Ann Moore-Spencer

We spend over a third of our lives in our bed­room but we prob­a­bly spend more time wor­ry­ing about the d&ea­cute;cor of oth­er sel­dom used rooms in our homes such as our liv­ing or din­ing room. There are a few things to keep in mind when plan­ning the d&ea­cute;cor of our ul­ti­mate per­son­al re­treat.

Start with a good mat­tress: Your mat­tress should of­fer some cush­ion and re­coil while be­ing firm enough to pro­vide ad­e­quate sup­port for your neck, back and legs. What is com­fort­able for me al­most def­i­nite­ly will not be com­fort­able for you. So as a gen­er­al rule, it is ad­vised that the best test is to test dri­ve the bed; Lie on it. In per­fect world you should re­place your mat­tress every five years. The ma­te­ri­als used in its con­struc­tion de­grade over time los­ing their loft and abil­i­ty to pro­vide good sup­port.

Beau­ti­ful bed­ding: Now that you've got a good mat­tress to work with, choos­ing bed­ding is your next step. You can opt for store bought or cus­tom made bed­cov­ers and pil­lows, but the key to cre­at­ing a lux­u­ri­ous bed is va­ri­ety. Matched sets can look bor­ing and unimag­i­na­tive. Try mix­ing it up by us­ing con­trast­ing pat­terns and col­ors to cre­ate a rich mix of lay­ers. If you like stan­dard white bed­ding, go for it. It is fresh and clas­sic. While the bed is usu­al­ly the largest sin­gle piece of fur­ni­ture and the main op­por­tu­ni­ty for dec­o­ra­tive eq­ui­ty, white bed­ding can be at home in ul­tra-mod­ern, con­tem­po­rary or tra­di­tion­al decors. Let your per­son­al style come through. It is your per­son­al space. High thread count cot­tons are the most com­fort­able and durable.They get soft­er with each suc­ces­sive wash­ing.Pile on the lay­ers. Add a cov­er­let, bed­spread or du­vet to pump up the luxe.You can be as min­i­mal or ex­ces­sive as your per­son­al style dic­tates. But please do not ex­clude. At least con­sid­er a scaldino or bed scarf. Toss on a few dec­o­ra­tive pil­lows to prop your­self up when read­ing or loung­ing. All these lay­ers pro­vide the op­por­tu­ni­ty for added style, colour and tex­ture.

Win­dow cov­er­ings: Win­dow cov­er­ings are an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty to make a style state­ment in your per­son­al space. In or­der to get a good sleep and to re­lax you may need to man­age the sun­light com­ing in­to your room. Con­sid­er lay­er­ing func­tion­al shades un­der­neath dec­o­ra­tive pan­els for max­i­mum flex­i­bil­i­ty or tra­vers­ing black out lined draperies for com­plete dark­ness. For the ul­ti­mate lux­u­ry, have your treat­ments mo­tor­ized so they can be con­trolled from your be­side with a touch of a but­ton.

Be­side the bed: Match­ing night­stands are the old stan­dard in bed­room fur­nish­ings but con­sid­er a mix dif­fer­ent types and styles of ta­bles or chests be­side the bed. Ta­bles do not have to be used in pairs; you can have a fab­ric cov­ered ta­ble on ones side of the bed and a chest of draw­ers on the oth­er as long as they bal­ance each oth­er. Use your imag­i­na­tion and think out of the box. The re­sult will be a more in­ter­est­ing, vi­brant space.

Light­ing: As a re­treat, our bed­rooms may be used for more than just sleep­ing. Prop­er light­ing is crit­i­cal for cre­at­ing a func­tion­al space.Be sure to in­clude ta­ble or wall lamps on each side of the bed for read­ing as well as plen­ty of over­head light for gen­er­al il­lu­mi­na­tion.In­stall three-way bulbs or dim­mer switch­es for max­i­mum light con­trol.For an easy d&ea­cute;cor state­ment, in­clude a chan­de­lier or shad­ed ceil­ing lamps. I par­tic­u­lar­ly love the drum styled ceil­ing fix­tures. They are quite trendy, but age­less.

Lounge in Lux­u­ry: Whether you just need a place to sit down to put on your shoes or you want to spend hours re­lax­ing and read­ing a good book, try in­cor­po­rat­ing a com­fort­able seat­ing area in your bed­room. A chaise lounge with a pret­ty side ta­ble at the end of the bed or two small up­hol­stered chairs with ot­tomans in a cozy cor­ner will give your bed­room the feel of a lux­u­ri­ous mas­ter suite. It doesn't have to be a large space. In fact, a cosy, in­ti­mate space can be re­al­ly spe­cial.You can give the il­lu­sion of a sep­a­rate space with well-placed art­work or a dec­o­ra­tive screen be­hind your seat­ing arrange­ment. If you don't have room for a sep­a­rate sit­ting area, try plac­ing a long bench at the end of the bed.

Cli­mate con­trol: Good ven­ti­la­tion is key. Be­ing able to open your win­dows and let fresh air and light in will keep the room fresh and clean. For tem­per­a­ture con­trol in­stall a ceil­ing fan and/or air con­di­tion unit. The idea is to have enough con­trol of your en­vi­ron­ment to as­sure re­lax­ation and com­fort. Are you in to aro­ma ther­a­py? Go for it. Per­son­al­ly I love the light fra­grance of fresh, clean linen.Mak­ing the de­sign and func­tion­al­i­ty of your bed­room a re­al­i­ty will pay off in an im­proved qual­i­ty of life due to a bet­ter sleep en­vi­ron­ment.So don't de­lay; start your bed­room makeover right away!