend placing at having at least half if not two-thirds under the bed. That
James Home Renovation 