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10 Ways to Transform a Boring Bedroom
BY MICHELLE ULLMAN
Updated 05/12/17
Maybe you’re mostly happy with your bedroom, but when you look around, the room still seems a little blah. You like your furniture and the color scheme works, but something is missing – personality. Even a well-decorated bedroom can have a case of the blahs if nothing in the décor points to your own personal style. Luckily, you can snap your bedroom right out of the doldrums with just one or two carefully chosen accents that show off the real you. Here are ten bedrooms to get your creativity pointed in the right direction – down the road to a bedroom that is anything but boring.
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Show Your Artistic Side
Are your walls empty stretches of white? Although few people forget to hang artwork in the living room, its decorating impact is often overlooked when it comes to the bedroom. Go ahead and hang your favorite painting, print, poster, quilt or collection of family photos on the wall over your headboard, or on whichever bedroom wall has the most open space. You’ll get an immediate dose of interest. Feeling ambitious? Combine multiple pieces to create a stunning gallery wall.
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Highlight a Great Headboard
A great looking headboard turns even the most Plain-Jane bedroom into something special. Just look at the example shown here – an attractive, but ho-hum neutral bedroom gets a huge style lift from the gorgeous headboard. One of the easiest ways to show off your creativity and personality in the bedroom with a repurposed or DIY headboard.
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Add Metallic Elements
A little bit of bling adds excitement to your favorite outfit, and it’s no different in the bedroom. A few touches of shine, whether from glass, metallic surfaces or reflective embellishments like the sequins on the throw pillow shown here go a long way to dispelling the doldrums. Warm metallics, particularly gold, are riding especially high on the style charts right now, but if you prefer the cool tones of silver or chrome, go right ahead and add a touch to your bedroom. Take care, however – a little bit of shine is a good thing, but too much is overload.
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Choose Colorful Throw Pillows
Neutrals are soothing, but a bedroom without any contrast is boring. Not to fear – you can add a touch of color just by adding a few bright throw pillows to your bed. The dazzling beauties shown here are perfect for an Indian-inspired bedroom, but whatever your decorating style, you’ll find colorful throw pillows to match at HomeGoods, Target or bed and bath shops. As a general rule, your bed will look best with three throw pillows that coordinate (they don’t have to match perfectly) in color, style or design.
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Update Your Lighting
Is your bedroom ceiling adorned with nothing more spectacular than a lightbulb encased in a frosted glass bowl? Boring! Swap out your dull ceiling fixture for something spectacular. Even if you change nothing else in your bedroom, a bold ceiling fixture gives the space immediate panache. And there are nearly endless styles to choose from, or you can even make your own pendant light, so you are sure to find something you love.
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Start an Indoor Garden
When it’s time to liven up the bedroom, you can’t go wrong with something alive. Houseplants not only add color, contrast and natural appeal, they also help to purify your bedroom air. Even if your thumb isn’t green, you can grow easy plants like pothos, Chinese evergreen or dracaena.
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Create an Accent Wall
Pow! An accent wall at the head of your bed is a surefire cure for the bedroom blahs. There are many ways to create an accent wall. When painting, go bright, go dark, go strong – just choose a color that you love, and tie the look together with a throw pillow or two in the same hue. For even more impact, add a stenciled design to the wall or removable wallpaper.
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Update Your Bedding
Your bedding is one of the most important factors in setting your bedroom’s mood and style, so if you’ve been making do with nothing more than a boring blanket, it’s time to switch things up. Take a walk on the wild side with an animal print comforter to spice up an otherwise traditional room. If that’s a little too wild for your tastes, choose bedding in whatever style you love, whether it’s rustic country, sleek contemporary or something in between. Remember though – look for a strong pattern or color if you want to bring your bedroom alive.
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Find a Pretty Bedside Lamp
Every bed needs a bedside lamp, so why not choose one that’s something special? You can find lamps relatively inexpensively, making them a great way to add a quick touch of interest to your bedroom without breaking your budget. You can find high-impact, wake-up-a-boring-bedroom choices in most furniture shops, discount department stores or even at the Goodwill if you’re lucky.
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Swap Out Your Rug
Floors are frequently forgotten when it comes to decorating. Covered with neutral carpeting or wood, your bedroom floor is merely utilitarian, not a decorating asset. But add a strongly patterned or colored area rug, and suddenly your bedroom floor makes a statement: “This room is anything but boring.” For proof, check out the striped black-and-white rug shown here, and imagine the bedroom without it.