How to Decorate a Primary Bedroom

A primary bedroom should be a calming place of retreat at the end of the day. 

It should be both functional and beautiful. 

Here are a few primary bedroom decor ideas to decorate your primary bedroom like a professional designer or decorator.

 

Tidy and Clean
The most important thing that needs to be done when decorating a primary bedroom is to ensure that it stays tidy and clean. 

A messy and dirty room is not at all restful. 

Before decorating your primary bedroom, put systems into place to ensure that stacks of magazines, remote controls, and your purse have a home out of sight.

Invest in organizational systems for your bedroom to keep items out of sight yet still accessible.

Consider decorating with fewer decorative items. Having fewer items is easier to clean and keep clean than having many decorative accessories.

 

 

Storage
A primary bedroom is not only a place to sleep, but a place to store your personal things. 

When decorating your bedroom, make sure that you have enough storage for your clothing, accessories, and any other items that need a home.

You might opt for larger storage pieces, such as an armoire instead of a dresser since an armoire will hold more.

Also consider under bed storage for items that are not used very often or out of season clothing.

You might want to swap out your nightstands for a larger piece of furniture, such as a bachelor chest, to allow you more bedroom storage.

Ban Stressful Things
Do you store your bills, your homework, your textbooks, or your work computer in your primary bedroom?

If so, try to find another place for them in another part of your house. 

Keep items that you find stressful out of sight and preferably in a room other than your primary bedroom.

If the only place for your home office is in your bedroom, then find a way to conceal it when the work day is over.

You might want to invest in a desk that is able to be closed to conceal all work items, such as a secretary desk or a roll top desk.

 

 

Luxury
When selecting linens and other items for your primary bedroom, spend a little extra money on luxurious items. 

You will spend approximately 1/3 of your life lying on those sheets, so why not get a really nice set? 

For a luxurious look for your bedding, see the article How to Make a Bed like a Designer.

When decorating your primary bedroom, make sure to pay special attention to the quality of items that you will touch.  Items that are seen from a distance and not touched can be of average quality.

Having fewer nicer things always looks better than having a large collection of average quality items.

Focal Point
When you decorate your primary bedroom, it should have 1 to 3 focal points so your room does not look boring.

Focal points give your eye something to immediately focus on when entering a room.

The focal point(s) will most likely be your bed and/or a glamorous light fixture, a feature wall of wallpaper, and/or artwork hanging over your bed or nightstands.

One primary bedroom decor idea is If you are using art or wallpaper as your focal point item, consider having that item have all of the colors of your color scheme and be the jumping off point for the color scheme of all of your accessories in your bedroom.

 

 

Restful or Bold Colors?
Your primary bedroom paint colors and the other colors in your bedroom should be well planned.

Since your primary bedroom should be a calm place, many people like to decorate it with restful colors.

If you prefer to decorate with restful colors, choose white and soft pastel colors or deep dark colors over bold and electric colors.

Restful colors also include low contrast.  Avoid using large quantities of black and other really dark colors adjacent to white, which can feel jarring since there is large quantities of high contrast.

If you want to wake up energized in the morning and prefer to have a bedroom with bold colors to help wake you up, decorate your primary bedroom with more intense colors that give you energy, such as yellow.

For a more energetic bedroom, select high contrast color schemes that have really dark and really light colors adjacent to each other.

Many people like to watch TV in bed, but TVs are not very attractive.

Make sure to decorate your primary bedroom in a way that the TV is not always visible. 

You can put your television in a cabinet that has a door so the TV can be covered when not in use.

You can get a TV lift cabinet where the TV lowers down into the cabinet when not in use.  These cabinets are very popular at the end of a bed.

Another option is to put a frame on your wall mounted TV, or get a Samsung Frame TV that looks like framed art when you are not watching TV.

 

 

Only Nightstands Matching
Professional interior designers and decorators have moved away from decorating using matching bedroom furniture sets. 

These matching bedroom furniture sets often look cheap since they are an easy and affordable way to furnish a bedroom all at once for a low price. 

These furniture sets are still very popular at lower end furniture stores, which is another reason why they tend to feel cheap, even if they are not.

High end homes are decorated with bedroom furniture that looks collected and curated from many different manufacturers to give the bedroom a one-of-a-kind look.

Most designer rooms feature a bed, dresser, and other pieces furniture that are very different from each other, excluding the nightstands (and maybe the lamps on the nightstands) that usually match.

Many activities happen in a primary bedroom, including dressing, reading, and cleaning. 

Decorate your primary bedroom using multiple light sources to be able to adjust the light and ensure adequate lighting for all of your activities. 

Dimmer switches are a great solution for accommodating different light levels for different activities, however make sure to also buy dimmable light bulbs to go with the switches.

Interior designers do not care for exclusively using overhead lighting since it has a tendency to create unflattering shadows and not provide lighting directly where it is needed.

Table lamps shine light directly onto the table and the areas around it, which is great for reading and locating items on a nightstand.

Wall sconces are another great option for bringing light down to eye level and providing decorative interest to the wall.

 

Accessories
When selecting accessories to decorate your primary bedroom, think of them in groupings of 3. 

In each grouping of 3, select one item that is tall, one that is medium, and one that is low. 

Appropriate accessories include framed photos, a vase, a plant, fresh flowers, a lamp, and hardback books.

Decorate your primary bedroom using a variety of shapes, colors, and textures for your accessories.  Textural items are especially important if you are decorating a neutral bedroom.

If you have a more colorful bedroom, your accessories should reinforce the color scheme of your bedroom.  Try to repeat each of the colors in your color scheme at least 3 times throughout your bedroom.

Decorate using calming and restful artwork for your bedroom if you want a calm bedroom, or you can decorate using bright and colorful art if you want a more vibrant bedroom. 

Consider decorating your primary bedroom walls with a large framed photograph you took of a favorite vacation destination, store bought artwork that incorporates the color scheme of your bedroom, art that you created yourself, or your wedding, bridal, or engagement photo.

Artwork is what gives your bedroom personality, so make sure whatever you select is a reflection of you and your style.

Art can also set the mood of your bedroom, so take your time when making this important decision.

 

Window Coverings
Your bedroom window coverings should be able to block out most or all of the light in your primary bedroom in case you want to sleep late one weekend. 

Your window coverings should also be luxurious and complement the decor of your primary bedroom.

Instead of just one type of window covering, consider adding 2 types of window coverings per window.

Many interior designers like to decorate using bamboo shades under curtains for a custom designer look.

Curtains hung the old fashioned way covers a lot of the window when the curtains are opened.  In order to make your windows look larger and allow the most light in as possible, make sure to hang your curtains almost near the ceiling.  The curtain width should be 2-3 times the width of the window (if your window is 50 inches wide, use a minimum of 2 - 50" wide curtains).  The curtains should be hung much wider than the window so if the curtains are opened they should just barely cover the tiniest bit of the window.