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5 Easy Pieces: The Bedroom

A return to this occasional series where we look at five key elements that you can change in a room to give it a new lease of life. Today it’s the bedroom. Now, obviously the single most transformative thing you can do is buy a can of paint but that involves a certain amount of labour and I remember when we last painted the bedroom ourselves we only had time to do it at weekends and it took forever. Because don’t forget the walls is the quick bit. Then there’s the woodwork which is all fiddly. And the ceiling.

brisa peacock linen bedding from made.com
brisa peacock linen bedding from made.com

So here are five things you can buy to change the look of your bedroom without having a massive refurb. This also works if you live in a rented property and the walls, floors and curtains are fixed elements that you can’t change. Having said that, when it comes to curtains, they are easy enough to change for different ones and you can carefully store the ones that came with the flat so you can put them back up when you leave.

Right, for this transformation you will need: a rug, bedding, a lamp, a bedspread and a bedside table. I have chosen pink and green because they look good together but you can go with any colour combination you please.

tasselled cotton rug from H&M
tasselled cotton rug from H&M

This presupposes neutral walls which mean that you can add any colour you like, but think about colour combining like putting together an outfit. You often find that unexpected things go together in ways you hadn’t thought of. Also look at paint charts and see how they group the colours which might give you inspiration.

If you do decide to go down the paint route, you can create something like this with one can and with a bed in front of it that’s a really dramatic look that will look amazing. We have a dark green wall behind our bed (it’s the front of the wardrobe wall) and I’m quite tempted to take the green up over the ceiling to add drama and height. I haven’t mentioned this to The Mad Husband yet though and he does tend to have opinions so maybe I’ll have to hijack the 18yo’s room when he goes to university.

feature wall by dulux

Enough of paint, when it comes to rugs, I have written extensively about them not being too small. It can be hard to find a rug that is big enough to go right under the bed so think about buying two if budget permits. Or put one smaller one on either side.

aurora resin lamp base from pooky
aurora resin lamp base from pooky

Bedside lamps are easy to change. You might not even need to buy new ones. Perhaps you can “shop your house” by bringing in a lamp from a different room and changing the lampshade only. Bedside lamps don’t have to match so you can have different bases with the same shade, or two matching bases with different shades – one plain and one patterned for example.

bedding from himla
bedding from himla

Cushions are controversial. Some like lots, some hate having to move them every night before they get in. The Mad Husband being one of those. One workaround is to have four different pillowcases in toning colours – or one patterned one. That way they look like cushions, add interest to the bed and don’t have to be removed when you get in. Layer over a contrasting, or tonal bedspread, which, again, need only be moved according to the season and you have the look without the bother.

blyth storage side table from habitat
blyth storage side table from habitat 

Finally, bedside tables. I have a small table as I tend to fill drawers and cupboards with all sorts of rubbish but you might be more disciplined than me. This is a good idea if you aren’t too much of a clutterer as you can keep things in the base but also by keeping the top streamlined you can easily access the things below. Also, should you ever be brought coffee or breakfast in bed you can use the top as a tray to balance it all on.

There you go; Bedrooms: Five Easy Pieces.

 

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

1 Comment

  1. A couple of things I would add is that a single bed, to be really comfortable, needs a double sized duvet. Not only does it add to the attractiveness of the bed but ensures no cold rear end when sleeping. (A double bed a king sized one).
    King sized pillows will add a feeling of luxury if you can afford them and the cost of their pillow cases.
    We had to rent whilst waiting for developers to complete the converted building our flat is in. In the rental flat, the ground floor bedroom window needed to be cheaply screened from passers by. The solution, 2 plain net curtains, one curtain hung on top of the other, using a stretch wire for each curtain. The effect looked opulent but was actually a Charity shop purchase.

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