design-ideas-for-cosy-winter-bedrooms
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Design ideas for cosy winter bedrooms

ByChristabel Chubb

Winter is near – the air is crisper, the sun sets earlier and the jumpers stashed in the back of your closet make their annual appearance. To escape the chill of the months ahead, too, you will probably find yourself staying indoors and curling up in bed with a mug of hot chocolate and a good, long book. Because of this, it is vital to transform your bedroom into a winter oasis, full of warmth, cheer and relaxation. We’ve rounded up the best design ideas from the H&G archive to cosify your bedroom for winter. Consider ambient lighting While great lighting is crucial any time of year, in winter, it is perhaps in winter when great lighting is truly essential. The winter months bring with them long, dark nights and afternoon sunsets, which can be jarring. In your bedroom, especially, creating a beautiful lighting scheme with ambient lighting (think floor lamps, candles and glowy fairy lights, and, designers’ favourites, candle sconces) maximises the room’s cosiness and turns it into a true retreat from the cold, pitch-black outdoors. Additionally, for those especially affected by those 4.30 sunsets, investing in a ‘SAD’ (Seasonal Affective Disorder) lamp – which mimics sunlight – may be worthwhile. Wrap up in blankets Ollie Tomlinson Is there anything better than bundling up in a gigantic, oh-so-soft blanket? Fuzzy blankets and cashmere throws are crucial to amping up the cosiness of a winter bedroom. Quilts and eiderdowns are also having a moment, and this throwback to our grandparents’ decorating style feels particularly welcome in a difficult winter. Investing in high-quality textiles, too, adds to the decor of your room and adds a touch of sumptuous elegance to staying warm. Welsh blankets are one of our favourite styles; their traditional styles can bring much-needed colour and texture to a bedroom. As for bedding, consider a brushed cotton set of sheets for added warmth. Jan Baldwin Feel the glow of candles While you now know that great ambient lighting is essential for a winter bedroom, candles, too, are just as important. Candles give off warmth, add glow and, should you opt for those of the scented variety, engulf your bedroom in your favourite smells. Consider candles whose scents are reminiscent of winter: cinnamons, pine tree or citrus scents are perfect. The spare room in shop-owner Alastair Hendy’s restored Tudor home has beds under the sloped roof, creating a perfectly cosy small bedroom, lit by the light of a single candle. Paul Massey Warm up your room with a great paint colour Interior designer Philip Hooper’s masterful blend of the classic and contemporary has given this late-Regency house in Hampshire a greater sense of harmony and dignity. The walls in the main bedroom are covered in ‘Strie’, a linen-silk blend from George Spencer Designs. Michael Sinclair For those seeking to winter-proof their bedroom to the fullest extent, re-painting a bedroom is the perfect next step. Paint colour adds warmth to your bedroom’s palette, transforming your room into a warm safe haven. Certain colours (think beiges, creams or paints with sateen-y finishes) better help to reflect light – so important during those dark winter days, whereas other colours, such as darker greens or blues, can make a room feel more intimate. Wallpaper, too, can add cheerful personality to the bedroom. Make your bed more inviting Studio Squire designed a contemporary bed tester for the primary bedroom of this cottage, using fabrics from Guy Goodfellow, Marvic and Claremont. The velvet bed throw is from Toast. Christopher Horwood Spending so much time indoors can make anyone develop cabin fever. Beat it by kitting out your bed for winter. Choose embroidered throw pillows with festive, winter themes to add to your holiday spirit. Adding extra cushions and making extra space for books on your nightstand are two simple steps to creating a cosy reading nook on your bed; for morning people, by laying down a fluffy rug at the side of your bed grounds your room and ensures a great, soft start to your morning. At The Fife Arms in Braemar, Scotland, this bedroom known as ‘The Artist’s Studio’ draws on the decorative style at Charleston in East Sussex. Benjamin Edwards In this London project by Veere Grenney, the bed has curtains in ‘Blenheim’ by Michael Smith. Woodwork in a deep, olive green and brass finishes make the space feel luxurious and cosy. Mark Anthony Fox If you have a four-poster bed, or are considering buying one, drape it in fabric to create an enveloping place to sleep. We love tartans and plaids at this time of year; their woollen texture is perfect for chilly nights. For a small bedroom, the box bed has to be the most attractive thing on a winter evening; these charming nooks where you can draw the curtains and hide away are exactly where we’d want to be when the temperature drops.

how-to-make-your-bedroom-feel-more-luxurious
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How to make your bedroom feel more luxurious

ByCharlotte McCaughan-Hawes

The idea of luxury means different things to everyone and so a luxurious bedroom will entirely differ based on your taste. However, looking at it with a broad brush, we’re taking the idea that hotel bedrooms are places that – should you be staying in a good hotel – feel like pure luxury from the minute you walk in. Perhaps it’s the hospital corners on the perfectly-made beds, the fact that they’re free from the mental and physical clutter of our own or the superior bedding – whatever the cause, that feeling of relaxation you get when entering a hotel bedroom should be achievable at home too. We’ve broken down the key elements that can help make your own bedroom feel more luxurious and separate it from the mental load that follows us from room to room at home. Bedding There is no way a bedroom can feel luxurious if you don’t invest in your bed. We spend hours of our lives in bed, so while the best mattress can be an investment, it’s one that hugely pays off. Similarly, your bed frame should bring you joy when you see it, whether that comes from a sleek wooden design or a gingham-upholstered headboard in an elaborate shape. “We usually like to design a half tester or four poster bed for a principle bedroom,” say Mary Graham and Nicole Salvesen of interior design studio Salvesen Graham, “for added luxury as the cocooning nature of a bed treatment of this kind with the added fabric they bring to a space makes you feel incredibly comforted and comfortable.” The rest of your furniture in your bedroom should be there to enhance the space and make it useful, but not overcrowd it. As interior designer Kerri Lipsitz confirms, “I feel it is very important that one needs to leave room to breathe in a space, it is often as much about what you do not do as what you do.  This is what I believe to be the key to creating an aesthetic of discreet luxury.” Habitat Chiltern Spindle Double Wooden Bed Frame Simba Hybrid Pro Double Mattress Of course, the sheets are key. Opt for the highest thread count you can afford to get that crisp hotel feeling. If that’s not quite your style, linen bedding also has a luxury appeal to it and is soft and cool to sleep in. The look of your bedding is a personal choice but it’s hard to deny that plain, muted colours or fresh white sheets always look the smartest. Leave the patterns for the kids’ rooms and invest in good quality, simple sets of bedding. Annabelle Scalloped Bed Linen, asparagus White Violet 100% Linen Bed Linen Sateen Organic Cotton Duvet Set Organisation “It is essential that storage is perfectly organised in a bedroom so you can feel tranquil in this space at all times,” advise Mary and Nicole, continuing “we often opt for larger bedside chests of drawers for this reason and the symmetry of matching pieces either side of the bed also aids the feeling of calm to the eye.” Most people – or at least many – are likely to have the ‘clothes chair’ in their bedroom; the chair that you put in there with all the good intention of using to read or relax but has actually become an unceremonious dumping ground for clothes that we can’t quite be bothered to put away. You can’t feel like you’re sleeping in a swanky bedroom when you’re faced with that pile so getting organised is a key step. A big part of that may be a change in mindset to take the couple of minutes it requires at the end of a long day to fold your clothes neatly into the chest or drawers or hang them back in the wardrobe. Those two minutes will make a difference to your mood when you wake up the following morning faced with a beautiful, empty chair in which to plonk yourself with a cup of tea, rather than yesterday’s knickers stuffed down the leg of your jeans. In the same vein, consider kicking your laundry basket out onto the landing or hallway so you’re not confronted with the thought of it each day and thus your bedroom becomes utilitarian. Cables too should be tidied away – it’s basically about clearing the clutter from your bedroom so your mind can be at rest, as well as your body. The sexy solution? Have a tabletop charger built into your bedside table (should you be someone who charges their phone next to them overnight) so you simply place your phone down and it charges without the need for cables. Scent It may seem frivolous but if the idea of luxury in a bedroom is to make it feel like a distinct space from the rest of the house, then giving it a signature scent can do wonders. There are many ways to scent a room – candles are always a winner, especially for the soft glimmer of light they’ll bring to the room. However, you can’t burn a candle all day long. Consider instead a diffuser or, our top recommendation would be a scented wax tablet from Santa Maria Novella, coupled with their scent-soaked terracotta pomegranate. Santa Maria Novella Tabacco Toscano Wax Tablets Santa Maria Novella Melograno Terracotta Diffuser Colour There is no colour that dictates luxury and it’s