Building Comfort into your Bedroom

There is no room in your home that should reflect your personality more than your bedroom. After all, it is the place where you have total privacy, the place where you go for rest after whatever the day’s activities have been–and to recharge for tomorrow’s.

Because it is such an important room, it is vital that your bedroom meets your exact needs and tastes. It should provide a calm, quiet, comfortable place that doesn’t have unwanted distractions like furniture crowded into too small a space or unwanted light blazing through the window blinds.

Planning a bedroom for maximum comfort involves several factors.

Working With Size

Not every room is suited for just any configuration of furniture. Larger rooms can easily accommodate a family sized bed, while more compact spaces will suit traditional king or queen beds. If you’re planning a bedroom from an empty state, use a tape measure and some graph paper to get a truly accurate idea of what will fit in the room.

Remember that not only do the chosen furniture pieces need to fit, they need to function; the dresser will fit on that wall, but is there room for the drawers to open? Can you swing your legs out of the bed without stubbing your toes? Is there room for someone with mobility limitations to get to the bed from a wheelchair or crutches? Planning around all these concerns will help your design succeed.

Manage Light

We’ve already mentioned the importance of controlling light. This is a very site-specific factor; that is, different rooms and even different parts of rooms will have variations in light due to the placement and orientation of windows. The more windows there are in a room, the more range of light exposure there will be. Light traveling in from an adjacent hallway or bathroom can also be a distraction.

In addition, outdoor sources like streetlights, roads, and of course the sun will factor into just how bright the room will be when occupants expect to sleep. If someone in the family works nights and sleeps days, the challenge is even greater. Find appropriate window treatments for the intensity and location of incoming light to get optimum darkness levels for appropriate sleep conditions.

The Final Details

Your bedroom should bring an end to what’s been on your mind all day without giving you new distractions. A comfortably-decorated, uncluttered room is an essential component to that process. If you find yourself annoyed by a mess or distracted by uncomfortable linens, you will not fully relax and will not rest as well.

Don’t neglect this step. Your effort in choosing and placing furniture is wasted if your bedroom feels like your workplace or a hectic laundry space. Be sure to incorporate good storage features and to have a system for keeping everything put away. Turn off screens well ahead of bedtime, and have the right amount of sheets, blankets, comforters, and pillows on or near the bed before calling it a day.

The bedroom is all about comfort, about making a place where you don’t have to accommodate anyone’s needs except the people who sleep there. Although many bedrooms feature televisions, chairs, and even desks, they are still a space primarily for rest, and the more you can do to make the environment conducive for that purpose, the better you will feel not only the day after a good night’s sleep but also the day before it.