We haven’t had a new instalment of my aPRAGUEment 101 series here for a while, have we? Today I’m coming at you with a little bedroom inspiration. When I moved to this apartment a little over a year ago, I only had a couple of pieces of furniture (my bed and two cabinets to be precise). In the name of intentional living and unique vintage pieces in mind, I furnished our home fairly quickly. I did not spend horrendous amounts of money (the most expensive bits & bobs were from IKEA for some £60 at most) but with that price came a few mishaps, mainly in the terms of quality and functionality.
A year on we’re able to stop & think about all the pieces and consider the bigger picture. The plan is to replace some of the pieces with a little more intent in mind.
How to re-think your bedroom decor?
Our bedroom is, in contrast with the rest of our apartment, slightly more sharp around the edges with a darker colour palette, a lot more fabric accents (we have long curtains over our wardrobe shelving, another curtain over the terrace door, lots of blankets and cushions on the bed, three little rugs and a large velvety armchair) and much simpler wall art (mostly black and white photographs).
None of these need to change per se but the bedroom does need a little more cohesion. Here are a few ideas how to re-think your bedroom decor on budget with intent in mind.
The right light
Lighting options tend to be surprisingly underrated. We have a strange inbuilt light in the ceiling which we cannot change. Luckily for us it’s not too bright and actually works really well for the bedroom ambience. Then we have two other lights in the room – a little table lamp and a reading lamp next to our big comfy armchair.
The floor lamp is brand new & I’m in love with its golden colour. Originally we had a very strong light bulb in it which was just way too bright for the bedroom. We’ve swapped it for a weaker one which creates a nice soft reading light. We also swapped a really old second hand table lamp (which wasn’t very safe to use at this point, the wiring was all sorts of shady) for this beautiful Lënie table lamp. Its combination of cream lacquered metal and grey wood goes perfectly with the vintage country feel of this corner of the room and the soft light creates a gentle ambience in the evening. We also got some green energy saving light bulb for it (which is something I’ve been trying to pay more attention to lately). You can find more gorgeous modern table lamps over on the pib website (and not just lamps, they have other high end design bits & bobs too!).
Contrast in harmony
I love mixing and matching seemingly contrasting materials in our home. I go with what “feels” right and that’s usually wood next to rattan next to metal. It usually works really well for me but I might have gone a little berserk in the bedroom. We have a painted faux bone inlay cabinet next to a light rattan chest paired with an almost black cladding, a dark brown/gunmetal bed and night stand, black shelves, dark brown chair with emerald upholstering, forest green curtains… it’s making me dizzy just typing this all up. We definitely need to add more structure to the room – I’m currently looking for a different bed and a peacock chair instead of my current night stand. I also feel like the upholstered chair needs to go. Oh well.
Oh so dusty!
Because of all the curtains (I’m sure Cookie and Pippin are partial to this mess too!), the room gets incredibly dusty. The dust is EVERYWHERE. ALL THE BLOODY TIME. My aim is to add a ton of air purifying plants because obviously I’m not particularly happy we’re sleeping in the dustiest corner of our apartment, get some good quality diffuser for essential oils and make a new batch of my favourite DIY room spray. I would also like to find a cleaning routine for our rattan furniture because that’s a real pain in the butt. Do you know any good products, preferably DIY concoctions, I could use for untreated indoor rattan?
Sleeping with intent
Finally I’d like to get a set of high quality bedding. I’m looking for organic cotton in particular which could possibly be a little more expensive but would last a really long time, would wash well on high temperature (the last set of bedding I bought had a recommended washing temperature of 40 degrees, I kid you not!) and would be super comfy to sleep in. I should add that I’d love to get a different bed because ours is falling apart (literally – we find a new screw on the floor every other morning, cheers IKEA) so that’s another point to consider. Perhaps it’s time to go for a slightly larger bed and also larger duvet? HALP.
