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A sprawling primary bedroom with room for a chaise, a fireplace, and storage to spare sounds wonderful — but space like that isn’t a given. The good news is that a small primary bedroom can look every bit as polished and work just as hard, as long as you decorate it with intention. The best things come in small packages, right? We dug through our favorite designers’ projects to pull together 9 small-bedroom ideas worth borrowing.
1 Choose Warm Walls
Small bedrooms short on natural light tend to feel cozier with warm walls, like this NYC room by interior designer Tali Roth. Those tones help you unwind and can even nudge the space to read a little larger. For something moodier and more polished, lean into dim lighting and paint the walls a deep, warm shade.
2 Purchase Greenery
Even with a neutral, monochrome palette, a little greenery goes a long way — it brings the outdoors in and adds a bit of visual interest. Where you plan to keep your plants should guide what you choose, since some need direct sun and others would rather avoid it. Stick with low-maintenance varieties and set them in neutral or decorative pots for extra charm.
3 Add Built-In Bookcases
Small bedrooms rarely have enough storage to go around. If you can swing it, put your wall space to work with built-in bookcases that mix open and closed shelving. It earns its keep on both function and looks.
4 Try All-White Tones
Color can do a lot for a room, but it can also make a small one feel closed in and busy. An all-white palette is a reliable way to make a small primary bedroom feel wider, especially when the space already gets good light. Layer in tonal soft furnishings to play up that airy, open feel.
5 Embrace Contrasting Colors
A monochrome palette can work wonders in a small space, but high contrast can look even sharper. Try a dark taupe on the walls against high-gloss white floors. Then push the contrast further by painting the door black.
6 Purchase a Small Accent Chair
Even when there’s not much room for extra furniture, a simple chair or luggage rack pulls real weight. It gives you somewhere to drop your bag at the end of the day or stack a few magazines. And with so many styles out there, finding one that suits the rest of the room is easy.
LEARN MORE: 15 Master Modern Luxury Bedroom Design Ideas
7 Go for an Extended Headboard
The right headboard can transform a room, stretching the bed wall-to-wall so the whole setup looks deliberate. There’s no shortage of options either, from polished wood to the linen headboard shown here.
8 Use Mood Lighting
Your bedroom should be the one place where the rest of the world quiets down. The trick to that moody, cozy feeling is keeping your lighting soft and layered. Paper shades pull it off beautifully.
9 Incorporate an Oversized Sconce
Limited square footage doesn’t mean you have to think small. It sounds backwards, but an oversized sconce mounted above the bed creates a bit of trompe l’oeil that makes the room feel larger. For the most flexibility, pick one that swivels.