Residential Properties

For the last 5 to 10 years, a ton of articles in the decorating media giving advice on how to decorate one’s bedroom as a personal sanctuary that is sensual, comfortable and practical all at once have been published.

These articles most often suggest following personal style and taste, encouraging readers to stick with the things they love. On the surface, this seems to make a lot of sense. However, why then do we sometimes decorate our bedrooms with pieces we love only to find a month or two later, that the scheme doesn’t seem to make us feel as comfortable or balanced as we thought they would?

What accounts for the disconnect? Could it be that “decorate as you please” is not useful advice?

Yes and no. There is no reason why personal taste and style shouldn’t be a major factor in bedroom furniture choices. However, there are some fundamental design principles that must always be taken into account. These fundamental design principles are based on common sense and have been around for ages, but have been reintroduced to us here in the US under the popular label “Feng Shui” in the last 20 years.

For example, in bedroom design, furniture must be placed according to the bedroom inhabitant’s circadian rhythms. What does this mean, you may ask? It is a simple principle, and yet often ignored. Place your bed towards the East if you like to wake up with the dawn. This way, you wake up with the dawn, as the sun comes up. Conversely, if you like to sleep til 1 pm, try to limit your bed’s eastern exposure. Place it so that it faces North, or West.

By carefully considering furniture placement, you put yourself in harmony with your natural rhythms and will inevitably feel more in harmony with your bedroom environment.

Same principle holds true for furniture selection. What we are really aiming for when we select our furniture is to create a bedroom that is in harmony with ourselves and the natural world. Feng Shui advocates balance and harmony through a mix of elements: fire, water, earth and metal. Many furniture manufacturers sell all-wood bedroom sets, for example, which are often less successful because they carry too much of the “earth” element so that a bedroom is overwhelmed. If you have a wood floor, why would you want an all-wood bedroom set. Balance must be achieved.

There are furniture manufacturers that do an amazing job of mixing wood and metal elements in what I consider masterful Feng Shui design. Imagine a bed with espresso colored wood with delicious metal accents such as silver, satin beige and magnesium pewter. This creates a balance between wood and metal. Then add a headboard that curves upwards on either end to add the water element to the strong earth and metal tones.