It’s your bedroom and it’s really all about you. The bedroom is one of the few, if actually only room that you decorate for yourself. Not too many people enter your bedroom, except for family and people close to you. It’s not the room where you’re going to do most of your entertaining. It’s not the place where you need to impress anyone but yourself.
This is your sanctuary and can be as classy, cozy, chic, or elegant as you want it to be. Today we’re going to share with you ways on how to get that classy yet chic look. If you’re a bit confused between the difference between classy and chic, it’s simple. Classy is more about elegance, while chic is more about being stylish. They might overlap in some ways, but when you read on more, you’ll see where they also differ and how they blend.
You don’t have to have a classy and chic bedroom to have seen quite a few online. While your heart beats for one of those bedrooms, your mind fools you into thinking you can’t have one like that and it’s light years away from achieving it. But your mind couldn’t be more wrong. You can and you will when you just focus on some things in your bedroom. The way to focus is by seeing the common elements you find in those images in those gorgeous bedrooms.
These elements revolve around 6 things. Those 6 things are: the bed, the bedding, the lighting, the color, the floor, and the pieces. So let’s get right into it and rip those 6 things apart and see where the secret lies in each of them. Then we’ll also look at creating balance to pull together everything for the overall look.
The Bed
For any bedroom, the bed is usually the focal point and the first thing you’re going to see. But this doesn’t mean it has to be huge or even expensive. You can have a simple bed, but with more focus on the headboard. Headboards now are going with an upholstered look with lush material. What also creates a look of elegance and quite trendy these days are very high headboards nearly reaching the ceiling. It gives a very dramatic vertical impact. If the bedroom is large, you can use two or even three soft tones of colors on the headboard, which will distinguish the sleeping area from the sitting area.
If too high a headboard isn’t your thing, you can create an elegant look using curtains. Or you can add new texture and material and even use a screen the same width of the bed and hang or install it straight into the wall. Imagine a hand-crafted screen behind your bed which will automatically give an exotic yet chic flare.
Bedding
Cushions will always be the staple of elegance and style. But the trick is in knowing how many to use because too few will not give the impact you want, and too many will give an overcrowded look. For queen and king size beds stick to under 6 cushions and 3 is the magic number for single beds. Cushions should be in different colors, designs and textures. The last thing you want is a uniform look. You want the bedding to be as lush as possible with different textures to show off. Ally Olson from Vision Bedding (https://www.visionbedding.com/) recommends using vintage or distressed furniture or knick knacks to achieve the perfect shabby chic look, which is quite in these days and definitely lends a unique feel to the overall look of your room.
Throws will also be a favorite for beddings. Texture and layering is the key trend. You should aim to achieve casual elegance and this is also done by staying away from any uniform look. Throws do give an informal but chic look when they are not folded to perfection. Casually drape the throw over the bed, and have a slight uneven fold at the end of the bed. Try the triple sheeting trick you find in hotels which involves layering a thin blanket or comforter between two sheets.
Color
This is the year to embrace elevated colors in the bedroom but you need to explore your options and consider what you currently don’t like in your bedroom. Maybe your current hue is not capturing light in the right way, or you just don’t like it. Choosing the color depends on the major theme of your bedroom. Are you going for a Victorian look? A botanical look? A rusty chic look? The overall design you want in the bedroom will direct you to the right colors. It will differ if you’re going for a minimalist look, to French country, to rustic, to traditional, etc.
When you know what your theme is, color choices can follow naturally. Gray-green is a relaxing color for bedrooms due to its no-fuss strength and deep tones. Gray-greens also have a masculine edge, which can help to promote a relaxing vibe. Green-blue is both botanical and elegant, with hints of green throughout the blue. Purple also provides a stunning and plush look. Powdery yellow and apricot gives you the feeling the sun is always shining giving you a sense of relaxation. Popular dusty pink is also soothing, elegant, and its soft tones evoke a wonderfully comforting and luxurious feel.
Lighting
Using the right lighting in the right area is a skill. There’s 3 basic types of lighting for a bedroom.
- Ambient light serves the same function as natural sunlight, immersing your entire room in light.
- Accent light showcases visual features such as artwork.
- Task lighting is a more focused type of lighting that makes reading, writing, and other tasks easier.
The best bedroom lights should incorporate the 3 types. You need to consider the size of the bedroom, the height of the ceiling, and length of the walls to make it all blend. Designers often recommend several lights with low voltage as opposed to one or two bright lightings. Use dimmer switches that you can adjust, and softer bulbs can also keep your bedroom light from being too glary.
You can easily consider using a living room chandelier for a very sophisticated look in the bedroom. There’s no reason to stick to one type of lighting design as you can certainly mix between traditional and modern. If you have a certain art piece on the wall or a table, you might like to showcase, you can accent light on it. Wall sconces also have that touch of sophistication and give a beautiful ambient light to the room. The lighting of your bedroom needs a plan of where you need strong lights, and where soft bulbs will work better. Plan for it beforehand and don’t make it an afterthought.
Flooring
If you already have wood installed as your flooring, consider yourself lucky as it’s the most favored for bedrooms, giving the room a rich look. Oak is always a winner, but In addition to it and other hardwoods, many are now choosing bamboo and eucalyptus due to durability, sustainability and affordability.
If your floor is not in the best of condition, no matter what type it its, carpeting is still always an option, giving warmth to the overlook. You can go with wall-to-wall since it’s still a favorite for bedrooms, or a large carpet that would only show the floor edges of the room. Fluffy, lush carpets are the definite choice if you choose wall-to-wall. You can choose synthetic fibers, but it’s chicer to select a natural wool or silk for a touch of luxury. But smaller carpets also provide an artistic look, when chosen in perhaps geometrical or abstract patterns.
Sometimes your choice of flooring could depend on the type of climate you live in. Warm or hot climates might have tiled flooring as an option, which is often not on everyone’s radar. It depends on the style of the room, and tiles is always up for consideration.
Accent
It’s in those accented pieces where all the magic happens. It goes without saying that for elegant and chic bedrooms do not overindulge with accented pieces. These pieces are chosen with the most care and should be few. It could be one upholstered chair, or one wall canvas on it. Get rid of those hand creams on any side tables and put a hand crafted or crystal vase instead.
For a chic look, you want to avoid furniture sets in the bedroom. Avoid using two sets of chairs that look exactly the same, or a matching set of bedding with curtains. Sets give a commercial look, and might be alright for a guest or kids’ bedroom, but not for the master bedroom.
When it comes to artwork, that’s what should be in the bedroom. That means avoid putting up framed pictures of family members or your last camping trip. No matter how precious, those belong in the living room of your house. But you could put up framed pictures of art whether it’s landscapes, or a theme of something.
Accented pieces are also the things that you could use bold colors, especially if you’ve taken a more solid coloring theme to your room in earth colors, for example. A pop of bright green or any other bold color can speak a lot more than you think and standout.
Balance
You will need to balance all of this together and to achieve the correct balance, it’s about the colors. If you don’t know what to do, use a color wheel which will simplify how to put colors together. There are three basic color schemes which work best: complementary, analogous and triad. Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered to be complementary colors, like red and green. Analogous colors are any colors that are adjacent or next to one another on the wheel. They are inherently harmonious because they reflect similar light waves. For example, green and blue are analogous, so is orange and red. A triadic color scheme uses colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel. Triadic color harmonies tend to be quite vibrant.
You can develop an energetic, balanced space with a complementary scheme. Combine two colors opposite each other on the color wheel such as orange and blue and balance them with a neutral tone, such as light gray, for example.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
There is good clutter, bad clutter and just plain ugly clutter. Good clutter is like a stack of books or magazines, or items in a basket. Bad clutter is things that are scattered around, and ugly clutter is like exposed or dangling and unmanaged wires and cables. You will know the difference when you see it. Good clutter can be organized in more ways than one, such as storage shelves that stretch to the ceiling. Bookcases and shelves give storage space and handle clutter in a sophisticated manner. It just goes without saying that clutter is really the first thing that needs to be taken care of.
The final touches
People don’t often give too much attention to the hardware in the bedroom. But a change of door knobs or drawer handles can go a long way in getting the look. A jumbo mirror with a unique frame can also work wonders, plus give the illusion the room is bigger than what it is. You might have the perfect lamp for a side table, but that shade around it ruins it. Simply change the shade! There’s no need to hold on to something simply because that’s the way it came.
Voila!
As you can see, there are ways to get that elegant bedroom with no experience required. These are also cost-effective ways. It’s a matter of planning and choosing a theme, which will direct you to the right colors in order to avoid clashing. Give your bed and bedding comfort and style. By paying attention to details lighting and blending in an objet d’art or an antique piece will change the look entirely to your favor.
