Small Bedroom Decorating Ideas

October 5, 2020

/ Interiors /

When I was a child my bedroom was the box room – it was tiny! It must have been about 8ft by about 6ft. And yet I don’t remember feeling cramped in there (though I did have to keep my dolls house out on the landing – lol!). Dolls house aside, I think it is completely possible to have a lovely room even in the tiniest of spaces. Here are a few ideas for how to make the most of a small bedroom:

Plan Your Space Carefully

In a really small bedroom, fitting the bed in has to be the number one priority! Don’t just assume that you can only fit the bed one way – measure it and check. If you can fit a bed along the smallest wall, that can make the room feel much more spacious overall.

It’s also really important to try and make the most of any dead space in a small room – in my childhood bedroom I had the bulkhead for the stairs in one corner. This took up a massive part of the already tiny room! However a previous owner had built a cupboard onto this otherwise fairly unusable space, that meant I had a built-in wardrobe and a useful set of shelves in this space instead. More recently, my parents built in a bed over the bulk head space in their current house. Here are some ideas:

Don’t Overwhelm the Space with Big Furniture

It can be really tempting, especially in a child’s bedroom, to go for a cabin bed that also doubles up with a chest of drawers and a desk all stored underneath. While this is a great idea on paper, in reality it can just completely overwhelm the room and make it feel super-cramped and tiny. In a small room, it is better to keep the furniture as simple as possible.

That said, if you can fit some clever storage in – under the bed for example, then all the better! Also, if you can double up some furniture, that helps too. For example could a desk also be used as a bedside table? Overall, try to keep the furniture as minimal and simple as possible.

Here a desk doubles as a bedside cabinet
Image: Shanty-2-chic.com

Use the Walls

While your room might have limited floor space, there is probably plenty of scope to make use of the wall! Shelves can be incredibly useful and also look really stylish. They just need to be kept neat and organised so that they don’t look cluttered! Similarly, if your small bedroom is a young child’s room, or a guest room, why not use a simple peg-rail on the wall to hang a few clothes up, instead of a wardrobe?

This Shaker peg rail is great if you only have a few things to hang. Image: Woodyoubuy

Keep the Decor Simple

Whether you choose to go light and bright or dark and cosy, keep the decor simple – too much pattern or too many colours can be sensory overload in a small bedroom. Painting the woodwork the same colour as the walls is also a neat trick that makes the ceilings feel higher. In addition if you also paint the doors and any built-in cupboards etc., then they all ‘fade out’ and help the room to feel like one continuous space.

This beautiful blue room is by Kareen Lilleeng Holman. Here the floor, walls, ceiling, curtains and most of the furniture is the same tone of blue – blending it all and making the space feel bigger.

This pale white bedroom is light and bright but kept warm by the warmer tones in the cushions and rug and the natural materials.

Think About the Light

Considering the light a room gets is important whatever it’s size, but in a small room, more light is definitely better. If there isn’t a huge amount of natural light coming in, think about using mirrors to help bounce the light around the space.