Bedroom eyes
Melissa Penfold focuses on the dreamiest room in the house.
YOU SPEND A THIRD of your life in the bedroom. It sets your mood at the start and end of each day, so make it beautiful and uncluttered – it’s your powerful ally in pursuit of wellbeing, happiness and health.
A bedroom doesn’t need much, just a bed with a bedhead, bedside tables and lamps, storage and an easy chair. Simplicity is the most fitting.
Position the bed with care, most likely with the bedhead against a wall and paths for walking on each side. Orient it towards a painting or a window but never a door. Beds that are less than 60cm off the ground make a room look like student digs. Move up to as much as 76cm and you’ll elevate the entire room.
Symmetry demands bedsides on both sides for convenience. They could be simple, small tables with a drawer for storing essentials, or larger such as antique chests of drawers that combine beauty and practicality. If you go modern, get substantial pieces with generous storage. A single easy chair offers a resting place and landing pad for tossed clothing when you’re in a hurry.
To create a tranquil room, keep your palette subtle and tonal. The more similar each colour, the ‘quieter’ the visual impact. Go for muted background shades in carpets and walls, such as gentle blues, greens and yellows. Consider upholstering bedroom walls for a soft touch. To warm up cold, hard floors think wallto-wall carpeting, a large rug that extends under the bed or smaller rugs on either side.
A freshly dressed bed is one of life’s finer things. For harmony, the colours do not have to be identical with the rest of the room, just similar in tone. Layer fitted and top sheets and some kind of blanket, then stack four standard pillows on top and prop a decorative cushion against them. Fold a down duvet with cover at the foot of the bed. Keep sheets simple and introduce colour with the cushion and duvet cover.
A bedhead doesn’t need much fabric so you can really go to town and why not paste up some wonderful wallpaper: perhaps a digitally printed forest or meadow. These will provide the design focus for the room but for best effect keep the other walls plain.
Ideally use a blackout roller shade or a Roman shade and blackout curtains. At night, an overhead light illuminates the whole room, but to set the mood a pair of lamps on bedside tables offer a more appealing ambient glow, then add sconces for reading on either side of the bed. You want a super simple table lamp and a decorative sconce, or vice versa. All the lights should be on dimmers, which is good advice for every room in the house. Goodnight!
Blanche RØse ‘Hudson’ Euro from $275 each, blancherose.com Angora and wool $669, bemboka.com Melissa’s own antique Imari from Lawsons Auctioneers, lawsons.com.au, with Sisley ‘Eau De Sisley No. 2’ & ‘No.3’ $210 each/100ml, davidjones.com.au White-smoked herringbone engineered in European oak, from $110/sqm, royaloakfloors.com.au Melissa’s country house bedroom features soft, pale tones. Lucy Montgomery ‘Del Rio’ with ‘Coolie’ in white linen with white trim, $1500, lucymontgomery.com Pottery Barn cane
$69, potterybarn.com.au Lucy Montgomery ‘Foglia’ with ‘Coolie’ $1500, and with brush fringing, $260/55x55cm, lucymontgomery.com Melissa’s own Ikea ‘Puderviva’ quilt and photographed at her home, from $79, ikea.com.au Ikea ‘Puderviva’ quilt and $119/king size, ikea.com.au.