According to Clare Steel (2012) (author of the book ‘Step by Step Home Design & Decorating’), “a bedroom is a private sanctuary, a place where you should really feel at peace and be able to relax properly.” But since it is also the room least on display to visitors, it is easy to pay less attention to bedrooms than to other rooms. Through this blog, Gharpedia showcases the essentials of a Traditional bedroom.
Bedroom – Your Cozy Nest
The bedroom has a range of practical functions that need to be considered in any redesign. Apart from sleeping, it is a place for storing clothes, getting dressed, styling hair, reading and perhaps watching television. Above all, because bedrooms are the most private rooms in the house, they are the perfect place to express yourself.
What is Traditional Style Bedroom?
The traditional style bedroom implies something truly grand, comfortable and irresistible, but certainly not old-fashioned in any way. The new traditional bedroom should make you feel very grown up, and because it is also where you do the majority of your dreaming, it should be the room of your dreams. The bed should be as comfortable as your budget will allow, with a good bedhead, a bedside table for your champagne or morning cup of tea, soft but effective lighting and twice as many pillows as you really need.
So, to get a traditional bedroom, let’s start with the star of the room!
Traditional Bedroom Set
According to “Living Spaces,” a bedroom set is a collection of bedroom furniture that’s all designed to match. This usually includes a bed, bedside tables and a dresser. You can add a few more elements if you find them in sync. For a traditional style bedroom setup, use a traditional bedroom set that includes furniture elements made from solid wood with floral carvings and softer corners.
The traditional style uses lots of traditional ideas. It could be very feminine, with lace, frills and satin; or have the understated elegance of dark wooden furniture, monogrammed cotton pillowcases, satin-edged blankets and a cream woven coverlet. And how about a four-poster bed with a plump eiderdown? As this is the one room in your house that people visit by invitation only, you can truly please yourself.
Traditional bedroom ideas can be a little tricky. A low-ceiling room would look smaller with a four-poster; but a similar light effect can be achieved by fixing curtain rails above the bed and hanging muslin or voile drapes.
If the idea of being curtained in sounds too claustrophobic, then a canopy on the wall behind the bed head with fabric drapes falling to the floor will frame the bed, giving a romantic but less enclosed look. The canopy can be fixed to something as simple as a wooden shelf fitted with decorative moulding.
Reupholster Headboard
Traditional bedroom design ideas highly promote reupholstering. You can really work wonders with fabric and a staple gun. Any existing headboard can be revamped with a new fabric cover, and a plain bed can be dressed up with a headboard of MDF covered with upholstery foam and fabric, which is then screwed onto the wall or hung from a curtain pole. Trimmings of fringe, tassels, buttons, ribbons, lace or fancy braids can be stitched on or attached with a glue gun.
Storage Hack Ideas For Traditional Style Bedroom
Unless you have enough space for a separate dressing room, you will need a wardrobe and drawers or an in-built dressing table to match your traditional-style bedroom set. Traditional bedroom furniture can be accommodated by utilizing any alcoves (small space or corner formed by projection of wall) for shelving or hanging space, and, if you have a bay window, installing a built-in window seat with lift-off lids covered with cushions to match the bedcover or curtain fabric and storage space beneath.
If wardrobes are fitted, make sure they complement the overall look of the bedroom. If not, then wooden door panels can be removed and replaced with soft panels of gathered fabric on net curtain wires.
Visit local furniture auctions, where you can often find traditional bedroom suites. They really don’t make furniture the way they used to, except at the top end of the market, but old wooden furniture, when repainted and upholstered can look fantastic and will cost much less than similar new furniture in traditional styles.
Try a stripped-pine blanket chest to store out-of-season clothes. Give it a dark stain or try something like a decoupage or a crackle glaze effect. Boxes on castors under the bed are a good place to keep your shoes. But remember that all storage items currently in use should be easily accessible; otherwise, it just doesn’t work. If there isn’t enough floor space to pull out an under-bed drawer, then keep the drawer for things that you won’t need for a while.
Walls and Floors
For traditional bedroom décor, choose colours that are easy on the eye and patterns that won’t keep you awake at night. If you try to match everything, you may end up with a bedroom that lacks personality. Stripes, checks and floral patterns can all be combined if the colours are similar, as can different textures like tweed, cotton, velvet and linen. Don’t use too many different colours though; two or three main ones are enough with accents of contrasting colours in small amounts. Fabric trimmed with a ribbon border can be used on the walls in place of wallpaper or hung from a picture rail around the bed. Pattern motifs can also be copied from textiles and made into stencils to decorate walls or furniture. Soft carpets are ideal for floors, but if you prefer wooden floorboards, make sure you have ‘islands’ of soft bedside rugs.
Here’s a DIY activity for stencilling on a wall:
Windows
A traditional bedroom has curtains. Indulge in generous drapes, deep pelmets, and black-out linings. Generosity is the key, and it is better to use lots of cheap fabric, like unbleached calico or suit lining, and dress it up with a boldly contrasting ribbon or deep fringe border rather than use small amounts of an expensive fabric.
Accessories and Lighting
Have at least one good mirror on the wall as a traditional bedroom decor object, and for a real touch of luxury, nothing beats a vase of fresh flowers. Consider practical lighting for wardrobes and drawers, as well as pretty bedside lighting – if you have an overhead light, use a dimmer switch to create a shadowy sensual atmosphere.
Decluttering
Most of the clutter in the bedroom comes from newspapers, books, shoes, laundry (clean and dirty), make-up products, accessories and jewellery. It helps if you begin by having a place for everything. You will keep purchasing new things, so make it a point to discard the surplus. If you do not declutter, things will begin to pile up.
Small Cupboards
Give a small cupboard a traditional French country look by painting it green, blue or deep pink and replacing the door panels with sprayed chicken wire. Stretch net curtain wires above and below the panels on the back of the doors with screw-in eyelets and gather fabric panels onto them. Choose a fabric that you already have in the room.
Important Points To Remember
- Alcoves are ideal places for shelving and positioning dressing tables and mirrors. Look out for traditional furniture in local furniture auctions.
- A canopy fixed to the wall behind the bed head with drapes falling on either side frames the bed in a romantic look that is less enclosed than the four-poster.
To summarise, if you want a traditional look in your bedroom, choose a traditional bedroom set. Add traditional wardrobe door panels, a stenciled wall, window curtains, and repurposed small cupboards to round out the look. Traditional bedroom adds to the coziness and bold look.
If traditional style impresses you, then carry it to your dining room too. Check out the below article for the same.
The Classic Ingredients that Make Traditional Dining Room
Image Courtesy: Image 8
Author Bio
Huta Raval – An English Literature and Journalism Topper, Huta Raval has graduated from the L D Arts College, Ahmedabad. Post serving for 23 years in the NBFC and Public Library Sectors her desire for ‘writing the unwritten’ brought her to the creative field of content writing. Her clientele comprises of NGOs, Blogging Platforms, Newspapers, Academic Institutions, et al.
