bedroom
1. Stick to a limited color palette. If all white isn’t for you, bring in your favorite colors, but in a thoughtful way. Here, the brights are limited to reds and oranges — which work beautifully with the brick wall and wooden furniture — and are teamed with plenty of white for an airy feel. 2. Let the light in. Keep window treatments to a minimum in a small space to make the most of the natural light and keep the look unfussy. For privacy add plain roller blinds or hang flat panels of lace or voile.
Don’t underdecorate. The temptation in a small space can be to pare back. But that can end up looking dull and undesigned. Don’t be scared to decorate a small bedroom with some of the elements you might find in a larger room, including pictures, rugs and decorative lighting. The result is a “proper” room — a cozy retreat to which you’ll enjoy escaping.
This cutaway plan illustrates a large bedroom; it’s 17 feet, 8 inches long and 14 feet wide. The furniture pieces have standard dimensions, and the principles of the uses of the space apply to many bedrooms. With this much space, you will have an entry point and a circulation route, and perhaps a dressing or sitting area. Next to the bed you need the “slipper rest,” my term for the area used for disengaging feet from the earth and entering the subliminal plane. Keep your entry and circulation 30 to 36 inches in width. Dimensions for dressing and sitting areas all depend on your needs and available space. The areas do not have to be as spacious as shown, but you could allow a circular area in front of the furniture that’s 36 inches in diameter at minimum. Allow a 30-inch-diameter space for your slipper rest.
vignette (Lincoln park apartment) An Ikea Malm dresser in the bedroom holds another vignette. "It's my own little urban garden — kind of," Moss says. "The little gnome ring dish by Imm Living is one of my favorite things." Mirror: Sunburst Mirror, Ballard Designs; terrarium, Geo, Jayson Home; gnome dish: The Little Helpers Trinket Dish, Imm Living; dresser: Malm, Ikea
Horizontal symmetry
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