Dreamy Master Bedrooms

By Angela Rowe, DDCD

Much more than just the place you sleep, today’s master bedroom should function as a truly personal in-home retreat. Your bedroom is, or should be, a haven to escape the daily routines and a tranquil place to destress.

Before diving into a new design, it is important to develop a decorating plan. Besides sleeping, do you want a comfy chair to relax and read or maybe a desk for your daily journal entries? If you enjoy watching TV in the bedroom, do you want to see it from a chair or just from the bed? Without a major addition to the home, do you have space to accommodate all the activities you would like to accomplish in the bedroom? All these questions are pivotal to developing a plan.

The focal point in any bedroom is, of course, the bed. Options for beds are varied and can please almost every taste under the sun. A big objective in selecting a bed is style. From sleek and simple contemporary to traditional stained wood and everything in-between, selecting your personal favorite is the starting point for any bedroom design. Upholstered headboards are very popular because they offer texture, color, and comfort to lean back on to read or watch your favorite Netflix and can fit with any style depending on the fabric and shape.
That brings to question color. Do you prefer tranquil neutrals or a more dramatic theme? Keeping colors light or pale will help reflect light rays instead of absorbing them, which is good if the space isn’t quite as large as you would like. Conversely, using strong colors will add drama and if the space is extremely large, will help warm it up and humanize it.
So, the million-dollar question next is the bedding. “Bed-in-a-bag” hardly ever fits a “standard” bed because there is no standard size bed. Once mattress manufactures started doing pillow-tops and super deep mattresses, the norms left us all. Start by measuring the top of the bed and the drop on the sides plus a few inches to see exactly the size you need. All king beds are not created equal in size.

Next let’s talk about the windows. In more than any other room of the house, the window treatments in a bedroom need to be both beautiful and functional. Many of my clients insist on having room-darkening treatments, while others just want privacy. These questions fall into the decorating plan and should be given thought before the bedroom is designed. If your bedroom has a nice view, you will want a treatment that is easy to operate and will open to clearly display the view.

Bedside tables can run the gauntlet from large storage cabinets to petite decorative side tables. Don’t feel like the side tables have to match. Gone are the days of matchy-matchy 5-piece bedroom sets. Have fun with mixing textures, sizes, stained wood and painted wood, and mirrored pieces around the newly designed bedroom.