No longer simply a place to sleep, today’s bedrooms are multi-functional rooms that need to be carefully planned so that they combine practicality, style and the best use of space. A tall order? Not when you follow our guide!
By Andrea Dean
It might sound obvious, but start by considering what you’ll be using the room for. As well as sleeping and storing clothes, you’re likely to use it for reading and dressing, possibly watching TV, listening to music, or even working, so you’ll have to incorporate space for these. You’re bound to need plenty of storage, so think about what’s to be stored, and the best way of doing it – for example, if you’ve got lots of suits or dresses, you’ll require wardrobes with plenty of hanging space, whereas drawers will suffice for casual clothes.
Where you place your furniture will be dictated by the size and shape of your bedroom, and the position of the windows and door. First decide where the bed will go, as this will take up the most space. Don’t even think about pushing one side up against a wall – this is not a good look and incredibly impractical if there are two of you sharing it. As you need to be able to walk around it easily, ideally allow 75cm upwards clearance either side, which gives enough space for bedside cabinets. If you’ve got your heart set on buying a new, larger bed - perhaps a 180cm super king size rather than a 140cm double - you could just about get away with a gap of just 45cm on each side.
Try not to butt the headboard up against a radiator, or have the bed facing a window as you’ll wake squinting into bright sunlight on summer mornings.
It’s a good idea to draw a scale floorplan of the room and furniture you’d like to include, and experiment with layouts. If the room’s empty, lay full size newspaper cut outs on the floor, or mark out the area with string to check that everything fits. Remember to allow at least 30cm in front of cabinets for drawers to open, and 60cm for wardrobe doors to open outwards.
How To Design & Decorate Your Bedroom
How To Furnish Your Bedroom
Don’t miss our ideas galleries, they’re packed with fabulous room ideas:
Design Ideas For Contemporary Bedrooms
Design Ideas For Traditional Bedrooms
Design Ideas For Colourful Bedrooms
Design Ideas For Neutral Bedrooms
Exclusive competitions and discount offers for 4Homes readers in our Advent Calendar
Your chance to contribute to Kirstie's Homemade Home, by suggesting a craft to appear in the show
All the inspiration you'll need if you love modern, sleek bedroom design
.jpg)
Your Comments
Post your comment
Please note: In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in to Channel 4:
Sign In Here or Register Here
Comments closed
Comments are closed at the present time
Comments
Thank you for your comment!
Your message will be reviewed and the best ones will be published below.
If you intended to make an official comment to Channel 4 please contact us.
Comments