Look no further. Creating a bedroom that feels truly beautiful, cosy and opulent is about much more than simply decorating it. The secret lies in designing a space with the same considered details you'd find in a luxury boutique hotel. This starts with layering the room's main focal point, the bed with cushions, throws and quality bedding, then maximising styling opportunities through carefully curated accessories and furniture.
Use lighting to create warmth and atmosphere, and a large rug to add comfort and anchor the space. Adding oversized artwork can also instantly elevate the room. Mixing natural textures will add depth and character, and introducing one bold accent colour will help to create personality. Giving attention to the ceiling, often referred to by designers as the "fifth wall", ensures every surface contributes to a cohesive and luxurious design.
A bedroom should feel calm, personal and put together and no matter what your budget; you don’t always need to redecorate from scratch. Read on to learn the same tricks used by interior designers and home stagers every day to elevate a bedroom space in just a few hours and without a larger renovation budget.
1. Layer the bed. This will always make the biggest difference to your bedroom design.
The bed is usually the visual star of any bedroom. Think beyond a lovely duvet cover and two pillows and instead build layers.
Start with a good-quality quilt/duvet cover with a relaxed finish (or look for a textured finish) if you want a more luxurious look and then add from there.
Try the following:
- A throw or blanket folded across the bottom
- 2-3 sleeping pillows (depending upon your bed size).
- Euro cushions behind them
- 1-2 decorative cushions at the front (don’t overdo it)
HOT TIP: Don't make everything match perfectly. Mix linen, cotton, velvet, boucle, wool or other textures to provide depth and interest.
2. Try to always use bedside tables and look at them as styling opportunities.
Instead of filling bedside tables with random objects, try to incorporate these three elements. Aim for a lamp, then something organic and lastly, something personal.
For example:
- a beautiful lamp
- a small vase with a branch or flowers
- a book or little decorative object
And don't be afraid of symmetry.
HOT TIP: Matching bedside lamps will instantly make a bedroom immediately feel more sophisticated.
3. Make the most of the lighting opportunities
One of the most underrated bedroom decorating tips is using lighting to create atmosphere. People often think that it’s just a bedroom, I only need the ceiling light, but lighting can instantly evoke a different mood and feel for any room and this is also true of a bedroom.
Always aim for three layers of lighting. This would be best structured as the ceiling light, the bedside lamps and then add a low-level ambient light.
Wall sconces, a table lamp, picture lights or a small lamp or candle on a dresser can completely change the atmosphere – look around and see what opportunities exist in the room and go from there.
HOT TIP: Warm white bulbs at around 2700K are generally used to provide the lovely cozy, intimate, and relaxing feeling in hotel rooms.
4. Add a large rug
Your gut may initially say don’t overdo it, but adding a tiny rug beside a bed makes a room look smaller. Instead, the trick is to add a large rug underneath the bar, extending well beyond the sides and foot as this will add softness and visually anchor the entire room for you.
HOT TIP: To style a bedroom rug like a pro, place a large rug horizontally under the lower two-thirds of the bed, letting it extend 45 to 60 cm on the sides/foot of the bed.
5. Introduce one strong colour
You don't need a brightly coloured bedroom. A neutral bedroom can be gorgeous with an accent colour repeated subtly. Defer to the default 60-30-10 colour rule which is the most simple way to create a balanced colour scheme: roughly 60% of the room uses a dominant colour, 30% a secondary colour and 10% an accent.
For example:
Cream/warm white, olive and walnut.
or
Beige/dusty pink, light brown timber and burgundy
or
Soft grey, blue and pale oak/cream
Utilise your colours in multiple places: think walls, floors, rugs, accessories, curtains, artwork, etc.
HOT TIP: Repetition is key, but so is moderation: introduce the accent colour in perhaps 3 or 4 places rather than everywhere.
6. Follow the rug lead and go big with your artwork
A huge mistake often seen in bedrooms is to place lots of tiny artwork pieces. This creates visual clutter, breaks up wall scale, and generates mental restlessness when your space needs to be restful. A single large piece will provide a focal point for your eye to reset on, making it feel more serene.
One large artwork piece above the bed will look much more intentional.
The best options to consider are:
- A large abstract painting
- An oversized botanical artwork
- A photography (wedding or family photography is very popular)
- A large textured artwork
- A pair of large matching pieces
HOT TIP: The artwork doesn't need to "match" the bedding. In fact, it’s a good opportunity to pick something that introduces a colour you can repeat elsewhere.
7. Bring in natural materials
Bedrooms look particularly good when you mix hard and soft materials. Think of materials that use linen, timber, stone, wool, ceramic and woven goods.
For example, a timber bedside table, linen bedding, ceramic lamp, woven basket and wool rug will feel much richer than a room where everything is glossy and manufactured.
HOT TIP: If your bedroom feels flat, add texture before adding more colour. Layer something soft, something rough and something smooth to instantly add depth and warmth.
8. Add curtains from ceiling to floor
Rather than hanging curtains directly above the window, mount them higher and wider than the window where possible. Floor-to-ceiling curtains make the room feel taller and more luxurious.
HOT TIP: Linen-look curtains are particularly beautiful in bedrooms.
9. Don’t forget the 5th wall
A bedroom can become incredibly special with a ceiling treatment. Some ideas to consider might include:
- Wallpaper on the ceiling
- Timber battens
- A subtle colour
- Tongue-and-groove panelling
- A decorative moulding
- A beautiful pendant light
HOT TIP: You don't have to do anything dramatic. Even painting the ceiling a slightly warmer version of the wall colour can make the room feel enveloping.
10. Bring it all together to create the "boutique hotel" feeling
The boutique hotel formular is what gives you that relaxed and welcoming feeling when you walk into a well-appointed hotel room. It’s easy to identify when you look for it.
It’s simply:
- An oversized artwork
- Layered lighting
- A large rug
- Long curtains
- Restrained styling and finally
- Beautiful textures
HOT TIP: Possibly the most important tip of all is to not decorate every surface.
A bedroom will feel more luxurious when there is some empty space. Give your beautiful pieces room to breathe rather than filling every shelf, bedside table and dresser. This will make all the difference.
