How to Turn Your Bedroom Into Your Sanctuary

by Lyn Lomasi, Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff

Image (c) Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved

When you want to relax, retreat, or rest, where's the first place you go? Most likely your answer will be the bedroom. Shouldn't your spot to relax make you feel comfortable? Shouldn't it feel like a calm, soothing, and cozy place? Turning your bedroom into a sanctuary is simple and fun.

Choosing the Theme for Your Sanctuary

Your bedroom's sanctuary theme should be something that makes you want to relax. For me, it's a warm and soothing beach. A quiet walk in the park, a serene forest, or midnight breeze are all examples of calming themes.

If you're not the outdoorsy type, maybe your relaxing theme is a cozy fireplace. Maybe you imagine yourself as a princess in a royal castle. Wherever you feel most relaxed should be your theme, even if it's exotic to others. Your bedroom should make you relax, not please others.

Choosing Your Colors

Your colors should mesh with your theme, as well as soothe you when you see them. For my beach scene, I use light blues, foamy greens, and dark greens. All of these colors soothe me. Some colors associated with relaxation are blue, green, and pink. Pink has been shown to immediately calm an angry person.

Blue has shown to cause tranquility and lower blood pressure. Green appears to have the same effect as blue. However, not all people would enjoy having a room in these colors. Your colors should be something you feel comfortable with and that make you feel happy and relaxed.

Choosing Your Furniture

Here again, you want to mesh with the theme, if at all possible. If you already have furniture you adore, try dressing it up with scarves, lace, or other fun accessories that will match your theme and colors. For a beach scene, you might have sand-colored scarves on an end table with a bowl of decorative blue rocks or glass atop the scarves.

You could also purchase a couple small blue or tan wicker chairs to go with the theme. The main idea is to make everything blend together to create a scene that makes you feel like you are in your calming place, your theme, wherever that might be.

Sometimes if you hunt around your house you can find all you need without having to shop for accessories. If you do have the freedom to go with all new furniture, don't be afraid to let the sales associates know your theme and what you're trying to accomplish.

Some furniture stores will even come to your house, scan "your room" into their computers, and plan a layout with you using their products. It sounds a bit spoiled, but it can actually help you visualize how it will turn out, so you don't end up with a look you weren't trying to achieve.

Arranging Furniture for Your Bedroom Sanctuary

The furniture should be arranged in a way that will make you feel like just plopping down on it because that's what you do in your bedroom. It should be easy to access and should make your theme pop out. When you walk into your room, you want to immediately feel like you are walking into your fantasy place.

When I walk into my bedroom, I feel like I am on the beach. I can actually hear the ocean in my head, feel the warm sand on my feet, and smell the fresh ocean water. Sometimes I can feel the warm breeze and see the palm trees swaying in the wind. This is my ideal relaxation zone.

Your furniture should make you feel like you are actually in your ideal sanctuary scene. It should take your breath away and make all your troubles slip away, even if just for a moment.

If your room is large enough, the ideal bedroom furniture would be to have at least a bed (of course), a lounger or chaise, a couple chairs, and of course an armoire or dresser and nightstands. The pieces should be chosen to your taste and arranged so that they are not all cluttered together.

Hanging some furniture, like hammocks or swing chairs can help with comfort, as well as removing clutter. If they are cluttered together, this will be stressful, rather than relaxing.

Try having the bed and dressing furniture on one side of the room and the chaise (or couch or lounger) and chairs on another. The television (if you have one in your room) should be placed in a manner that will be easy to view it from any of the furniture, but it should not be the center of attention.

Try to make it blend in with the theme as much as possible so it doesn't stick out. If at all possible, omit a television altogether. Televisions can throw off a design, but you can sometimes find a way to implement it, such as placing a picture frame around a flat screen television that's attached to the wall.

Decorating With Your Style

Your room should have plenty of accessories that go with your style or theme. Some examples of items you might use could include throw pillows, scarves, vases, marbles, chandeliers, beads, lamps, books, plants, dishes, paintings, mirrors, shapes, and more. Whatever you use should pull it all together.

Once the furniture is arranged just so and the walls are painted, your accessories should fill in any missing gaps that will complete the final design. Accessories can be placed on shelves, on stands, on dressers, on drawer pulls, on the end-posts of your bed, and on chairs. The possibilities are endless.

When you have an idea, run with it and see where it takes you. If it doesn't work the way you'd planned, don't give up. Try another idea. Soon your room will be looking relaxing in no time and you'll be ready to fall into a soothing slumber.