Zambezi Home & House

Are you the sort who sees your bedroom as nothing more than a place where you put your bed and sleep, or do you see your bedroom as your own special space? For many a bedroom is a place that is theirs alone and has to reflect their sense of who they are. They take great delight in their bedroom decor and selection of bedroom furniture and in particular the bed they choose to sleep in, and great delight in the overall feel of their bedroom as an intimate place.

If you’re one of the former then this article probably won’t appeal much. If your bedroom is a place where you sleep and get dressed, and that’s the extent of your attachment to your bedroom, then who cares what it looks or feels like?

But if you love being in your bedroom you’ll probably love decorating it, taking your time choosing your bed and your bedding, lying in in the mornings to take delight in your surroundings and generally feeling good in your own special room. This article is written for you.

Refurbishing is all the rage now, and for many refurbishing their bedroom is high on their list. So if you’re designing your bedroom new, or refurbishing, here’s a few things you might like to think about before you start buying at the store.

1. Have a plan. It’s easy to see a great bed, love it, buy it and then wonder what else you’ll put with it to make it fit in with the room. Before you buy anything for your bedroom you need to decide on a few basic things and preferably write down a decoration plan.

What theme is your bedroom to be? For a child it might be a Winnie the Pooh theme for example, for an adult it might be a color or a period. Or perhaps a certain style of furnishing. You need to decide on an overall theme for your bedroom decorations, then select your bed, bedding and general bedroom furniture to go along with that theme. Including paint color and carpet color of course. Write it all down and plan it all before you start buying.

2. Cost and budget. It’s usually not a cheap matter doing a total bedroom refurbishment, or setting up a new bedroom from scratch. You need to know how much you have to spend and how much each item costs. No point in buying that wonderful four poster bed you’ve always wanted then being unable to afford the right bedding to make it look great. As well as the bed your sheets, duvet cover, pillows and so on all need to fit in with your theme, so you need the budget to stretch to buying it all, including the right carpet and paint and general bedroom furniture as well, bedroom curtains included. Write down your budget as well as your theme, price everything before you start buying and make sure you know firstly what every item costs before you start and also that the total cost is within your budget.

3. Size. You need to know exactly what size your bedroom is. This needs to be included in your plan. It’s no good deciding on that wonderful four poster bed (that fits within your budget) and that beautiful dressing table, and oh those blanket boxes that look so good in timber, and so on, then finding that it’s such a squeeze fitting it all in that it’s almost impossible to move around your bed. Many people have been caught in the trap of buying then finding that the wonderful bedroom they planned to have is almost unusable because there is so little space left after adding the bedroom furniture.

4. Getting it all into the bedroom. For many this isn’t an issue, but for some it is. If your bedroom is up the stairs, around the corner and through a narrow door then you have to consider how you are going to get all that bedroom furniture in. For most pieces of furniture such as dressers and tables, it’s usually possible, but it’s also possible to buy large items, like that wonderful four poster bed, and finding that you just can’t get it through the door. Before you buy the four poster bed make sure you take your measurements of things like widths of your bedroom doors and any other squeeze points that will need to be negotiated to get the bed in.

Find out how it breaks down for example, or if it even does, and make sure you know exactly how it will go in before you buy that wonderful four poster.

For those who love their personal bedroom space having a well designed, well thought out, well decorated and well furnished bedroom is a delight. Make sure you do your basic homework before you start buying or you may find that your special bedroom is not such a delight. Get it right and you’ll love it.