Written by Beryn Hammil

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

 

Question: Sadly, I am an aging hippie and my bedroom shows it. Worse, it is messy but I don't know where to put stuff. Now I would like to have a beautiful, calm, neat, attractive bedroom. I am not the frilly type. It would be for one little old lady, a bookworm.

Elisabeth Rutter, Oakland

Answer: Your dilemma is shared by thousands, if not millions, of people: how to make a bedroom attractive while simultaneously creating adequate and appropriate storage space.

As adults we no longer have someone, usually our mother, standing in the doorway, arms folded across her chest, saying, "Put your things away," "Pick up this room," whatever. Adults have no more excuses, so pick up your things!

Then take everything that's not nailed down, put it in a box and take it out of the room. Start with an empty canvas. Now look at the room objectively and ask yourself if there's stuff in here that you don't need. If so, take it out. Give it to a niece, a cousin, a friend, or donate it to charity. Just get rid of it!

Doesn't it look better already? If it doesn't you need to get rid of more stuff. Get down to the bare bones of the room. Make it look like it did the day you moved in, the way it looked before it got cluttered and messy.

Now you're ready to address the other dilemma: creating a lovely room for yourself. By starting with a clean, clear space you can be more objective and see what you really want the room to look like. Rearrange the furniture if it helps. Think about what you really need in the room to function and live comfortably. Think about storage space for your clothes, books, and all that other stuff that seems to accumulate. If it doesn't all fit in the closet, dresser, and bookcase, and you've given away all that you can stand to part with, think about how to store what you want to keep.

Check your local phone directory or the Internet for stores that specialize in home storage systems, units and individual pieces, all of which can be arranged attractively and with your style and budget in mind. Prices start at just a few dollars for beautiful wicker boxes that can hold whatever you need to store to much more for complete, custom-made storage systems.

If you're creative and want to wallpaper your room, get a few simple cardboard boxes and cover them with the same paper to make a unique storage display that can stack in a corner of the room. Or paint the room a color you like and paint a few boxes in matching or complementary colors to make your own design statement.

Attractive bedding and linen sets are a must to make a bedroom your own personal retreat. They can be purchased, inexpensively if necessary, but whatever their price, they always add a personal touch.

Use a length of coordinating fabric or buy an extra king-size sheet to make window treatments. Get a pair of swag hooks from a fabric store or drive a long carpenter's nail into each corner of the window frame and drape the fabric over each one. Be generous with the fabric for a dramatic effect. Tie the middle of each hanging length with a piece of ribbon for an extra creative touch.

You've stored all your stuff and decorated your bedroom and now it looks just like you've always wanted it to look. Don't you feel better now that you have a clean, well-organized, attractive place of your own?

Whatever approach you take to handling your storage challenge, remember these simple guidelines: keep stuff you must store to a minimum; if you need regular access to these items, make the storage work with the decor of the room; and if you haven't used it, worn it or really need it, give it away or put it into "dead" storage where it isn't part of your everyday living space.

This combination of solutions should give you a good start to solving this common design dilemma and help you create the calm, neat and attractive space you call your bedroom.

 

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