The bedroom is a unique room to decorate. It is the only one where parents, friends and strangers do not have access. These people go through the living room, the kitchen and the bathroom, but not the bedroom. That leaves us free to decorate it any way we like, from the outlandish to the classic.
You feel like redoing your bedroom décor? The possibilities are endless.
The classical style is always easy to defend. Simple and discreet, with an abundance of glass, moulding to modify the volumes, sometimes old-fashioned wallpaper. A few knickknacks, maybe a vase on each side of the bed. A bookshelf topped by a bouquet of flowers. White and cream are often colours that evoke intimacy. Grey as well.
Step it up a notch and you have a sumptuous bedroom. Turquoise, violet and purple offer an ambience of royalty. Mouldings provide a rich look. Velour or quilts as bed linen complete the majestic effect conveyed by the bedroom, to which this couch or padded headboard, velour curtains and canopy bed are added.
A rustic look is also quite charming. Predominance of wood, hooks on the wall or an antique coatrack, wicker, chest or bench along the foot of the bed, an old dresser, dried flowers on an antique table, patchwork quilt. Don’t forget that there are also wall hangings, stained glass and patchwork textile. White, terracotta and yellow are often colours used.
How about a burst of the contemporary! Geometric patterns and linear space, the use of glass, chrome, aluminium and stainless steel, lacquer to bring it all together, an explosion of accessories of different dimensions, from small to extremely big, a dark wall to offset the wall lights, opposition of black and white to complete the red or blue or grey.
Step it up a notch and the industrial look takes all the space. Metal bed and furniture and massive shapes, heavy mirrors, an obsession of cold colours with the odd touch of grey and silver. Many people get strong sensations from the coldness of the industrial look.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the heat of Arabia and the atmosphere of the Arabian Nights. A cozy bed, a low table, Moroccan poufs, veiled window, Turkish carpet and cushions, a four-poster bed where you can open and close several layers of warm colours: red, saffron, ochre. If not, an immense light veil, frou-frou and transparent.
Kitsch closes the step with its inexhaustible humour. Like this podium that serves as a night table or this old souvenir purchased in Las Vegas. Sometimes you have to mix several styles to get an anarchizing effect that attracts gaiety and joie de vivre.
The bedroom is a room where we succumb to the temptation of colour. Examples: dark walls, black or prune, to attract the eye to an immaculate white bed. Or the contrary: a white room to highlight dark wood furniture and eggplant colour bed cover.
If not, have fun with audacious combinations: grey with purple, cream and violet, orange and black interspersed with white to lessen the effect.
Photos: iStockphoto LP
Consult the following works for other ideas.
References:
Chambre pour tous les goûts en 60 exemples, Éditions Marie-Claire, 2004, 124 pages
Autour des chambres à coucher, Joséphine Valmont, Massin, 2007, 119 pages
Chambres par Alberto Pinto, Flammarion, 2006, 255 pages