Bedroom Tranquility

I recently attended a summit in Dublin Castle that re-kindled my excitement for interiors, their wonder, beauty and how they can set a mood. While we all may not have the budget of a Castle it certainly set about inspiring me to write this piece.

One of my favourite rooms in the home is the bedroom as it can be designed in many ways, some for passion but we all need to remember the function of the bedroom, which goes without saying is for tranquil sleep.

How do we achieve tranquility in a bedroom? Starting with a blank canvas look at the natural light in the room and study this throughout the day is it a room that gets the sun the whole day around or is is a north facing room that never sees the warmth of the sun dancing on it's walls. For me this can be the most important factor when planning a room and the colour tones you choose.

While a bedroom should be cool, calm and relaxing there also is no harm in introducing a colour of passion but be careful that it is not taking over the room as the function of resting and sleeping may be disturbed. Tones of nature can be best to choose from when planning a relaxing space such as blues and greens that are seen together everyday when we look around us i.e. sky being blue and grass being green.

Dressing bedrooms are very much a personal choice as some people love bed cushions and others hate them so reach a compromise if you are sharing a room. Paintings/Pictures on the walls should be relaxing and not stimulating so maybe something like a tree lined walkway or a stream as your minds eye will visualise relaxing along side them.

www.colortrend.ie - for great colour selection

From the samples in the images you can the difference when using colour, left shows the earthy tone of the walls along side the natured images create a calming effect even though the bedlinen is strong in colour the other tones keep it under control. Right is a much more muted room but has soft blues and silvers and even the bedlinen is calming even though it has a busy print. Nothing is taking over and both are good examples of bedroom tranquility.