15 Smart Bedroom Styling Tips I’ve Learned From House Tours

Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. In this case, you’re turning to our smart and stylish house tour homes for guidance on how to style a chic and serene bedroom. Take these tips home to create a space you’re proud to show off (and if you want to tell your friends where you got the idea, that’s fine too).

Above: A great way to style a bed in front of a window is to create a visual arc from the floor all the way up to the end of the curtain rod. The plants, frame and hanging light in Jaclyn & David’s Los Feliz Remix fill in the space next to the narrow window and draw the eye upward.

Scale is a different beast in the bedroom. The furniture (and your eye level) is lower a lot of the time, so don’t be afraid to bring artwork all the way down to the floor in the bedroom. Consider layering a little bit with the nightstand, like here in Jo’s Understated Retro Rock Style in Melbourne.

On the other side of the coin, something really tall and statuesque in the bedroom can build tons of interest in the space, like this tall plant on a plant stand (subbing in for a nightstand) in a guest room in Kirsty & Simon’s Cozy Century-Old Coastal Cottage.

If you’re tight on space, you can build your nightstand up, like in Akhira’s Eclectic Modern Mini Brooklyn Studio. Start with a small shelf for the bedside necessities, then stack a few frames and a light fixture on top, all the way to the ceiling.

You don’t need a mountain of pillows to “make” a bed. One really well-proportioned one, like this extra long lumbar pillow in Tanika & Brian’s NYC Newlywed Nest, is the perfect accessory to top your regular pillows (and it doesn’t involve 15 minutes of bed dissasembly before you tuck in each night).

For comfort, stability and style, you can stack rugs one on top of each other, like Jeni did in her Mixed & Matched San Francisco Apartment.

Tight on space? You can layer furniture, like these bookcases placed right behind the bed in Liz’s Bangin’ Chicago Apartment & Rad Rooftop. Combined with the headboard (or maybe in lieu of one) it’s a clever way to frame the bed.

Want to make a headboard out of thin air? Use paint to cleverly define the space above your bed. You can even take a cue from Theo’s Small, Streamlined Apartment in Hell’s Kitchen and use painter’s tape to mark off a bit of “molding.”

For an affordable, DIY solution to big art above the bed, Catherine and Lionel’s Colorful, Thrifty Toronto Home fixed four square scarves to the wall. Go mismatched, like they did, or try a repetetive theme with four of the same scarf.

What makes something a bedside table? Well, it’s any piece of furniture you can reasonably reach from the bed. So this vintage flat file cabinet from Peach & Craig’s Peaceful Australia Abode fits the bill just fine.

Your bedside tables don’t have to be a perfect pair at all. If you need some confidence to pull off the mismatched look, make sure the two pieces have something in common, like the mirrored finishes in Jae & Devin’s Labor of Love in Brooklyn.

It’s really important to get the size of the rug right in the bedroom. If you need to stretch a few extra inches out of your rug, try layering smaller ones on top, like here in Danielle & Patrick’s Warm Modern Home.

Something really unconventional? Swapping out the bedside table for a swinging shelf mounted to the ceiling, like in Allison & Matt’s East Village Synergy.

A mirror over the bed doesn’t just have to be the punchline of a dirty joke. Using a mirror as a headboard or above the headboard, like in Sarah and David’s Fresh and Bright Brooklyn Rental, will help to visually expand the space (and, yeah, might come in handy for that other thing, too, if you’re so inclined).

If the idea of “styling” your bedroom feels like too much, know that there’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple. In Mahi’s Shared, Thrifted Paradise in Switzerland, all she needs is a stool, a lamp and an alarm clock.

Re-edited from a post originally published 5.23.16-NT