The average person spends 33% of their lives sleeping, but very few people put a lot of effort into decorating their master bedroom. When redecorating a house, people tend to focus their time (and money) on the kitchen and living room areas and forget about the rooms behind closed doors. This often leaves many master bedrooms looking plain and unfinished.

Upgrade your bedroom to a more finished look with some of these versatile furniture ideas:

Invest in a bed frame or headboard: Putting your mattress up onto a bed frame or placing a headboard behind your mattress will completely change the look of your bedroom. In regards to a bed frame, the Bell’O Metal Bed Frame by Serta is a great sturdy yet stylish option.  It will fit a Queen Size mattress and box spring and the dark bronze finish will easily fit into any décor. If your bedroom is short on space, you may want to think about a space-saving headboard like the Sonax Willow Queen Headboard. This headboard can doubles as a bookshelf and a bedside table. You can store your books, alarm clock and whatever else you want to save space.

Think about your lighting: You can’t control how much natural light your bedroom has, but you can control how you use it to your advantage. In a room with lots of natural light, you have a lot more flexibility in the shades of furniture you can use. I personally love the mocha nightstand, dresser and chest of drawers from the South Shore Vito Collection. If you have a master bedroom with less light, try light colored furniture like the Summer Breeze Collection from South Shore. This will allow you to have the drawer and storage space that you need without bringing more darkness into your bedroom. Lastly, if you do have a darker bedroom, you can also use lights to brighten the space. Something like the Zuo Solaris Table Lamp is stylish but will also be bright enough to be perfect for reading.

Spoil yourself where it counts: As I said, the average person spends a third of their life in bed. Make it somewhere you want to be by spoiling yourself with a high quality set of sheets and mattress. People say that you haven’t truly slept unless you’ve slept on a memory foam mattress. The Monarch 12” Queen Euro Top Memory Foam Mattress is guaranteed to leave you rested and refreshed every morning and is also equipped with a surface cooling effect to regulate you body temperature throughout the night. Cover this high quality mattress with Moholi Damask Stripe Queen Egyptian Cotton Sheet Set and cover your duvet with the Highland Feather Hudson Valley Queen 3-Piece Duvet Set.  

Maximize your space: It is not uncommon to have a small master bedroom. Think about using creative ideas to maximize the space you have. Instead of bedside lamps, think about investing in a hanging lamp like the Zuo Asteroids Modern Ceiling Lamp or the Laurel Designs Accurian 5-Light Chandelier. In addition, skip the bedside tables and instead double your dresser as a bedside table. The South Shore Step One Collection Dresser is a low height dresser (2 ½ feet high) and could easily double as a bedside table. I also love that it has three drawers rather than two deeper drawers. Lastly, use the height of your bedroom as well as your floor space. Invest in a bookshelf like the South Shore Axess 5-shelf bookshelf. At almost 6 feet, it gives you tons of space for books and other personal items. In addition, as drawer space is the first to go, you can easily put some baskets in the bottom shelves to store extra clothes or shoes.

Avoid unnecessary clutter: There is nothing wrong with having a spacious, open bedroom design. Cozy does not automatically mean cluttered.  Many people have ideas of what their master bedroom should look like, rather than finding an individualized design scheme that works for you. Do you have a cozy armchair in your room? Do you curl up there every night to read…or is it covered in clothes? Think about your current bedroom, and think about what do you actually use.

Fully commit: If you have just spent some of your hard money on a delicate bed frame and light bedding, don’t pair this with the dark, chunky chest of drawers you’ve had since college just because you already have it.  Instead, fully commit to the design look you’re going for.  Move furniture that doesn’t work with your design idea to your guest bedroom or better yet, get rid of it! Post it online, sell it, and use that money towards investing in some high quality bedroom furniture that you’ll be happy with!

This is your bedroom so make it your own space by adding your personal photos and other mementos. And most of all, have fun with it!

Lucy Woodhead
My focus is to discuss tech products that are trendy and in demand amongst the younger generation. Over the years I have reviewed, compared and wrote about a wide variety of products, including headphones, speakers, sound docks, iPods and mp3 players. With Best Buy’s launch of VIVA and Home & Lifestyle, I have had the opportunity to expand my focus to include a younger person’s perspective on many of these great products as well!