The Benefits of a Finished Bedroom

The feeling of home is a real thing that we talk about with our clients while working through designing their space. Your home should feel like home to you, because when it does, the benefits will be palpable.

Right now with everything that we are doing at home: living, working, cooking non stop, possibly home schooling, and more; we still need a space to “come home” to and unwind at the end of these long days. This space is your bedroom. Unless you’ve squeezed some temporary office space into your room, your room is likely the space you are spending the least amount of time during the day. So, how do you create a bedroom that feels like home, that gives you a respite, a place to recharge and re-energize to do it all again tomorrow?

Take stock of your space and your feelings when you first enter and are moving through the room. When you walk through the door of your bedroom, what emotions are provoked? Does it feel like a safe haven? Does it give you a sense of peace and calm? Does it encourage you to relax and just be?

If your space isn’t evoking those feelings, what feelings does it evoke and what areas are jumping out at you either good, bad or indifferent? If you can identify these feelings you can find a way to turn them around. Here are some things to look for if your room isn’t feeling zen: clutter, lack of texture or warmth, need for storage/organization, or maybe just an overall update.

Let’s start with clutter. This could be a result of a lack of storage, or just a lack of functionality for you. Most of us have a space in our bedrooms where we put those clothes that are in between freshly cleaned and needing to be washed, make sure that place isn’t overflowing. Go through those pieces and make sure they are in the right place, and if the play you are currently using isn’t working, find a quick solution, like adding a hook to the outside of your closet door for those pieces to hang when they are in limbo. Another example of clutter could be a pile-up of books, magazines, water glasses or tissues on your nightstand. Take a moment once ever other day or so to go through this space and pair it down-you won’t miss that water glass from 3 days ago, and you can leave out one book or magazine on the top of your nightstand for convenience, but the rest of them should be put somewhere else.

Once you’ve decluttered, you might find you have a lack of storage. This can come from accruing things over time and not pairing things back down, or it can come from moving into a place with a smaller closet and never quite working out where the overflow goes… it can be a lot of things. Whatever the reason, take stock and decide how you want to handle it. If you have a good sized room with a small closet, consider looking for a larger dresser, some nightstands with storage or some decorative under bed bins to solve the problem. If you just feel like you have too much stuff, turn on your favorite background show on your tablet and get to sorting through those things you no longer need to make space for the pieces you love!

Now that your clutter is clear and your storage is solved, take a look at the way your room feels. Is it better, or is there more? if you have wood floors, you might want to add an area rug beneath you bed, or runners on either side to give you something cozy to place your feet on first thing in the morning. What about your windows? Window treatments are likely going to be the trickiest thing to resolve during a pandemic if you want to go with something truly customized to you (which we highly recommend-it’s worth the initial investment if you can swing it and you can wait), but if you are looking for some simple panel drapes to just finish the space or offer some privacy, there are some great options out there to do just that. Take some time to search for the right pieces for this one, these elements will add so much impact to your space and can really benefit your day to day emotions when you’re in the room, so don’t rush.

Finally, let’s talk about an area where you might need a general update: your bedding! I LOVE a good sheet set. There really is nothing like it, and you spend so much time sleeping in your lifetime, I have always felt this is an area you should invest. Sheets are the base, start with a good base and then go from there to add a nice new duvet cover, quilt and pillow shams. Decide how much effort you are willing to put in on a daily basis and then commit to the number of accent pillows you want to have. I think you need two pillows minimum for any simple queen bed or larger-I’m thinking of Euro Shams, and then if you are willing to commit to one or two or three decorative pillows to add some texture and oomph, go for it; but make it something you can commit to making every morning-because when you walk back into your room at the end of a long LONG day at home, you will want to see this room in all of it’s glory and feel those zen vibes take over.

All of these changes are minor, they are things you can start to work on at home without spending money and you can work towards purchasing the larger necessary solutions as you have the time and energy to do so. As always, we are also here to help! If you need help pulling together the overall look and feel for the space, or even just admitting that the space needs help and you don’t want to handle it right now, we are just a click away to schedule a call and get something set up to work with you on your space. We are working completely virtually now with every aspect of our design clients so feel free to reach out and see how we can help you too!

I hope these tips are helpful and that your bedroom is starting to feel more like the respite you deserve already.