How to Furnish a Small Bedroom

Small bedrooms should be furnished so they will appear as roomy as possible. To achieve this you should stay away from putting too many big furniture pieces in the room and avoid clutter. A clean room always look bigger.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Paint the room a pale color, with a bright-white ceiling, to maximize the sense of space.

2. Put down ceramic tile, wood-strip or other linear-type flooring that can be run on the diagonal. The eye follows the lines on the floor, and the room seems larger because diagonal lines will be longer than those running parallel or perpendicular to the walls.

3. Forgo a headboard and footboard, which force you to bring the bed farther out from the wall and interrupt the flow of space. For a substitute headboard, on the wall at the head of the bed you can: Hang a simple textile such as a quilt or tapestry from a decorative rod, group pictures low on the wall or mount an architectural fragment such as old porch gingerbread or picket fencing.

4. Keep the bed low to the ground (a simple metal mattress frame is ample) to reduce its mass.

5. Consider a sleep sofa or futon in a bedroom that isn't used often.

6. Use furniture sparingly because it can choke a room and its traffic pattern. A bed, bedside table and chest may be all the room can hold.

7. Purchase storage pieces that go up rather than out. For instance, choose a highboy rather than a triple dresser.

8. Use a bedside table that offers storage, such as a small chest with four drawers.

9. Minimize pattern, which seems to fill a room. Flowers, stripes, plaids and polka dots will seem to swim toward you from a rug, curtains, wallpaper, or bed cover.

10. Skip the billowy window and bed treatments such as pouf valances, piles of pillows and fluffy dust ruffles. Tailored looks (blinds plus a simple valance, flat dust skirts) have less volume but still get the job done.

11. Outfit the closet with a storage system of drawers, shelves and rods that optimize storage.

12. Pare clutter that's sitting atop the furniture.

13. Restrain the use of pictures on the walls, which can close in the room. Some decorators advise leaving one wall blank to calm the psyche.

14. Use a square lampshade so that the lamp can fit as snugly as possible against the wall.

15. Use high-wattage lightbulbs to give the room a sense of openness. A light-flooded room seems more spacious.

Resources

• Bed Bath and Beyond Coupons

[alyssaink]

on 5/25/2007 Instead of a square lampshade, you can also install wall-mounted fixtures - these can often be even better for reading than table lamps. Many plug in to outlets so you don't have to do anything with electrical wires.

on 1/5/2007 Double beds are only 6 inches narrower than queens, yet the extra six inches provides a lot more floor space. If the room is more long and narrow, consider painting the longer walls a slight shade darker than the short walls--this will appear to move the walls outward.

on 2/16/2007 Don't fight the size of the room and try to make it something it's not! Instead of using the same old stodgy and often ineffective tricks, like white walls and lack of patterns, try aiming for an exquisite little thing of beauty - I call them jewel box rooms.

For example, bring in just a few bigger, gutsy, elegant furniture pieces rather than using scrawny little pieces. For those who like antiques, a queen-sized carved-wood or scroll-ironwork headboard (no foot board) as the star of the show, one or two small chests-of-drawers for nightstands (take advantage of every bit of storage you can), a highboy dresser (which you can put your TV on, or wall mount the TV) and a little chair or stool for putting on your shoes all fit nicely into a 10x12 bedroom - been there, done that! Flat baskets, roll-out wooden bins, or decorative boxes (cover those cardboard under bed boxes with fabric or wallpaper using spray adhesive) under the bed provide additional storage and circumvent the need for more furniture. Only use the plastic under bed bins if you have a bed skirt to hide them; in general, try to minimize any visible plastic if the bedroom's occupant is more than ten years old. Instead of a clunky computer desk/armoire in the bedroom, consider a laptop (ideally with WiFi) instead - laptops are quickly getting much less expensive and are fantastic for small rooms/homes because they take up so little space. Just close it up and stick it in a drawer when you aren't using it!

Replace that flush-mounted ceiling light fixture with a great chandelier or decorative ceiling fan to take advantage of that "fifth wall" as well as bringing the eye upward. If you don't have an overhead fixture to replace, you can hang a candle chandelier (aka candolier) instead. Use tall furniture as well, occupy vertical space as well as the horizontal.

Many small rooms are also dark. Strong colors can look garish in bright light, while pale colors can look drab in low light, so try the reverse - dark color for dark rooms, pale colors in bright rooms. A deep color like a burgundy or aubergine is very sensual (dare I say sexy?) for a bedroom. These days many designers insist that dark colors "recede" while light colors "advance" so dark colors can make a room look bigger. Don't over light the room, either - put that overhead fixture on a dimmer, and use good lighting by the bed if you like to read. Consider wall-mounted lighting by the bed to save space on your nightstands.

Think sensual, luscious, touchable when it comes to textiles, and don't be afraid of patterns. Big blobs of solid color (like a queen or king size bedspread, or solid carpeting) can be surprisingly overpowering in a small room - at least break it up with a throw or a folded quilt, afghan or patterned blanket at the foot of the bed, and use a textured fabric or tone-on-tone pattern. Too much of a small pattern feels cramped and busy though, make sure to use a variety of scales. Put an elegant little area rug on the floor by the bed, hang velvet, chenille, heavy linen or silk/faux-silk drapes from ceiling to floor which can also help fake a bigger window, use great fabrics for duvet covers or bedspread/coverlet, or handmade quilts. Gorgeous embroidered silk bedspreads from India and Thailand are inexpensive on eBay. A white lace tablecloth spread over a solid broadcloth duvet ups the elegance quotient drastically.

Don't under-accessorize for fear of clutter (a naked room looks just as bad as a crammed one), but conversely don't decorate things just for the sake of decorating something. Every item in a small room should be beautiful or at least reasonably attractive, especially mundane but necessary items like alarm clocks, and whenever possible all items should serve a purpose besides just being pretty. For instance, a stack of covered boxes decoupaged with wrapping paper can corral "stuff" as well as a stack of plastic bins but it looks a heck of a lot better. For artwork, use a few big, high-impact items on the walls (like one big piece per wall) instead of a lot of cluttering little bits, or even worse, just a couple of small items on an expanse of wall. Personally, I find that mirrors do not make a space seem bigger; to my eye all the things reflected in it make the room seem more cluttered! But if you do like mirrors, make it a big one in a fabulous frame - for example, in a country-style or "shabby chic" room, the classic recycled window frame with mirrors replacing the glass panes is a classic for a reason, it works. Just don't put plastic flowers on it.

on 8/8/2006 At Bed, Bath and Beyond, they have shirt hangers you can hang five shirts on and pant hangers you can hang six pairs of pants on. This makes it so you can hang and organize more clothes in one space. They are a must for me.

on 1/18/2006 You can buy plastic bins on wheels made for storing items such as clothing under the bed. With the use of a bed-skirt the bins are hidden yet accessible, and you won't need as large a tallboy or dresser. I've used this idea with great success for years.