What comforter/duvet/quilt is best for a bedroom? First, the important part: “Bedding is a very personal thing, and it really comes down to personal taste,” says Travis George, interior designer and design consultant for Space Modern in Atlanta, Georgia. That said, what do the experts prefer? George prefers the down duvet covered with a duvet cover “because you can change the covers to dress it up or dress it down cost-effectively -- and some just do the duvet with a big white down blanket.” (If you want the feel of a fluffy duvet without the heavy overheating element, choose one in a “summer weight” for a light covering.) If you want to add a stronger design element to your room, simply put a blanket or quilt over the duvet. Then, just as some people remove throw pillows from the bed at night to sleep, you can also remove a designer quilt. Also, make use of blanket throws in the bedroom. “All of my designs are very streamlined with tailored furniture, so I put blanket throws on the edge of beds all the time,” says George. “It adds a new texture, and including something soft and warm breaks up the architectural lines of the stronger pieces.”
How do I light the bedroom for the best effect? “I like mood lighting for the bedroom,” says Rebecca Ross from Rebecca Ross Interior Design in Miami, Florida. “The best are recessed lights in the ceiling with a dimmer so you can control how light or dark the room is.” In addition, choose two side table lamps for either side of the bed. You’ll want the lamps to be the same height to keep the room feeling balanced and comfortable. “Choose lamps that are proportional in size to the table too,” says Ross. They shouldn’t cover up your nightstand space, nor should they be dwarfed on the surface. “Avoid buying floor lamps for the bedroom,” says Ross. These aren’t as accessible from sitting in bed; you’ll want to be able to reach next to you to switch off a lamp. (Though, if you’re wondering, the Clapper is still alive and well and selling for about $20!) Also, do yourself a big favor: Add a light or lamp in your closet. If you don’t have a walk-in closet with room for a lamp, install some under-shelf lighting (Xenon sells a 60-watt “puck” light the size of a hockey puck that plugs into a socket for $22 per light; IKEA sells its Grundtal three-light halogen light strips for $45) so you can tell those two shoes are different colors before you leave the house.
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What do I need to look for when buying a mattress? “Look for a mattress that provides uniform support from head to toe; if there are gaps between your body and the mattress (such as at the waist), you’re not getting the full support you need,” says Angela Kargus of the American Chiropractic Association. And believers in firm-as-the-floor support should know, yes, mattresses can be too firm. The ACA recommends lying down on the mattress for at least 10 minutes in the store (despite the stares from fellow shoppers) so your body can relax and take it in; if you’re sleeping in it as a couple, be sure there’s room for both of you to toss and turn as needed. Mattresses should be replaced every five to eight years according to the ACA; if you’re tossing and turning or waking often at night, that’s a sign you may be ready for a new one.
But shoppers beware! The mattress business is as bad as -- if not even tougher to navigate than -- used car sales. Mattress companies, for example, give different names to each mattress in each store so it’s impossible to comparison shop. Two of the biggest stores, Sleepy’s and Kleinsleep (which, by the way, are owned by the same company, thus won’t outsell each other), have received numerous complaints about bait-and-switch tactics, fraud, and appalling customer service on consumer sites like ripoffreport.com and complaintsboard.com. In fact, Sleepy’s has a running “unsatisfactory record” with the Better Business Bureau (a search turns up 200 separate links of complaints). Your best bet is to buy a mattress from a department store or a design store, which has a reputation other than mattress sales to uphold. Or go all out and order the mattress from your favorite hotel, like the W Hotel mattress (around $1,200 at whotelsthestore.com). Luckily, some kind soul has written an extensive consumer breakdown of how to survive mattress shopping at mattressscam.com. Do yourself a favor: Read it! You’ll sleep better knowing you got a good mattress for an honest deal.
How do I get the most storage space in my bedroom? First option? “Go out and get more,” laughs Travis George, interior designer and design consultant at Space Modern in Atlanta, Georgia. “It’s worth every penny at The Container Store,” he says. The key is to buy beautiful items instead of cheap ugly ones; if you buy pretty new hangers or gorgeous woven baskets to store your items in, you’ll want to use them. George also uses the trunk at the end of his bed to store sweaters and other seasonal items. “I use the trunk as a piece of functional furniture and sit on it like a bench, but it also doubles as storage.” Consider other forms of hideaway storage. “Too many collections or piles of magazines in a bedroom can feel cluttered, and it won’t let you feel like you’re letting go at night,” says Grace Bonney, founder of the interior design blog Design Sponge (designsponge.com). “I got some under-bed storage,” she says, “but you can also buy Chinese folding wall dividers to cover up a junky corner, or drape fabric over open storage so you don’t see what’s behind the fabric.” Here’s another option: If you have drapes over your windows but space on one or both sides of the windows, add some narrow shelving or bookshelves there. Then stretch the curtain beyond the window to cover up the ugly piles.
What are the best window treatments for a bedroom? “I like either formal draperies or fabric window shades, like Roman shades,” says Rebecca Ross of Rebecca Ross Interior Design in Miami, Florida. Yes, even if you’re going for the clean, minimal look, you should choose fabric in white or neutrals to decorate your windows. Ross says you’re better off choosing drapes or shades from a specialist store or catalog -- like Smith and Noble -- where you’ll have a much larger selection. Whatever you choose, get rid of the plastic blinds that came with the place as soon as possible. She reasons it this way: “The experience of what you do before you go to bed is important, like going to a restaurant and having nice plates and napkins. When you’re going to sleep, you should pull down or close something beautiful. It puts you in a good frame of mind.”
What are the best paint colors or wallpapers for bedrooms? Sure, some people aren’t scared of bold colors like cobalt blue or reds and oranges, and they like to put up wallpaper in crazy prints. But it takes a certain personality to enjoy waking up to such visual intensity. A more peaceful alternative is to “keep the bedroom neutral for the most part; bring in colors in vases and pillows,” says Travis George, interior designer and design consultant at Space Modern in Atlanta, Georgia. According to George, the colors that are going to be popular this upcoming year are “the environmental ‘go green’ look; greens are a big neutral this year.” To go this route, choose pale misty green colors or a light olive for the walls -- or use the quintessential serene green sold by Restoration Hardware in the “Silver Sage” collection for $32 a gallon (restorationhardware.com). “Pair the green walls with whispers of soft pinks and browns for a very earthy look,” says George.
How many throw pillows are right for the bed? “I think that’s a preference, like asking, ‘How much jewelry do you wear?’” says Rebecca Ross of Rebecca Ross Interior Design in Miami, Florida. “I think more than halfway down the bed is too much.” Other designers agree: “We’re wary of having toooo many pillows on the bed because the more stuff you’ve got on your bed, the more time consuming it is to make it in the morning!” point out Derek and Lauren, the owners of the Curiosity Shoppe in San Francisco (curiosityshoppeonline.com) and the DIY editors of designsponge.com. Ross favors less but bigger pillows: “I like the Euroshams,” she says, “which look formal and don’t cost any more than a regular pillow. Then use a few more throw pillows in front of them, highlighting colors or patterns in the room.” Derek and Lauren are fans of skipping colorful pillows and playing around with duvet covers instead. “We just made ourselves a patchwork duvet cover out of a bunch of Derek's vintage shirts,” says Lauren. “This gives the appearance of having a quilt on the bed, but it’s much faster to make than an actual quilt!”
How do I make the bedroom unique and not boring? “Put an unexpected object in the room,” suggests Travis George, interior designer and design consultant at Space Modern in Atlanta, Georgia. For some reason, people tend to feel that everything in a bedroom has to have a bedroom purpose, but he’s a fan of adding something you simply enjoy looking at. For instance, one item people seem to steer clear from are plants, but a tropical banana plant or bold arching palm can add life to a natural-themed bedroom. Or add surprising furnishings. “It could be a really funky mirror that will strike you when you see it,” says George, “or an odd piece of furniture like a dining hutch, or a unique chair that you can’t help but notice.” You could also choose chic nightstands: Use coffee tables or wooden slat benches on either side of the bed to give yourself a place for your books. Pull up a tree stump or set your lamp on a pile of quirky art books. You can also experiment with pieces of art or sculpture. Or fill a plain white wall with a shelf of your favorite collectibles, a collage of photos, or magazine clippings. You can also steal this design tip from a New York City restaurant that translates easily into the bedroom: Take high-quality photos of natural items -- palm leaves, colorful conch shells, stones, water -- and have the photos blown up at Kinko’s and glued onto foam core to hang on the wall for around $100. Remember: The bedroom is the one room you can close off to guests, but if you make it look amazing, you won’t want to!
Should I match the bed cover pattern to the curtains? The simple answer? No. “If everything looks the same, nothing stands out,” says Rebecca Ross of Rebecca Ross Interior Design in Miami, Florida. “You have to have the contrast to make it stand out.” She suggests keeping all of the surrounding colors and fabrics in the room as neutral as possible, then use the bed as “an art piece and a focal point,” says Ross. The key to adding color to the bed is to follow the color-layering technique: “Use neutrals on the floor, the windows, and the drapes,” explains Ross. The bed can then be a strong solid color (say, the bottom sheet or bed skirt), the comforter can have a design, and the pillows can have both the neutrals from the room, the color on the bed, and a color in the pattern -- feel free to mix patterns, like stripes with florals or a coral pattern with bold blocks of color. “I like juxtaposition,” says Ross. “It’s all about layering.” Another place you can add a touch of color is in your bedside lamps, where you can pull a color from the comforter.
What flooring or rug is best for a bedroom? First, let’s talk about what not to put in the bedroom: stone floors (ooh, cold!) and throw rugs or small animal skins that slide around on the floor (whoops!) the minute you step on them (they may look fabulous, but you’ll spend more time putting them back into place than enjoying them). The ideal floor is either wall-to-wall carpet to keep your feet happy, wood flooring (like bamboo or mahogany) with a plush, luxurious rug on top -- like a sizeable animal fur or a fun shag, “something soft and nubby under your feet,” says Travis George, interior designer and design consultant for Space Modern in Atlanta, Georgia. Since most bedroom floors are covered mostly by the, uh, bed, where should you put the rug? George has a few ideas: Try a round rug catty corner under the bed so that it’s off to one side, but part of the rug should stick out from under the foot/front of the bed. Or place a rectangular rug so three-quarters of it can be seen from under the foot/front of the bed. Another option: “I know people who do tailored runners on both sides of the bed,” says George. And remember, when you’re testing a rug for your bedroom, “take your shoes and socks off and test it barefoot,” says George, “so you know what it will feel like under your feet when you wake up.”
-- Amy Spencer
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