Ever wondered why hotel rooms feel so relaxing? (Apart from the fact you’re off-shift and feeling carefree!) Hotels are masters in creating bedrooms that promote a good night’s sleep and they manage this in part by ensuring their guest rooms are streamlined. But what is a streamlined room and what are the benefits of adopting this look in your own bedroom?

A streamlined bedroom is one which is arranged and designed in a manner that allows for easy movement. By creating a space which has clean lines and little to distract the eye, a more tranquil ambience can be achieved.

Your bedroom is the room in which you spend the most time, with its primary purpose for re-energising via a restful night’s sleep.  If your sleep space is cluttered, fussy and generally disorganised, your brain will find it hard to switch off. An inability to relax will lead to frustration and possibly increase your anxiety levels, making it difficult to obtain those 7 hours of sleep which are crucial for maintaining our physical and mental health.

Plan out the layout

When it comes to streamlining your bedroom, you should pay particular attention to its layout. It’s recommended that your bed is the focal point of the room and that there should be as much floor space around it as is reasonably possible. Being able to step in and out of bed and walk freely round it is a key element to the room’s functionality. Nobody needs to climb out of bed during the night and be confronted with an obstacle course in order to reach the bathroom. Beside tables are useful pieces of furniture and placed either side of the bed are ideally minimal. By carefully planning where each piece of furniture should go, you are already halfway to creating a naturally serene bedroom.

No fuss décor

Ornate pieces of furniture with fussy detailing will make a bedroom appear busy and distract the eye. Save overwhelmingly bright colours and bold patterns for other areas of your home which will benefit from an exuberant design, and stick to neutral or organic colours for larger pieces of furniture and the general colour scheme. This does not mean your streamlined bedroom needs to be drab! You can add a significant amount of interest by incorporating splashes of colour and a variety of textures through soft furnishings and home accessories. You can still inject your personality into a streamlined living space; just don’t overdo it!

Clutter-free space, clutter-free mind!

After a busy day at the office or multi-tasking on the family-front, come the evening, most of us just want to retreat to our bedrooms and unwind before we need to rise and do it all again. If your sleep space is disrupted by unsightly clutter, then relaxation will be hard to achieve. Utilise your storage provision effectively and keep those surfaces clear. If you have minimal storage space or need to keep some items to hand, then organise items using trays, baskets and decorative boxes to stop surfaces looking disorderly and chaotic. If you like to display your treasures on your window sill or dressing-table, choose a couple of carefully selected larger pieces which complement your décor, rather than a collection of small items.

Find new places

Smart utilisation of space, which will enable your bedroom to perform all its required functions with ease, is key to creating a streamlined feel. It’s natural to get used to our living spaces operating in a certain way and it’s easy to overlook potential opportunities for space-saving and better functioning storage solutions. To keep your bedroom tidy and clutter at bay, consider carefully all the spaces within the room which could be made to work harder. Do you have space underneath your bed for storage boxes? How about installing a bridging unit above it or choosing a headboard with integrated storage? The space above a doorframe is often overlooked so there’s an opportunity for useful shelving up there. The less floor and surface space you use, the more streamlined your bedroom will appear. Plus, the smarter your storage, the less likely it is for clutter to rebuild.

Install fitted furniture

One of the easiest and most effective ways of creating a streamlined bedroom is by installing fitted furniture. Rooms tend to not be uniform in space and size and there are often architectural features that can be difficult to arrange furniture around, such as beams and chimney breasts. By engaging fitted furniture designed specifically around your room shape, any dead space will be released, and instead, given function.

Fitted wardrobes can provide wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling storage, with totally bespoke interiors to house all your possessions, both big and small. Unlike ill-fitting pieces of freestanding furniture, fitted furniture will flow evenly around the outside of your space without any unwanted gaps, which also makes it easier to keep your bedroom dust-free. With so many designs and finishes to choose from, your bedroom will look as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional.

At Hartleys we’ve been designing fitted bedrooms, home-offices and multipurpose furniture for over 40 years, so we know a few things about creating a streamlined bedroom! If you’d like to chat over your plans for fitted furniture, we’d love to hear from you. You can call us on 01756 700471 or request a design visit via our website. Thank you for reading.