How to Decorate Your Bedroom: Where to Start & The Six Steps To Making It Your Dream Space!

I’ve gotten lots of emails over the years from readers who want to decorate a room in their home but say, “I just don’t know where to start!”. I hear you! I think starting a room is actually the hardest part about decorating a space and it’s the reason why I’ve done so many One Room Challenge (ORC) makeovers – they give me the motivation and deadlines I need to jump in and get the job done. Since an extra week was unexpectedly added to the ORC this go-round, I thought it was the perfect time to share some tips to help you do your own bedroom makeover, including where to start and the steps to take after that to create a space you’ll love. (post includes affiliate links – full disclosure statement available {here})

So… Where Do I Start?!

With ONE thing, just one! It’s that simple! Instead of feeling like you have to make every single design decision at once (which will likely make you feel so overwhelmed that you give up before you even start), pick just one thing that you absolutely love and want to design your room around. In a bedroom, that might be a special piece of art or some gorgeous drapes but often it’s bedding. Vera Bradley’s Traveler’s Floral quilt was the springboard for the design of my entire space (update: unfortunately this quilt is no longer available)

Beautiful right?! I love how all it has a coordinating pattern on the other side so it can be reversed or you can fold back the quilt at the top so that you see a little peek of it.

Step 2: Decide on Large Furniture Pieces

Before you get much further with your bedroom plans, it’s a good idea to decide on your large furniture pieces since they’re typically your biggest investment in the space. For my ORC space, I chose a daybed in a warm gray finish. Personally, I always choose neutral furniture pieces because if I want to change up the look of my space in the future, I can do that with a simple, inexpensive change of bedding vs. having to replace a bed or dresser. We’ve also moved around a lot and I love that by keeping our furniture neutral, a piece that we used in our bedroom in one house can be right at home in the foyer of the next one! But while neutrals are what works for me, if you’re a true color lover and are certain that you’re going to love that purple tufted headboard as much in ten years as you do today, go for it!

Step 3: Choose Coordinating Pillows & Fabrics

Now that you have your dream bedding (or drapes, art. etc.) picked out as your jumping off point, it’s time to find some coordinating pillows and fabrics for your bedroom. There are no rules here but a mix of solid colors with a large scale pattern, a smaller scale pattern, and a bold stripe is a winning combination that I’ve used time and time again. If you’re starting off your bedroom design with bedding, find out if there are coordinating pillows available! While I don’t generally like using entire “bed in a bag” sets, I always check to see if coordinating pillows are available and if I like them, I’ll typically use a couple in my room design. The Traveler Floral bedding I chose has a couple of coordinating pillow options including matching shams that I’ll use when I want to make up our bed for overnight guests along with these adorable Cabana Stripe tassel pillows – adding them to the mix was a no-brainer!

This is also a good time to shop your house! The final mix of pillows I came up with includes a pair of the Cabana Stripe tassel pillows, a pair of pillows with a small blue and white pattern that I swiped from my daughter’s room (they are perfect with the quilt!), and three large quilted Euro shams that are a solid white with a navy stitch running through.

Step 4: Decide on Your Paint Color or Wallpaper

Now it’s time to figure out what you’re putting on your walls! Did you notice how paint was NOT the very first thing we did? So many people pick out a paint color before anything else in the room and then end up in misery trying to find fabrics and furnishings to go with it. There are a zillion paint colors and wallpapers out there and it’s much easier to find a paint color or wallpaper that coordinates with all of your bedding and fabrics than it is to find bedding and fabrics that coordinate with a randomly selected paint color. The two wallpapers that I chose (I’m going with {this blue herringbone wallpaper} for the main space and {this blue watercolor vine} for the small craft room off of it) coordinate so well with my bedding and pillows – I can wait to see them go up on the wall!

When choosing paint or wallpaper for your space, remember that everything doesn’t have to match perfectly (I probably have about ten different shades of blue going on!) – they just need to coordinate or work well together. And while I decided to stick with mostly blue and white in my space, you can absolutely throw multiple colors into the mix!

Step 5: Mix in Some Metals

I mix metals into every single room design! Having a combination of different finishes in a space (woods, metals, & painted pieces) helps give a room a more “collected over time” feel and makes it more interesting. In my ORC space, I’m using a mix of different finishes (including some metals) on the frames that will be hung above the daybed and I’ve added {this brass swing arm lamp} too:

Step 6: Accessorize!

This last step is my favorite! This is when you shop for all of the goodies to finish off your space, even if “shopping” just means shopping your house! Make a list of the “holes” in your room whether it be an ottoman, art, side table, etc. and get looking! You don’t have to find every single accessory at once – for example, if you need a large piece of art and just can’t find what you’re looking for, leave that wall space blank until you do. Most of my favorite rooms are ones that evolve over time because I wait to find the pieces that I love instead of feeling pressured to buy something so the room is 100% done.

Last week I shared a few of the accessories that are going to go into my ORC room, including this super soft throw that Hope has claimed as her own:

but you’ll have to stay tuned for the big reveal to see the rest (I’m still looking for a few last minute pieces)! I hope you guys found this post to be helpful – if you’re not currently planning a bedroom makeover, you can Pin the image below so you can find it when the time comes that you are!