Creating Your Dream Bedroom

Your bedroom is the one room in the house where it is all about you. Your Home & Garden magazine deputy editor Christine McBride has give easy steps to turning the place you sleep into a sanctuary.

1. Decorate How You Want

Often we feel that the bedroom isn’t as important because it’s a personal rather than public space. That’s all the more reason to concentrate on it. Your bedroom is the one room that should be all about you, and how to revitalise and inspire you without fail.

How to: Gather things in your bedroom that make you happy. Favourite colours, art, family antiques, ornaments and flowers can call have their place – check out these creative ways to display things you love.

2. Stay Tidy

There’s nothing like coming home exhausted and falling into a clean made-up bed. Make the extra effort in the morning to keep things neat.

How to: Get adequate storage by looking into discount stores and second-hand shops – blanket boxes and wicker clothes baskets are especially useful for helping things stay in place. A lift-up window seat is ideal, just make sure you air it regularly in winter. Check out other storage solutions from Your Home & Garden magazine or make your own wallpaper-covered boxes to put things in.

3. Create Luxury

Nothing is more luxurious than a soft cosy bed. Layer duvets, blankets and pillows on your bed in toning colours, along with a favourite cushion and perhaps a soft toy.

How to: It doesn’t have to be expensive. Make decorative cushions or pillowcases out of fabric odds and ends, duvet covers out of inexpensive pretty sheets , and scour second-hand stores for soft wool or mohair blankets.

4. Add Colour to Curtains

Too add colour to a room you don’t need to buy new curtains. Simply hang sari material or shawls over your existing curtains.

How to: Measure the width of your curtain and cut a piece of sari material to match. Close the curtains, fold an inch of the long edge of the sari material over the top of the curtains and pin in place. Loosely hand-stitch the sari material to the top of the curtain. You can easily unpick it later if you want to change the look.

5. Indulge Yourself

A bedroom doesn’t just have to contain beds and clothes. Think about your favourite relaxing activities and incorporate them into your bedroom.

How to: If you like reading in bed, a little bookshelf filled with favourite magazines is a great bedroom addition – here are some floating shelves you can make yourself. If you like a cup of herbal tea first thing in the morning, a second-hand tea trolley with a kettle, teacup and assortment of teas could have its place.

For more ideas for homes and gardens, go to www.yourhomeandgarden.co.nz

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