Design Question
My daughter wants to redecorate her room. My dilemma is that the bedroom is small. The dimensions are 11′ high ceilings, in a 13′ x 11′ room. One wall has sliding glass doors that lead out to the pool (we live in FL) which she rarely uses. Another wall has the room entrance and a large four panel louvered door closet, which basically leaves two walls with a corner in between to place her bed, dressers, desk etc. We have used in the past probably every possible configuration we can think of, so I was looking for some help or new ideas.
The furniture pieces involved currently are a dresser with a mirror, a lingerie dresser, an oversized night table, a corner desk, and a wrought iron full size bed. All the furniture is white. The walls currently are chocolate brown. Can we place the bed in front of the sliders? Or is that a just not done? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Design Answer
Arranging furniture in a small bedroom can be tricky, but not impossible if you follow a few general guidelines.
- When redecorating a bedroom, the first thing to do is to decide what the focal point of the room will be. Typically in a bedroom, it is the bed. For a cohesive bedroom interior design, the other furnishings should be arranged around the focal point. Once you have chosen the room’s focal point, you can then decide how to arrange the furniture.
- Start with the largest bedroom furniture piece in the room, which in this case from the great detailed description you gave will be your daughter’s bed. Choose the wall that will best accommodate the bed.
- Make sure that your daughter will be able to move around each piece of furniture easily without bumping into something else. Ensure that doors and drawers can be opened and closed without impeding the room’s traffic flow.
There are no rules about using the sliders as a “wall” for the bed. As long as it is not one of the house’s escape exits in the event of an emergency, there’s no reason that the bed cannot be placed in from of the sliding doors.
If your daughter doesn’t use the sliding doors, another option is to put the corner desk in the corner formed by the glass doors and the wall, and then place the bed on an angle in the corner that was occupied by the desk. Sometimes placing the bed on an angle in a small space opens up the room by altering the focal point. See if this little trick will work in your daughter’s bedroom.
Hope this is helpful in giving you a workable solution. Thanks for writing in. Come back next Monday when we tackle another interior design question. Keep sending me those emails and don’t forget to include pictures if you can.
