Perhpas before we go down the path of discussing these bedroom deign tips, it might be good to start with the topic of how to create a serene bedroom retreat.
It feels like I always start out my bedroom posts the same way. Your bedroom should be your sanctuary. Your refuge from the rest of the busy, crazy world. It is often the last place we decide to furnish and decorate but it really should be the first.
If you’re already on board on the topic of serene bedroom retreats, here are some of important bedroom design tips that might come in handy.
Rugs
I feel that rugs are a must have in a bedroom, at least if you live in Canada and Northern States of the US. Ok, so it’s not quite a hard and fast rule.
If you’re wondering what size rug makes sense for your room, we got you covered.
RULE: For a twin bed, choose a rug that is 5’x8’ ; for a full size bed, go with a rug that is 6’x9’; for a queen, go with a rug that is 8’x10’; and finally, for a king size bed, go with a rug that is 9’x12’.
Ideally, your rug should have about 2 feet on either side of the bed, and at the bottom of the bed if you can. This means that the bottom legs of your bed should be on the rug but the top legs don’t have to be!
If you have a small room and can’t fit the rug size mentioned above under the bed, then opt to have two smaller rugs on each side of the bed.
Personally, I’m not a fan of floating a rug in front of the bed. It makes it look like the rug was an afterthought.
Bed
The size of your room and your own sleeping preferences are most likely going to dictate what size bed you can have. Having said that I can tell you I’ve seen one too many condo bedrooms in Toronto that have a queen bed stuffed into it when there’s no room for that size of a bed in that room!
I once knew someone who had a queen bed in their room and it fit perfectly around 3 walls. She had to get in and out of bed using the footer end of the bed and if she wanted to open a window, she had to climb the bed to get to the window. This is not ideal.
RULE: You should have about 3 feet of space to walk around the bed.
You can push your bed against a wall, or even two walls. As in, push your bed to a corner in the room. That’s about where I’d draw the line.
While floating a bed in a room is becoming a bit of a trend these days, you don’t have to do that unless you have ample room around your bed to make it work.
Nightstand
First thing, let’s address one of the questions we get often. No, you don’t have to match the nightstands but there are of course rules to this!
RULE: Make sure your nightstand is in the proper scale to your bed.
If you have a full or a queen size bed, choose a nightstand that is around 20” wide and 20” deep. You can go a little bigger too but this is where your eyeballs will have to do the job to figure out if it’s to scale.
If you have a King bed, you can even go as big as 40” wide. If you’re looking for the perfect nightstand for a twin bed, find something smaller than the average nightstand. The average nightstand is around 20”x20”.
RULE: Choose a nightstand that has a height within an inch or two of the height of your bed with the mattress.
This will make it easy to reach things on the nightstand or place a glass of water on the nightstand in the dark.
Bedding
What rules are there around bedding? After all, the size of your sheets will depend on the size of your mattress. Queen sheets for queen size beds. That’s not rocket science, right?
What about comforters and duvet covers and coverlets? This is where I see mistakes in bedroom decor. Often people choose duvets that are too small for the bed. When you have a duvet or a comforter that is too small for your bed, you won’t get that draping effect that makes the bed looks comfy and inviting.
And yes, just because the label on the duvet or the comforter says it’s queen, doesn’t mean it will actually work for your bed. At minimum, your comforter width should be the width of your mattress + (the thickness of your mattress x 2).
RULE: Make sure the width and length of your mattress is appropriate for the size of your bed and mattress. Like most things in designing a room, we want to make sure the scale of the duvet or comforter is correct.
Lighting
Lighting is one of the most important aspects of the design of your space. There should be 2-3 types of lighting in your space to ensure that your room functions the way you want it to.
RULE: Use different types of lighting like ambient lighting, task lighting and accent lighting to optimize the function of your room.
You should consider a ceiling light, some table lamps and maybe a floor lamp, or wall sconces for your room. I know ceiling light might not always be an option in a condo as many new condos don’t seem to have this option available.
Like everything else, the scale of your lighting is important. Let’s start with your ceiling light.
RULE: Get the scale of the ceiling light right.
A simple rule is to add the length and width of the room in feet to get the diameter of the ceiling light you need in inches. For example, if you have a room that is 12’ x 10’, then your light fixture should have a diameter of about 22”.
RULE: Ceiling fixture should hang around 7’ off the floor. You can go a bit higher if your ceiling is higher but definitely not lower.
Let’s talk about table lamps on your nightstand next.
RULE: The bottom of the lamp shade should be lower than your eye height when you’re sitting on the bed.
When you’re reading a book sitting up on your bed, you want the table lamp low enough that it provides you with ample light but you also don’t want it to be too high that it makes you squint because you can the bright light bulb from the corner of your eye.
I’m not really asking you to measure everything out but just be aware and mindful when you’re choosing a table lamp for your nightstand. If you keep away from tall light fixtures, this should do the trick. Keep in mind you also don’t want the lamp to be too short either, as that would limit the amount of light you get.
Wall sconces are a great option when you don’t have much space on your night stand or if you’re looking to add a whole lot of style! There are a ton of options for wall sconces, and some come in a plug-in version.
RULE: Your wall sconce should be at about your shoulder height when you’re sitting up on your bed.
You can read more about the different types of lighting you need here.
Curtains
Curtains provide privacy and give you the ability to control light, in addition to being pretty and giving your room that finished look.
You want to hang your curtains as high as you can but of course there is a rule around the height for the curtain rod too.
RULE: Hang your curtain rod on the top ⅓ of the space above your window.
RULE: Make sure the curtain rod extends 10”-12” on either side of the window as well.
RULE: Let your curtains touch or kiss the floor.
These are our 3 rules around curtains and you can read more about curtains on this post and this post on how to create that beutifully draped windows for your room.
Accessorize
Styling your space is almost always what I see as missing in most bedroom spaces. You could add a bench or two or an ottoman or a pouf to the end of the bed.
RULE: Accessorize your space with your personal style and things you love.
Style your nightstands with a vase, some personal pictures in frames and an alarm clock.
Decorate your walls. Consider artwork, gallery walls, floating shelves, bookshelves, etc. as ways you can decorate your walls. Showcase your collections, whatever they might be.
This doesn’t give you the licence to cramp your room with all of those things. Having some negative space is always good. These are just some ideas for what you could do with one or two empty walls you might have.
Like all rules, they are meant to be broken. As long as you know how!
If you need some help creating the perfect bedroom sanctuary, reach out to us or start a project here.
