Small Bedroom Decor and Bedroom Decorating Ideas
No matter the size or your budget, a bedroom should be an oasis. This in-depth post covers small bedroom decor and bedroom decorating ideas to help you create the bedroom of your dreams.
Creating a beautiful bedroom is simple once you have a few key elements: A beautiful bed frame, a bedside table and a few key pieces to pull together your bedroom design idea.
How to become a bedroom designer
There is no certification involved, but here are some steps to creating a bedroom you love.
- Research! Start a Pinterest board for bedroom ideas
- Analyze. What do all those bedroom ideas and designs have in common?
- Light walls? Dark walls? Patterned walls?
- Upholstered bed frame? metal bed frame?
- Dark window treatments? Light window treatments? Patterned window treatments?
- Light bedding? Dark bedding? Patterned? Solid? Bold?
- Neutral area rug? Bold patterns? No area rug?
- What is above the bed? What accessories are grabbing your attention?
- Bring your design idea to life with a mood board. There are free programs you can use, or just print it out and cut and glue. Now you are starting to see the mixing of colors, patterns and ideas.
- Now you are ready to start creating your space!!
This is a design format that can work for any room! Big bedroom or small bedroom, master bedroom or kids bedroom. But let’s be honest, most of us are looking for small bedroom decor ideas.
Small Bedroom Decor: mood board
I followed those bedroom designer tips for this bedroom makeover. You can see how this small bedroom came to life here: woodland room makeover.
The room started as an idea, with the moodboard below as the inspiration. It wasn’t until installation day that we got to see all of the items together and in real life!
- Cloudy Shag Diamond Loop Rug (donated)
- Curtains
- Upholstered Platform Bed (donated)
- Watercolor Butterfly Art (donated)
- Into the Woods Art
- Folktale Forrest Bedding (donated)
- 3-drawer dresser
- Pink Pedestal Table (from TJ Maxx, linked to similar one)
- Desk Tast Lamp
- Little Gardener Custom Art (donated)
- Brave Fox Art (donated)
- So Loved Heart Foil Press Art (donated)
Paint color: Wild Aster by Benjamin Moore
You can check out the whole room reveal here.
bedroom decorating basics
Here are some basics for decorating a bedroom and creating the “designer look” you are going after. These design elements are broken down into three categories
- Flow- There are some general “rules” for creating flow in a bedroom. How you arrange your bedroom will definitely affect the impact of the design. The best placement for a bed is to put the head of the bed on the wall opposite the door. Due to a bedroom layout and bedroom size, this may not always be an option.
- Scale- A bedroom reads as designed well when scale has been mastered. The three places that people fail to honor scale most are: window treatments, wall hangings and rugs.
- Windows treatments- Window treatments should always be hung high and wide.
- Wall hangings- When in doubt, go big and hang about a handwidths above furniture. If you are hanging a grouping of art or a gallery wall, be sure to leave no more than 2 inches between pieces. The idea of a gallery wall is that it should read as one unit.
- Rugs- go as big as you can. Most bedrooms would look best with an 8×10 rug.
- Anchor- What you hang above the bed and put under the bed really anchors the whole room. Pay close attention to how you do this in your space. These are parts of the overall bedroom design that you do not want to overlook.
Now that you know these decorating basics, go back over your inspiration and tune into the bedroom flow and arrangement, the scale of the pieces and how the space is anchored.
Decorating a bedroom and pattern mixing
I love decorating bedrooms and especially bedrooms for kids, because there are so many chances to mix things up! The biggest issue readers have when designing a new space is figuring out how to mix patterns and colors. Here are the basics on color and pattern mixing.
You need the inspiration piece. That might be one pillow, bedding, a curtain, a piece of art– whatever that piece is that makes you say, “YES!”
Take the mood board above, the launching piece was the woodland bedding. Everything chosen tied to those colors. From there, it came down to pulling colors and patterns that compliment each other.
As color goes, if it is in the bedding, it works in the room. That is my launching piece for designing the space. The color pallet for this bedroom became: gray, turquoise, periwinkle, pink, gold, ivory.
When it comes to choosing patterns you have floral/botanical prints, organic, solids, geometrics and then small scale and large scale.
The bed is solid gray, while the rug has a large scale gray geometric pattern.
The bedspread is large scale floral, paired with a smaller scale print.
The curtains pull the pink out of the bedding with a large scale geometric print.
When mixing patterns, here is what you want to remember:
- All of the colors can be pulled from one anchor piece that inspires the entire space
- You want a mixture of small scale and large scale prints.
- You want a mixture of botanical/floral/organic, solid, geometric prints.
I hope with these few design basics, you are ready to decorate a bedroom and get that “designer” look you are always after.
Teal & purple bedroom
Sometimes simple is best. This teal and purple bedroom is the right blend of simplicity and sparkle. I’m so glad we had the honor of creating this space to complement the big woodland room makeover we did for a cancer patient.
- Purple drapes- Target
- Teal and purple bedding- Target
- unicorn head- Target
- touch lamp- Target
- teal rolling cart nightstand- TJ Maxx
- metal bed frame- 9 by Novogratz from Walmart.
Kids rooms are my favorite to do! I think I like designing bedrooms for kids so much, because making bold pattern and color choices feels easier when you’re decorating a bedroom for kids.
For more fun children’s rooms, check out these.
Bedroom Decorating Ideas- SHARED BOYS BEDROOM:
Highlights of this room include:
- end to end beds
- dresser hutch turned headboard
- gallery wall
- mini figurine display
- use of vertical space
Bedroom decorating ideas- GIRL BEDROOM:
This bedroom design stands out with:
- Big, bold, gold mirror
- Antique sewing table turned bedside table
- Bold floral drapes
Bedroom decorating ideas- BOY NURSERY:
Designing a bedroom for a new bundle of joy? Some favorites of this room design are:
- painted patterned walls
- gallery wall
- custom art
- adorable robot/space theme
Bedroom decorating ideas: BIG GIRL BEDROOM:
This is a small bedroom with built-in dressers and odd wall angles. Favorites from this bedroom design include:
- reading nook
- herringbone stenciled wall
- mirror gallery wall
- bold floral curtains
- letter magnet door
- ruffled curtain
Bedroom decoratind ideas: BLUE, PINK & GREEN NURSERY:
This bedroom was definitely done on a budget with lots of DIY projects. Some favorites include:
- bold wall pattern
- unexpected accent color
- Fabric scrap projects
Bedroom decorating ideas: BADGER BEDROOM:
This small bedroom decor utilizes a small budget, DIY skills and a lot of creativity. Best design ideas include:
- Bold patterned drapes
- reading corner
- gutter bookshelves
- chevron wall
These bedroom basics should help you plan a winning design for your bedroom.
What is your favorite space to decorate?
Want FREE printables and more. Join my newsletter!
Subscribe to get our latest content by email.