Making mistakes in the design of a small bedroom is much easier than in a large one. Do not choose more than 1 accent color and make more than 1 accent wall. The point is in bed linen and curtains, which draw a lot of attention to themselves, which means that if you are too clever with the walls and ceiling, you get porridge and not a design. But first things first.
How to Decorate a Small Bedroom
When decorating your small bedroom, use the space to your advantage. Here are some tips on how to decorate a small bedroom:
1. Choose furniture that is versatile. A small bedroom doesn’t have a lot of storage space, so choose furniture that can be used in other rooms as well. For example, a bed that can be converted into an extra chair with a footrest is perfect for a small bedroom.
2. Stick to neutral colors. When you’re limited in color choice, choose neutrals like black, white, and gray. These colors will work with any décor style and will look clean and modern.
3. Opt for smaller pieces of furniture. In a small bedroom, it’s important to focus on functionality over size. For example, choose a bed that is low to the ground so you don’t have to stretch to get in and out of it. Likewise, choose a dresser that is compact so you don’t waste floor space storing clothes.
4. Use patterns sparingly. Patterns can be overwhelming in a small bedroom and they also take up a lot of space on the wall. Instead, opt for textures or details instead.
Tips for Decorating a Small Bedroom
If you’re like most people, your bedroom is the one room in your house that feels like it’s just waiting for you to do something special with it. Whether your bedroom is cramped or just a little too large, these tips will help you create a space that’s both comfortable and stylish.
When it comes to decorating a small bedroom, one of the first things you should do is think about the purpose of the room. If your bedroom is mainly used for sleep, you might want to focus on calming and relaxing colors such as light blues and whites. On the other hand, if your bedroom is used for entertainment purposes, you might prefer brighter colors and more active designs.
Once you know what kind of mood you want to set, the next step is to decide on flooring and furniture. If you have a lot of space, opt for a larger bed and cabinet set. However, if you have limited space, consider using smaller furniture pieces that can be moved around easily. Another option is to use oversized items in smaller spaces, like drapes or pillows.
One of the best ways to maximize space in a small bedroom is to use Highlights.
Determining the style and finish
First, let’s put forward a few important points. We’ll reveal some later, and we’ll have to believe in some.
- Choose white as the main background color. Not gray, not beige, not coffee. White.
- Maximum 1 additional accent color in decoration. Better 0. Bed linen, curtains, clothes – everything has its own color, and these colors are enough. There is no point in adding color to the finish.
- Bed linen is the 1st most important in a small bedroom. Whichever cool design you make, choose regular floral bedding, and it will leave nothing of the design—only one color. Look at the pictures.
- Don’t be smart with the ceiling. The best ceiling for a small bedroom is a flat white matte finish with no complications.
- Lighting color temperature 3000K. We will disclose this question from a biological point of view further.
Choosing a Design Style for Small Bedroom
The main thing is to decide whether we are making a bedroom in a modern style or a classic one. Our deep conviction is that you always need to choose modern styles. If for large apartments this is just an opinion, then it is the rule for small apartments.
This is also true because of the money. Let’s be honest, the vast majority of people don’t have an unlimited budget. Actually, if that were the case, why would we have small bedrooms? And since money does matter, you should choose modern styles. In addition to their main advantages, they are also cheaper.
Modern interior design styles blend well, and there are no clear boundaries between them. TOP of the most relevant small bedroom design styles in 2019:
- Loft
- Minimalist
- Scandinavian Style
All three styles can be ideally combined in one room, even in a small space. There are enough interiors in which it is simply impossible to determine the dominant design style. We examined the topic of mixing modern styles in detail in an article about modern trends in apartment design.
Apart from the classic loft, minimalism is the basic template for most modern styles. Other styles are obtained by adding details to them. We advise you to start your acquaintance with modern bedroom design with minimalist bedrooms and consider other bedrooms in a modern style.
Choosing the Color of the Walls
We have already written about the choice of color for the walls of the bedroom, but it is in a small area that there are nuances:
- Choose only light colors.
- Accent colors are often not needed in decoration at all—enough textiles.
- If it turns out too simple, add texture, not colors.
Typically, the accent wall is behind the bed. But the selection criterion is workload. The less the wall is loaded, the better it suits the accent role. Because there is always a door on one wall, and on the other, a window, either the wall behind the TV or behind the bed, is chosen as an accent. Attention to her is riveted either by some cool wallpaper or just by a bright color. But be careful with the choice of wallpaper for the bedroom. Although this material has been used longer than others, it is with it that the most nuances are.
In addition to the walls, the bedroom has bedding, curtains, possibly a carpet, and other items. All of these items have their own colors. If we also make the walls bright, we get porridge.
Decorative plaster has been around for a long time, but you used it only in classical styles. By 2019, this material has experienced a rebirth and burst into modern styles. This is the most practical material, and it is not afraid of anything. It is easy to clean. It can be of any texture and color. The only drawback is the high cost. But we do not need to decorate all the walls in the bedroom with them, and it is enough to apply it to the wall behind the bed. This is the most modern way of decorating the wall behind the bed, without any implementation restrictions. The price of a meter of turnkey decorative plastering is $ 10-30. Our bedroom is small. The wall area behind the bed is about 3 × 2.7 = 8.1 square meters. Not cheap for one wall, but worth it.
The base color of the walls, when there are no special preferences, is white. It is always relevant, and will never go out of style. The perfect neutral color to go with anything. Because there is minimal danger of smearing the walls in the bedroom, it is here that the white color is of maximum safety.
Floor and Ceiling in a Small Bedroom
The biggest mistake in a small bedroom is to be smart with floors and ceilings. The floors are almost invisible because most of the area is occupied by a bed. Ceilings, if made too complex, drawback an unreasonable amount of attention. A good place for multi-level plasterboard ceilings is the living room, but not the bedroom.
The Ceiling in a Small Bedroom
Since we make the ceiling simple, any material will do. The shape of the bedroom, even in non-standard apartments, is usually rectangular or square. The combination of a small area and a regular shape is ideal for stretch ceilings. There will be no seams or ugly corner cuts (since all angles are 90 degrees). So there is no point in overpaying for plasterboard ceilings.
Here is a good example of when they thought the design was too simple and decided to complicate it with a ceiling. It might not be so bad in a vacuum, but such a ceiling design is completely out of topic in a specific example.
Many recommend choosing glossy ceilings for a small bedroom. Supposedly this increases the space. On the contrary, we strongly advise against making glossy ceilings in a small bedroom. In addition to reflecting light, gloss reflects everything else. As a result, we get x2 of all items concentrated in a small area. It’s chaos, not design. Interior design is about balance, not complexity. In general, the glossy ceilings look like a collective farm. In terms of price/appearance ratio, the absolute first place is occupied by stretch matte white ceilings.
Small Bedroom Floor
The most insignificant point is that the floor in the small bedroom is practically invisible. Choose any parquet or beveled laminate you like – you won’t be mistaken. The only recommendation you can give is to look at dark colors. Ideally, if you can make the illusion of a gradient from a dark floor to a light ceiling – it looks very stylish. Otherwise, there are no rules.
How to Start Renovating a Small Bedroom
Some things can always be changed or redone. And some need to be laid at the beginning of interior design even before the start of repairs because you cannot redo them. And no matter how cool interior design you make for your small bedroom, if you make a mistake in them and it is impractical, no appearance will worry you anymore. So let’s start with them.
Redevelopment
The bedroom is one of the most undemanding rooms in terms of area. Unlike other rooms, here, our activity is minimal – to fall asleep and wake up. In fact, the minimum sufficient area is 9 sq.m. For a square room, this is 3 × 3 meters along the walls. Standard mattress size 160-180 × 200. This means that you can already turn any place where you can shove it into a bedroom.
But you always want more. If your apartment has opportunities for redevelopment and enlargement of a small bedroom by moving walls or, for example, joining a balcony, then why not. We constantly recommend considering redevelopment options for small apartments. Many have an irrational fear of redevelopment and in vain. It is not so expensive and difficult, but the advantages are significant, both in design and practicality.
The most common design option for expanding the space of a small bedroom is joining a balcony. For this, the balcony is insulated, and the wall between it and the bedroom is either demolished, or the window frame and door is removed. The advantage of the second option is that there is no need to carry the battery and an additional table (in place of the former window). But keep in mind that it is almost impossible to legalize the joining of the balcony to the bedroom.
We sorted out the redevelopment of the bedroom. What else is important to do at the initial stage of the repair.
Electrical Wiring in the Bedroom
Switches in a Small Bedroom
What you definitely won’t be able to redo is the electrical wiring. Again, wrong here, and even a small bedroom can cause big problems.
By 2019, some things in bedroom design have already become the standard for professional builders and designers. One of them is the walk-through switches in the bedroom. Pass-throughs are called groups of switches that can turn on and off the same light circuit independently of each other. This is especially true for corridors and bedrooms, even small ones. Agree, it is convenient to turn on and off the light without getting out of bed and without going to the door.
Sockets in a Small Bedroom
In 2019, it was already impossible to imagine yourself without gadgets. Phone, e-book, tablet – things that are constantly used in the bedroom. Things that tend to discharge at the most inopportune moment. Accordingly, on each side of the bed, in addition to the pass-through switches, there should be sockets in the amount of at least 2 pieces.
Don’t forget the TV sockets too. Moreover, it is advisable to know whether it will stand on a pedestal or be suspended on a bracket because the height depends on it. We advise you to make a group of at least 3 sockets – you never know what else you want to connect.
Place another 1-2 sockets at the bottom at the height of 15-30 cm from the floor. They can be useful for a vacuum cleaner or climatic equipment, which is, by the way, relevant. The humidity in the bedroom is an important parameter, but you don’t think about it while it is in order. If the air is too dry for some reason, you should be able to and sockets for connecting a humidifier.
Much has changed in the design of sockets and switches. Now the choice of outlets both in appearance and in the wallet is simply huge. Any colors, any styles. If at some point you run into the need to support an additional accent color in the bedroom with some accessories, remember about sockets and switches. They may exist in the color you need.
Lighting in a Small Bedroom
One of the most important points that even designers don’t understand. Light affects the quality of sleep. Every person has an internal biological clock (circadian rhythms). 2-3 hours before sleep, the body produces the hormone melatonin, which plays an important role in sleep quality. And there is an important nuance – light suppresses the production of this hormone. And what could be more important in bedroom design than its effect on sleep?
To normally go to sleep, bedroom lighting must meet two requirements:
- Minor dim light sources.
- Color temperature is not more than 3000K.
This is necessary because the suppression of melatonin production depends on the intensity and wavelength of light. Therefore, you should be able to use additional light sources that will not dazzle. Complete darkness is also not an option – when watching TV, being in the dark is harmful to the eyes.
Warm or cold lighting in the bedroom also matters. The colder the light appears to us, the shorter its wavelength. And it is the short-wavelength light that makes sleep worse than anything else. Therefore, in the bedroom design, it is important to use lamps with a color temperature of 2800-3000K, i.e., warm yellow lighting.
Furniture in a Small Bedroom
How to Place the Bed
The size of the mattress is 160-180 × 200, respectively, and the size of the bed is slightly larger, depending on its design. The standard placement where space allows – in the middle of the room, back to the wall. The advantages of this placement of the bed in the bedroom are making bedside tables, sockets, and switches on both sides.
When the room area is small, and there is no place for such “chic,” we put the bed against the wall or window. Some inconvenience arises from the inability to climb on it from both sides, but the small bedroom does not start to look worse from this. This is quite a standard option, many have already used it, and the interior of the bedroom does not really suffer. You can rate in the photos:
If the bedsides are narrow, you will have constant contact with the wall against which the bed is pressed. Therefore, it is advisable that this wall is not too light or made of a material that can be washed well, for example, decorative plaster.
Because our bedroom is small, we can hardly fit a bunch of wardrobes in it. Therefore, you may need to consider options where there is storage space in the bed. Of course, this will slightly worsen the design of a small bedroom by overloading it, but practicality is more important.
Wardrobe and Cabinets
Small or large room, but things need to be stored somewhere. Of course, I would like to have small light bedside tables at the edges of the bed, but it would be a good idea to make them up to the ceiling in practice. Unusual but practical. Fortunately, they can now do anything to order. And because of the high competition in the market for custom-made furniture services, prices can be found quite humane, and the main thing is to look.
Many deliberately reduce the bedroom area to 10-12 square meters in favor of the wardrobe. This is a redevelopment in which we move the entrance deep into the bedroom and use the vacated space as a wardrobe. At the same time, the area is not used rationally, but from the point of view of design, such a bedroom interior looks better.
If the meters are still limited and there is no desire to exchange them for the appearance, choose either a wardrobe or a regular wardrobe with hinged doors. In the trends in bedroom design in 2021, the second option is even preferable – wardrobes are no longer in vogue.
Where to Store things in a Small Bedroom
The age-old question. The answer is simple to formulate and difficult to implement – everywhere. Adapt everything you can to store things in the bedroom. Make shelves on the sides of the TV. Raise the bed to the podium, and below, make opening cabinets. Make the curbstones, as mentioned earlier, as high as possible up to the surrounding of the bed with a wardrobe around the entire perimeter.
This proposal sounds a bit wild, but it’s better than the constant mess from the inability to put things in their places. And everyone has many things, and their number does not correlate in any way with the small size of the room. In this version, it is imperative to choose light colors for such furniture, preferably without texture. Pure white or beige furniture is standard. This is also important because dust is not visible in the light, and it is unlikely that you will have the opportunity to climb under the bedroom ceiling to wipe it constantly.
Our task is to adapt everything possible for storage: the bed, the exposed sections of the walls, everything.
Now you have all the information on the design of small bedrooms, drag ideas from the photo, and good luck with the renovation!
Conclusion
If you’re like most people, your idea of a perfect bedroom is probably one that’s a bit bigger than the average room. If you have small bedrooms, however, don’t despair! There are plenty of ways to make your space feel comfortable and inviting, even if it’s not quite as big as you’d like. In this roundup of small bedroom design ideas, we’ll show you some tips for decorating small bedrooms in a way that feels both stylish and functional. from paint colors to storage solutions, we’ve got everything you need to make your bedroom feel just right. So get ready to start dreaming on a smaller scale!