How to Decorate Your Master Bedroom in Ethnic-Eclectic Style

The ethnic-eclectic bedroom has an exotic ambience that harkens to foreign shores, so if you think of the master bedroom as a retreat, use this decorating style to take you away from the daily grind.

Things You'll Need

• Ceiling Fans
• Fabrics
• Home Furnishings And Accessories

Instructions

1. Look for a bed with West Indies flavor - perhaps a four-poster with turned or carved mahogany. Or the bed might incorporate wicker or rattan, possibly combining these natural materials with wrought iron.

2. Dress the bed in a bedspread, comforter and/or bed skirt (pleated or straight) in a fabric that has an ethnic feel. Some ideas include prints with pagoda, palm, bamboo, rattan or batik patterns; or geometrics reminiscent of Africa or Mexico.

3. Use bedside tables that complement but don't match the bed - ethnic-eclectic decor draws on multiple cultures for inspiration. You might have one wicker nightstand and one mahogany bedside table, for example.

4. Top the tables with lamps with a foreign flavor. You may see resin lamps shaped like carved monkeys, palm trees, elephants, camels and the like. Ginger jar and decorative pottery lamps work well, too.

5. Choose chests of drawers, dressers and/or armoires that have cane insets or that use large Asian or Mexican hardware to echo your ethnic look. All-wicker styles or carved furnishings from Mexico and Asia blend, too.

6. Slip off your shoes while sitting in a woven-wicker chair or a hand-painted/hand-carved chair from Mexico. These styles may be prettier to look at than sit on, but bedroom chairs typically are used for short stints, so they should be fine even if they're less than ergonomically perfect.

7. Display vacation souvenirs. Table-top collectibles might include colorful pottery and baskets. Hang pictures of exotic scenery or native folk art in ethnic-style frames such as carved pieces from Mexico or the metal-trimmed pieces evocative of Asia.

8. Dress the windows with matchstick blinds of bamboo, wide wooden blinds or plantation shutters, or with conventional curtains and draperies that might coordinate with the bedspread fabric.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a ceiling fan to underscore the exotic ambience.

• If the room is large enough, put a bench - perhaps upholstered in a coarse-woven Turkish kilim rug - at the foot of the bed to use as an overnight resting place for bed covers and bathrobes or as the spot for slipping into and out of shoes.