Your bedroom should be a sanctuary that you can retreat to after a long day. It should be a well designed and decorated space that reflects you and ultimately, helps you relax, unwind and has a calming effect on your mood.
Whether you're redecorating with calm neutral colours, introducing luxury throws and blankets to make your space feel more inviting or upgrading your bedding to give it that hotel feel, transforming your bedroom into a relaxing hideaway is the perfect way to help you combat stress.
May is National Mental Health Month, making it a great time to focus on you. With that in mind, the team at DUSK have come together to help you create the ultimate zen bedroom designed to reduce stress.
Layer Your Bed With Comfort
Your bed is a safe haven away from the rest of the world; the place that you want to feel most relaxed. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is by layering your bed to create cloud-like support, as this will not only help you unwind but it could also help you achieve a better night's sleep.
We recommend starting with a mattress topper. These are perfect for giving your mattress extra support and can make your bed feel more comfortable. Next, an all seasons duvet will help to keep you cosy and warm through the cold winter months, but can easily be separated so that you don't get too warm in the summer. Finally, finish off with high-quality pillows to really form that dream-worthy bed. The result: a bed that you'll look forward to climbing into at the end of each day.
Choose A Pretty Duvet Cover
When you've got a plush and luxurious duvet, make your bed look even more beautiful with a pretty duvet cover. Choose from beautiful crisp white bedding to really create a fresh look, or introduce a little colour with a pale pink or glamorous grey.
Our top tip: Open the window and pull back your duvet while you're busy getting ready or having breakfast, then make your bed as usual. This simple step will help to keep your bedding feeling fresher for longer and allow some fresh air to circulate around your bedroom. Fresh air has also been shown to make you feel energised, so this step can help you enjoy a brighter start to your day.
Enjoy Luxurious & Relaxing Scents
Escape into a state of tranquility by using beautiful home fragrances around your home. We know that scents such as lavender can help you relax and geranium can help to release stress. There is also no warmer, more relaxing feeling than lighting a luxurious candle after a long day and letting the scent take over your home and your senses.
For a constant long-lasting scent around your bedroom, opt for a reed diffuser. To embrace serenity, we recommend a classic lavender scent to help ease your mind, so you can drift off into a peaceful slumber.
Opt For Uninterrupted Sleep With Blackout Curtains
Sleep is one of the most important factors when it comes to reducing stress and achieving a healthy mindset. With summer on the way and the days getting longer, you can often have interrupted sleep when the sun begins to beam through the window at 5am, hours before your alarm is due to go off.
With this in mind, blackout curtains and blinds can be an answer to all of your problems. No more waking up at the sunrise (unless you want to of course), and instead, you can enjoy a full night of uninterrupted sleep. Simply shut your blinds, get cosy beneath your duvet and drift off into a peaceful slumber.
Bury Your Worries Beneath Comfy Pillows
Complete comfort is an important part of achieving the most premium night's sleep which in turn, can help to minimise stress, making you feel more energetic and ready for the day. If your sleep is suffering, now could be the perfect time to replace your pillows to help you to achieve a good night's sleep, as a rule of thumb, we recommend changing your pillows every 1 to 2 years.
It's also important to choose the right fill and firmness for you. This will help to avoid any aches and pains that can be caused by sleeping on a pillow unsuitable, either for your body or the way you sleep. For some top tips when choosing a pillow, take a look at our blog.
Pick a Soothing & Calming Colour Scheme
Colour can have a huge impact on your mood, evoking different emotions and feelings. Warm colours such as yellow, red and orange often create feelings of happiness, however they can also be somewhat overstimulating within a relaxing bedroom. Cooler colours such as blue and green are known to be more calming and can often have a soothing effect, similarly to neutrals such as white, grey and stone.
Although a white bedroom may sound serene, it can easily feel slightly clinical. To prevent this, we recommend incorporating a mixture of calming colours to help you design your ideal tranquil bedroom. Try adding depth and texture with natural blankets, throws and cushions to create a welcoming and warm atmosphere in seconds.
Introduce Some Greenery & Life
Turn your house into a home by incorporating indoor plants. Scientific studies have shed light and explained that plants can help improve mental wellbeing as well as physical health, reducing your overall stress levels and improving your mood on a day-to-day basis.
Houseplants can easily thrive in your bedroom as well as purify the toxins in the air, creating a fresh bedroom that's perfect for a sound sleep. Plants such as a Peace Lily and Parlor Palm are easy to look after and can thrive in both high and low-light atmospheres. If you're concerned about cleaning up after leaves dropping, a Snake plant is perfect for purifying the air and takes little looking after.
Declutter & Embrace The Minimalistic Look
You'll have heard the phrase, tidy space is a tidy mind‚ and it's true. Bedroom clutter really can create chaos in your mind, which is the last thing you need in a space that's meant to be serene and relaxing. Is your wardrobe spilling onto the floor each time you open it? Do you have piles of clutter on your bedside table? This can contribute to you feeling more stressed and anxious.
Re-organise your wardrobe, donating anything you haven't worn for a long time can make it easier to get ready and help to make your mornings less stressful. Find new bedroom storage options to keep everything neat, such as drawer dividers or under-bed storage boxes, to help create that extra space you need.
Fill Your Room With Natural Light
Since mental wellbeing and sleep can often go hand in hand, it's not surprising to know that natural light can affect both. Filling your bedroom with natural light will also help to fill your bedroom with positive energy, keeping those mood changes at bay, need we say more?
Introducing more natural light into your bedroom can be as simple as choosing crisp white bedding, hanging mirrors to bounce light around the room and picking pale hues to decorate your bedroom. For more tips to fill your bedroom with natural light, take a look at our blog.
Always Have A Blanket Close To Hand
There's nothing more relaxing and comforting than grabbing a cosy soft blanket to snuggle beneath as you read your favourite book or listen to music. To enjoy being cosy and keep things organised, opt for a blanket basket in your bedroom. This is not only a great way to store numerous blankets but it can also become a beautiful decorative piece that you can simply reach into when you want to wrap up.
Choose from our range of beautiful colours, styles and designs to match with the theme of your bedroom. From rich navy to pretty pink and calming natural colours, you'll love the cosy warm feel of our throws and bedspreads.
How will you be changing up your bedroom? We'd love to hear how you create a calming and relaxing space! Let us know on Facebook or Instagram. And for more top tips, check out our advice on the DUSK blog.