Defining and Designing a Small Bedroom

It’s time to spice it up in those boring bedrooms!!  Defining our personal space in our bedrooms is a great place to really begin living well in 2012.  Our bedroom is the first place we begin and end each day, so it really should be a great, personal space.

Gorgeous color, contrast and texture defines this primarily white room (reasontobreathe)

Growing up, I loved my headboard. Maybe slightly strange for a little girl, but I did.  I thought it was so elegant, with its creamy, soft white background and curvy gold details, straight out of the 70’s…girly and pretty in kind of disco/pre-princess way of decorating.

I liked it because it was different and I loved coming home from school to my small room and seeing it as soon as I walked in.  Of course I also had pink jungle animals on the wall and green carpet…but that is another post!

This is similar to my headboard when I was young, minus the gold scrolls (Google)

What I didn’t know at the time was that it was helping define my personal space.  Now, I gravitate toward using similar statement pieces in design concepts for small or difficult spaces because it is a terrific way to create a focal point in a room and to infuse it with a decidedly different, unique personality.

This modern wood headboard from DesignGab defines this space, giving it warmth and adding a jumping off point for the rest of the room

Small, unique or difficult spaces can be places people avoid or have an aversion to.  Making them shine as beautiful, usable spaces people want to use and spend time in is something near and dear to my heart and has become one of the focuses of my work in design.

Running the material for your headboard up the wall and even onto the ceiling not only defines the space, it helps thread it together with a common element (Google)

Adding contrasting elements to any space, be it large or small, adds that touch of the unexpected and is an easy way to create visual tension in a space and really bring the room to the next level.

I love the contrast of the worn wood oars and the feminine decorative touches in this room (beeskneesbungalow)

Start thinking big in difficult or small spaces!  Big can mean big color, big contrast, big pattern…anything but small. Playing with scale in pattern, color hue and repetition of elements around the room adds tons of visual interest and helps define that room as anything but small or difficult.

This small bedroom is defined with a decidedly different fabric headboard and contrasting, rich, yet soothing colors on the accent pieces (Pinterest)

I would almost never put a bed under a window, however sometimes the constraints of the space won’t allow another solution.  I like the use of drapery as both a window covering and a ‘headboard’.

Drapery that does double duty as both a window covering and a ‘headboard’ can also help define an otherwise small space and create a dramatic visual statement (Houzz)

Defining and designing difficult or small spaces is easier when playing with the differences in the room.  The size of the space doesn’t necessarily define what you do in it. Think outside the box and about what you would enjoy seeing in that space and then try something new, different or unique to see where it takes you!