The Beautiful Bedroom Ideas

A bedroom is a retreat from the outside world- the one place where you can really please yourself.

Unlike halls and sitting rooms, which are frequently on show, bedrooms are very private places. This means you can take a more personal approach. You can be madly flamboyant if you fancy it, using masses of exotic oriental fabrics to create an Arabian Nights' fantasy. You can be unashamedly feminine and frilly. You can be so cool, the look is amidst Spartan. Fortunately in terms of the budget you can choose less practical floor coverings and wall surfaces.

Bedrooms are the one place where buying a cheaper carpet doesn't prove to be a false economy, because it won't be subject to hard wear and tear. It's also one of the places where you are very unlikely to trample in dirt from the street and garden, so you won't need pattern or dark colours to disguise grubby footmarks. If off- white fitted carpet is your idea of ultimate luxury-this is where you can have it without feeling guilty. And if you want a wallpaper on the walls, there is no need to be sensible and choose a washable version, or tough vinyl wall covering that can be scrubbed.

Despite the fact that bedrooms offer so much freedom, no-one's obliged to go to extremes just to use it fully. You may prefer a quiet room to sleep in in which case perhaps keep to shades of the same colour, as in the monastically simple grey bedroom on picture. Or if you want the friendliness of pattern, choose a co-ordinate wallpaper and fabric, so the patterns flow smoothly and serenely as in the bedroom on picture. Whatever approach you prefer however make your major design statement with the bed because everything will follow from its visual treatment. First though be sure to pick the right bed.

A good night's sleep is more important than anything for a sense of well-being and an ability to cope with the day. Of course a comfortable bed isn't going to guarantee you get one-but it will increase your chances enormously-so it really is worth choosing with care and spending the most you can possibly afford. A good quality bed will last from ten to fifteen years, and can be regarded as a sound investment. If you can't manage the initial financial outlay. rather than buy an inferior conventional dib an it might be best to build your own rigid base and concentrate your resources into a superior mattress.

Soft versus hard

If a bed is too soft the heaviest parts of the body sink down into it and only the lighter parts receive support. Conversely. if a bed is too hard, while the heaviest parts receive support, the lighter parts are left unsupported. The ideal is a fairly firm in-between but if in doubt, always err on the firm side. Hard beds give better support to the spine than soft and over yielding beds which can eventually lead to serious back trouble.

There are two types of conventional divan base: sprung edge and firm edge. With sprung edge, the springs are mounted on top of a wooden base, so the resilience extends right to the edges. With firm edge, the spring are contained within a wooden base-and sides frame. Sprung edge versions are more expensive, and tend to prolong the life of the mattress. However in a bed-sitter where the bed gets used for seating, it is best to go for a firm edge base: otherwise the springs will start sagging at the edge. Alternatively, choose a studio-bed where the base comprises wooden drawers: these won't sag and they will provide useful storage for pillows and blankets.

As a good mattress should be enough to provide postural support, it's not essential to have a sprung divan base. Indeed you ,ay prefer to buy a slatted wood base: some of the latest use springy and flexible slats, so they incorporate a measure of resilience. But except in emergencies, it's not a good idea simply to put the mattress on the floor. When people are asleep their bodies lose up to 1 liter or 1 ^1/2 pints of liquid a night, and this moisture must be able to evaporate freely. Some from of wooden base is needed to provide adequate ventilation for the mattress. If you intend to build one yourself a solid wood base should be drilled with 19 or 20 mm (^3/4-in) diameter holes at 18 cm (7-in) centers; a slatted wood base should allow spaces about as wide as the slats. The BSI recommend 5 cm (2-in) wide and 20 mm (^3/4-inch) deep slats run across the bed rather than from top to bottom: in the case of a double bed, you'll need to support the slats lengthways to prevent any sag.

Most sprung mattresses are either pocket-sprung is much more expensive because each spring is contained within its own calico pocket, and reacts individually to pressure upon it. In other words it only gives where give is needed-something that makes it a good choice for double beds, where couples tend to be of differing weights. Open springing, because it is inter-linked, yields less specifically to pressure which would mean that with a double bed, the lighter partner ends up on a downhill slope.

But the choice isn't quite as cut and dried as it seems. The quality of both types depends on how springs have been used so an open-sprung mattress with a high density of small springs will be better than a pocket-sprung mattress with a low density of large springs. If the retailer can't tell you how many springs there are (a good double bed will boast about 500; the very best about 1, 000) you will find price always proves a reliable guide and that well-known makers offer several styles of mattress.

Finally for any couple with widely differing weights-or widely differing ideas of comfort-it's possible to order matching twin beds with separate mattresses that can be zipped together and linked to from a double bed. A good foam mattress is as comfortable as an interior sprung version, doesn't need turning and doesn't harbor dust-which could be important for anyone with an allergy. butt's mistake to think it will be any cheaper: it's an alternative rather than a budget substitute. There are cheap foam mattresses, but they will probably shallow (be wary of anything less than 10 cm ( 4 in) deep. and they will be made of low-density foam, i.e. full of big air bubbles surrounded by thick walls. High-density foam is full of tiny air bubbles surrounded by thin walls and although your safest guide to quality is price you will find a good foam mattress feels springy and resilient, whereas a cheap one feels unyielding and hard. Some of the best and most expensive mattresses come in different densities of foam, so they are able to yield more at shoulders and hips where more give is needed.

Sleeping on the cheap

Strictly speaking second hand beds are not a good idea because all beds adapt to the shape of their owners-one reason why a new bed never really feels comfortable unstill it's been slept in for several weeks. But good quality and virtually new beds occasionally turn up at local auction rooms and often sell at very reasonable prices, thanks to the illogical thinking of people who cheerfully sleep in hotels for a fortnight, but dislike the thought of buying a stranger's bed. If you are equally illogical but still want a bargain, you might be lucky and find a new one n a sale: but do be sure you are getting a genuine reduction as opposed to a special purchase or phony discount. You best hope is to look for a slightly shop-soiled mattress or an unpopular ticking cover- neither of which will show once the bed is made up-although always avoid synthetic ticking. These can't breathe an essential for good ventilation. They are also slippery, so bedclothes may develop the infuriating habit of sliding off in the middle of the night.

It's a mistake to economize on size. A bed needs to be at least 15 cm (6 in) longer than the sleeper, and wide enough to allow a person to link hands behind the head without elbows projecting beyond the sides of the bed. As mattresses and sprung bases wear out at the same rate, it's also a mistake to replace just one or the other. In any case the springing of mattress and base is usually inter-related. so you tamper with this relationship at your peril.

Basically most beds are boring rectangles. But given that mundane starting point, you can play them up to provide the room's chief feature; or play them down to form an integrated part of the whole. The easiest way to lend a bed importance is to give it a really attractive headboard. If you don't want the button- back upholstered kind (which really only makes sense if the fabric relates to our room), there are plenty of alternatives to choose from. Wooden-framed cane headboards always look light and attractive and can be neat and modern or ornate and traditional, as in the picture on . Traditional carved wood headboards, whether antique or reproduction, will turn the bed into a serious pica of furniture-and needn't be teamed with traditionally pretty foals-see for a strong and stylish treatment. If you don't want a complete brass bedstead you can buy just a behead. But be warned: even it pillows propped up behind you, they are still extremely uncomfortable to lean back against.

You can always improvise a headboard or behead. You can use an antique mirror that is as wide as the bed-big over mantel mirrors could well fir a double bed perfectly. You could fix a traditional wooden curtain pole to the wall above the bed, and drape it with a length of white cotton lace to form a swigged

pelmet with more swags at the sides. Alternatively if you wanted a crisper effect, you could make a fitted bedspread with inverted pleats at the corners, and carry the matching fabric flat up the wall to form a panel the same width as the bed.

For an even more visually important bed, if your room is large enough you could buy a four-poster. You could even make one yourself. All it needs is a frame with a curtain track fitted to the ceiling, and four uprights onto which to tie the curtains. This can look grand or pretty-according to your choice of fabric-but if you want a really imposing effect, you could add a scalloped, castellated or swaged pelmet to the frame. Or you could forget four-posters altogether and give your bed a canopy, with swathes of fabric flowing from a ceiling-fixed corona.

Or merely extend the idea of a flat wall-panel of fabric and carry the fabric over the ceiling as far as the foot of the bed: using it either flat, or in a luxurious loop and swag.
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