Discover Your Ideal Bedroom Style

There are many recommendations for creating a calm, appealing bedroom: Choose blues, greens, and creams; position your bed away from doors and windows; and keep clutter to a minimum. They fail to consider that one person’s relaxing is another person’s boring, and one person’s cluttered is another person’s comfortable.

So, depending on your style choices, here are some ideas for designing your ideal bedroom. Whether you identify as a New Traditionalist, Eclectic, Naturalist, or Curator—or any mix thereof—you should find plenty of inspiration here.
The Emerging Traditionalist
It’s all too easy to get caught up in this style’s “traditional” components at the cost of the “modern.” New Traditionalists, on the other hand, do not desire a bedroom that might be their parents’ or grandparents’. For example, in the image above, we have a traditional (and tranquil) blue-and-white colour scheme, with chinoiserie jars on the desk, a flowery cushion on the chair, and crisp cotton sheets embroidered with a laurel design. However, there are animal-print cushions, a rattan-and-wicker armchair rather than a fauteuil or slipper chair, and an unusual sea-grass shade over the classic urn-shape lamp. Even the way the art is hung—asymmetrically, with one piece on top of the molding—adds a delightful element of surprise to what might have been a routine display.

Choose timeless items in surprising hues or patterns to update classics, such as a ginger jar covered with mischievous monkeys rather than blue-on-white blossoms, or a headboard upholstered in a fabric with an enormous theme (you can customise the patterns and colours of headboards here). Alternatively, abandon a conventional palette entirely by replacing blues with oranges, yellows, or greys while keeping the furniture design classic.
Nature’s Curator
Taupes, tans, and other neutrals may be quite relaxing. An all-neutral space, on the other hand, may quickly descend from peaceful to uninteresting. The Naturalist understands how to fix this by stacking a smorgasbord of organic textures. Place a sleek glass light on a weathered wood nightstand; wrap a quilted blanket over a fluffy Beni Ourain rug; keep bedside reading materials in a wicker basket; and mix elegant silk pillows with loosely woven linen ones.

That is not to suggest that a Naturalist bedroom must be devoid of colour. Neutrals are the perfect base for adding airy blues, lush greens, bright yellows, or any other hue found in nature. Alternatively, you may use blue, green, or yellow as the basis and put natural-material furnishings on top. A jute or sisal rug adds an earthy element to any room. Consider items with classical shapes constructed of unconventional organic materials, such as Currey & Company’s rope-wrapped Olisa furniture or Arteriors’ Abaco Pendant, if you like classic aesthetics as well. (Both businesses make inventive use of natural materials ranging from seashells to driftwood.)

Above all, remember to include flowers and foliage. If you don’t want to deal with the upkeep of genuine plants or blossoms, go with artificial. Never underestimate the power of a floral or woody house scent to recall the elegance of nature.