Decorating a bedroom: the room that should do one job perfectly

Every other room has to handle several functions — the bedroom has to handle one: rest. Yet it often becomes the home's storage for everything that didn't fit elsewhere. Decorating a bedroom is largely about taking away; what remains should serve sleep.

The order of priority

1. The bed — spend the money here

You spend a third of your life in it. The right bed and mattress beat every other décor investment in the home. Place it with the headboard against a calm wall, not under the window if you can help it.

2. Darkness and quiet

Blackout curtains are the bedroom's most important textile — and heavy curtains also dampen sound. Style-wise: let them run ceiling to floor, and the room grows as a bonus.

3. Colours that wind you down

Muted, subdued tones — beige, grey-green, dusty blue — signal rest. Strong contrasts and energetic colours belong elsewhere. Japandi and country are the bedroom's most rewarding styles.

Style guide: Japandi — calm made systematic →

4. Layered textiles

A bedspread, a throw, cushions in different sizes — layers make the bed the room's soft focal point and soften the room's acoustics.

5. What should NOT come in

The desk if it can be avoided, the exercise gear, the laundry pile. Every function you move out pays back in sleep.

See the finished room first

Photograph the bedroom and test the plan digitally: "calm bedroom in Japandi style, floor-length blackout curtains, layered textiles". You see the whole in a minute — and avoid discovering afterwards that the blue you chose was an energetic colour.