Turn Your Bedroom into Your Relaxation Zone

Your bedroom may be the most important room in your home. You wake up to it every morning and spend one-third of your day sleeping there. If you fail to relax after a long hard day, you will likely spend your night tossing and turning. But what if your bedroom could become your private sanctuary, where you could forget your troubles and relax? Whether you are married and sharing your room with your spouse, or single and not sharing it at all, there are things you can do to turn your bedroom into your favorite room in the house.

Choose a Theme:

Think of a photograph or a place that makes you feel relaxed, then keep that image in your mind as you start planning your new room. It can be a snowy mountaintop flecked with clouds, or a lush green forest with a stream running through the trees. Whatever your inspiration, in the end, your choices will have captured its spirit, so that your bedroom will make you feel as that picture or place always do.

Color Is All-Important:

Plain white walls have no character and will leave you feeling empty and indifferent. Earth tones, on the other hand, make you feel warm, while blues and greens make you feel cool. Home improvement stores (such as Lowe's, Home Depot, or your local paint and decor stores) have free color coordinating postcards in their paint section. Pick up a few and take them home. Once you are in your room, choose the colors that capture the place that inspires you. If you find it hard to decide, some paint companies sell small pouches of paint, to enable you to paint a small section of the wall. However, the more affordable paints offer no such solution, and so it is best to simply lie on your bed, hold the color swatches up, and use your imagination. There are no right or wrong answers, and it's always possible to repaint a wall that does not meet your expectations.

Wall Design and Texture:

You can paint your walls all the same color, or you can pick an accent wall and give it a different color from the rest. If you prefer to color in patterns, you can use three different colors at the same time and pat them onto the wall with a sea sponge, a plastic bag or even a crumpled aluminum foil. Each of these will create a different pattern when it blends the three colors together. For a striped effect, paint the wall once and let it dry, then paint it again with a different color and use a wide comb to form a pattern of streaks that reveal the base color. Have fun with the patterns you draw.

Don't Forget the Ceiling:

In a bedroom, especially, the ceiling gets stared at a lot. If you have a tray ceiling, paint the layers in different colors, to add elegance and accentuate the architectural beauty. If you have a flat ceiling, and especially a low one, painting a faux tray ceiling will create the illusion that the ceiling is higher, and the room more spacious. Just draw three large rectangles on your ceiling, one inside the other. (If the ceiling is not a rectangle then adapt your shape to the shape of the ceiling.) After this, paint in the three areas created by the rectangles using three different colors, so as to create a two-dimensional illusion. Make sure to use the lightest color on the central triangle, as this will give the added illusion that the ceiling is higher than it is.

Hang a Candelabra over Your Bed:

Candles hanging over your bed not only add a touch of décor but romance, too. To attach the candelabra to your ceiling use a simple plant hook, which can be found in the indoor garden section of your local home improvement store (such as Home Depot and Lowe's). The butterfly screw that comes with the hook will allow you to hang the candelabra anywhere, and if you buy a lamp chain as well, you will have the added flexibility of hanging the candelabra lower down.

Make sure to use votives and not the more beautiful colored, scented candles, as the smell can be overwhelming when you light several candles at once. Votives are also much cheaper, and they last longer. The only drawback is that votives will leave a small film of soot on the glass, but this can be wiped easily and doesn't have to be done often. A good way to put out the candles with a minimum of smoke (and without burning your fingers) is to wet a Q-tip and use it as an extinguisher.

Add an Electric Fireplace:

An electric fireplace can add elegance and romance to your bedroom. The make-believe orange flames will fill the room with a warm flickering light that can be enjoyed winter or summer, as the heater can be turned off even while the flames stay on. In addition, the mantelpiece can be used to display a mirror, which will reflect the ambient light even more. Since most electric fireplaces have a remote control, you will not even need to get out of bed to turn the fire on and off. And if you spread a hearth rug on the floor and add two armchairs, you will have a cozy sitting area in which to relax with a good book after a long, hard day.

Scented Candles, Aromatic Oils, and Incense :

The sense of smell is said to be the most evocative of our senses, able to recall long-forgotten memories. For this reason, a scent that we liked at one time may become hateful to us by association. When choosing a scent for your room, it is best to start with a blank slate, to choose something that you have never bought before. Let that unique fragrance become the fragrance of your room. Overtime, even a small whiff will begin to rekindle your memory of your room in your mind and help you relax. This can be especially helpful if you are away from home, on business or even vacation, and wish to recapture the feeling of home easily. Keep in mind that a scent will change when it is mixed with other fragrances, so use only one kind of candle at a time, or one type of oil or incense. Keep it at a distance from your bed, so it won't be too intense, and in a safe place where there is no danger of any one knocking into it or causing any damage.

Pillows & Silky Sheets

Invest in one excellent set of sheets, at least 1000 thread count. Though silk feels smooth and luxurious against your skin, remember that you can sweat more in silk than in cotton. High quality cotton, such as Egyptian Cotton Sateen can feel like silk while offering the advantages of cotton. You may match your sheets to your room's colors, or go with old-fashioned white sheets which will feel clean and fresh as you slip between them. Make your bed cover a part of the color scheme of the room, and whatever decorative pillows you choose, remember that pillows usually end up on the floor and in the way.

Nature Sounds & Music

Soothing nature sounds or soft music can transport your thoughts to other places. The patter of rain or the rumble of thunder can make you forget that it is sunny outside. In fact, experiments have shown that sounds can affect our brainwaves. The use of calming sounds, especially ones that you associate with the place that inspired your design, will help complete your perfect getaway. And best of all, nature sound CDs and radio-clocks are inexpensive and can easily be found on the Internet.

More ideas for making the perfect room will surely come to you as you start the work. Everything you add will enhance the sensory experience, and if you get it right, your bedroom will become a place for more than dreaming, a haven for thinking, reading, and replenishing your soul.