Style your space
Your dream bedroom awaits.
Silent nights
- Make your bedroom a true sanctuary by including only soothing colours and textures. If you prefer not to stick to one scheme year-round, pick a neutral shade for your duvet cover, then simply change your pillowcases, cushions and throws when the mood takes you.
- Choose a palette of up to five colours in tones of different depths so the effect doesn’t overwhelm the senses. Here, the midtones of the rug and throw provide a restful visual bridge between the pale bedding and the richly hued pillowcases and cushions.
- Create a dreamy floral arrangement for your wall by first foraging for long sticks that will bend and not break. Remove any leaves, then use one stick to form a circle as your base. Secure with floristry wire, then wrap additional sticks around the circle, tucking in the ends as much as possible (you can cut off any overhang later if necessary). Weave dried foliage into the wreath from a single focal point, allowing it to extend in different directions for an organic look and securing it with floristry wire. Now tie in flowers, keeping the biggest blooms closest to your focal point. >
How do stylists throw a throw? Get the look by folding your blanket into a triangle, draping it with the point at the end of the bed, then mussing it up a bit for a relaxed finish.
Earthy pleasures
- Texture is a great way to bring comfort into the equation, and it comes into play here from the ground up with a nubby woollen rug, a linen duvet, a woven throw and velvet cushions. When selecting a rug, ensure a balanced composition by opting for one that’s big enough to extend either side of the bed by at least 40cm. Keep the head of your bed a rug-free zone, so your bedside table and/or standing lamp rest on the floor, and if you have a bench or an ottoman at the end of your bed, pull out the rug as far as needed to allow their feet to stand on it.
- There are no rules about the number of pillows and cushions a bed should be topped with, but do aim to combine different sizes to enhance the overall structure of the scene. Updating the formal feel of two pairs of pillows, an asymmetric effect is always inviting. Stack a couple of pillows on one side of the bed and just one on the other, with two cushions leaned against it. Or stand a single euro pillow against your headboard with a small rectangular cushion or two arranged in front of it.
- Treat styling your bedside table as an opportunity to enhance your evening self-care routine and make bedtime even better. Choose products that look as good as they feel — a lovely face oil or hand cream, linen spray or a facial spritz — and display them within easy reach. All will allow your bedroom to become part of your wind-down ritual while upping your chances of falling asleep. >
- Another key to successfully styling a bedroom is to introduce interest at different levels. Move some of the focus away from your bed by standing a floor lamp beside it or leaning a ladder against the wall. The latter will also provide a storage solution to help you avoid the dreaded floordrobe.
- Take a curated approach to the top of your chest of drawers and decorate it with a chic vignette. Choose a theme, then objects that share that common thread — we were loosely inspired by Japanese craft. Lay your collection on the ground first to find the most pleasing arrangement. Consider using taller items and artwork to extend your vignette up onto the wall, and offset the lot with an organic element, such as a vase filled with sculptural dried foliage (we used muehlenbeckia) for a perfectly imperfect wabi-sabi effect.
Visit homestyle.co.nz for step-by-step videos on how to style these scenes.