The bedroom….where the magic happens, a functional place for getting your 7 to 8 hours, or an infuriatingly messy pit where insomnia and stress dominate? Whether you fall in column A, B or C depends much on the feel of the room in question; no storage space, and it’s gonna be untidy; deep purples that Prince would be proud of and lots of titillating texture, and no wonder it’s a space in which love blossoms. We know we’d rather collapse happily into the latter, so here are 4 steps to the IDEAL stylish bedroom.
LEATHER BEDS
Something of a must-have these days, and, sure, there are other cool options when it comes to beds, but for that sophisticated look there’s no better material than leather… or faux-leather if ethical considerations are taken into account. You needn’t compromise on your principles for fashion because the faux-leather options now are so good, so real, that you wouldn’t know the difference. The leather bed makes a great centre-piece in any room and sets a very particular, sensual tone. Think of the leather bed as the décor equivalent of the jacket of the same material: timeless, fit for all occasions and with that slight edge which, frankly, we all want in the bedroom.
DENIM WALLS
Keeping with the sartorial, slightly off centre theme, denim walls are a great way to add a really unique touch to the bedroom. This doesn’t mean literally wallpapering with dissected pairs of your old jeans, of course, but denim-effect paints. They’ve been in vogue for a little while now and create an incomparable depth and texture to a room. The key is not to overdo it (think rules concerning double denim) as, in common with all dark paint, too much can diminish the total light in a room and cast you into gloom. A feature wall works nicely, or just picking out a chimney breast can be very effective too.
ART BOOKS
This one might sound pretentious… and it sort of is, but then the whole point of interior design is a kind of pretence, isn’t it? If you think about it, what you’re really doing is creating the stage set for your everyday life. As Oscar Wilde had it: “Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know”. So, an invitation to play the poseur, then; get a load of cool-looking art books for your bedroom to create a smart, cultivated feel to the place. They can be carefully arranged on a bookshelf, artfully (pun very much intended) left on the bedside table, or even placed becomingly on a windowsill… sprezzatura is the word!
VINTAGE FLOURISHES
These bad boys aren’t going anywhere yet so don’t hesitate to embellish your living space with the careworn treasures of yesteryear. Our age is the cut-and-paste era, the post-modern, ironic, self-aware period of eclecticism. So grab that ‘60s alarm clock, those classic record sleeves and those Art Nouveau posters and adhere them to surfaces in the name of design. Of course, don’t forget to apply your aesthetic sensibilities to the ensemble just a little to avoid a mere mess.
YOUR OWN PERSONALITY
This final one might sound infuriatingly abstract, but it’s probably the most important of them all. Get the leather bed, do the denim feature wall, but most of all, be yourself! There’s another conforming going round outside your door; the last thing you’d want is the place you spend the most time to be identikit and soulless. Great style isn’t about being a slave to the brands and mindlessly following the latest fashions, it’s about having the confidence to follow your own taste and letting your real self come through. Or come thru, as they say in 2018.