Planning Your Bedroom

The flexibility of today’s lifestyle and the wide variety of environments which we choose to call “home” ensure that more than a degree of thought has to go into deciding on the location of the bedroom.

Traditionally, in house, bedrooms are located upstairs and near the bathroom, separated at a discreet distance from those rooms – living room, dining room or kitchen. So, for those with the means to have a whole house their disposal, there is generally less scope for originality because the bedroom will have been planned of city dwellers, basement, living in apartments, converted lofts, houseboats, school and even converted warehouse. Choosing the location of the bedroom can be a more personal and original decision.

Take the time to sit down right at the beginning, over a large mug of tea, and analyze your lifestyle and your requirements. Do you entertain a lot? Will you use it for anything other than sleeping? How much time are you likely to spend in your bedroom? How much time do you actually spend awake at home? The list can be endless!

Depending on how honest you are, your bedroom could easily, occupy the largest room you have available, leave your friends to sit on top of one another in a kitchen-cum-living room instead. If you live in a pied-a-terre or studio you will inevitably entertain in your bedroom, as it will be the only room. You could easily apply the same principle in a loft conversion or a barn, however. In all these cases, one large room can prove to be remarkably adaptable.

A bedroom that has a permanent status as a bedroom gives you a great scope. First of all, bearing in mind reference point such as windows, and doors, built-in cupboards (closets) and existing lighting sockets, as well as specific items of furniture that you cannot live without, decide on the best location for the bed. Here are some tips for planning your bedoom:

• Establish what furniture has to be accommodated in addition to the bed before you choose potentially too small a room. Then choose a bed that suits the shape of the bedroom.
• Decide on a style for your bedroom and stick to it. Don’t compromise. 
• Do not allow the guest bedroom to degenerate into a junk room. Have ample drawer and cupboard (closet) space or store junk in such a way that becomes a decorative feature.
• If your bedroom is “on the show”, drape an interesting cover the bed and scatter it with cushions to transform it into a day bed. Store your bedclothes box or wicker basket at the end of the bed, in specially designed drawers under the bed, or in a cupboard (closet) – whereever space permits. 

If you have space, what about a separate dressing room, or storage room, for shelves and additional hanging space, leaving the bedroom free for the more unusual paraphernalia of your life? If you are sharing a house with friends, incorporating some sort of sitting room into the bedroom might be useful, in order to give you a little additional privacy and to avoid having to watch television endlessly from the bed.

Guest bedrooms tend to be the smallest rooms in the house. The size of the bed is therefore very important. If this room does not have to perform a dual role, functioning as part-time study, workroom or dumpling ground when not inhabited by guest, you should give as much thought to its layout as a bedroom as would to your own. Guest like to feel that you have taken some trouble. A pretty chair beside a small table that can double as dressing table and desk, some interesting pictures, a few strategically chosen books by the bed, ambient light and flowers for a personal touch go a long way to making the guest feel welcome.