Beautifying your bedroom is easier than you think

By Leah A. Zeldes, Tribune Content Agency

For a beautiful bedroom, start with the bed, say home designers for Baer's, a collection of fine furniture stores with 15 locations throughout Florida.

"The bed is always the focial point," says Wendy Rossi, who has been designing for the stores for 15 years. "The bed and the bedding," agrees Baer's design consultant Connie Sherrard.

Changing just the bed can give your room a whole new look. Upholstered headboards can complement wood of existing furnishings while adding color and imparting a softer look and feel. That's an ideal solution if you're sizing up to a larger bed and don't want to invest in a complete new bedroom set.

Padded headboards are more comfortable for leaning against when you're working, reading or watching TV in bed.

"People are in bed with their laptops now," Rossie says.

Going glamorous

For a more glamorous look, you can try a four-poster bed. "That makes a statement,"says Sherrard.

The headboard and footboard and rails make the bed, she says, even more than bedcovers and frills.

"In Florida, we don't put on a lot of dust ruffles," she added, so the lines of the bed itself are important.

For added color and beauty, however, Sherrard advises heaping the bed with pillows. "Women love them because they dress up the bed," she says.

Today's big beds take some dressing up

"Everybody wants a king-sized bed in the room," Sherrard says. "It doesn't matter if it's for personal use or for rental. If you don't advertise a king-sized bed, they say it won't rent.”

"The owners will sacrifice a night table in order to get a king-sized bed in there," she noted.

To create more space in the bedroom, chests of drawers are being moved into closets or hallways.

Reducing clutter is important. In turn, the designers suggest using furnishings that act as storage including night tables with drawers and benches with interior storage.

Rossi says she tells clients to have professionals redesign their closets for added space in the room.

The advent of big-screen TVs has also made a change in bedroom furnishings. "Years ago," says Rossi, "about 20 percent of my clients had a TV in the bedroom. Now it's maybe 90 percent."

Now, mirrors are moved to make space for the TV over the dresser. Modern dressers have drop-down drawer fronts to accommodate cable boxes and DVD players, reducing clutter.

"That keeps the top of the dresser clear," Sherrard says.

Flat-screen TVs take up less space and offer new room design options.

"Bedrooms have become like a suite in a hotel," she says, noting separate seating for watching TV or working has become common. The bedroom has turned into more than just a place to sleep.

Get personal

To keep the room from looking like an impersonal hotel room, add personal touches with colorful, cozy rugs, bright wall coverings, pictures, ornaments and lighting.

A new window treatment will also upgrade your bedroom's look. Put the mirror displaced from over the dresser opposite the window to help daylight brighten the room, suggests Rossi.

Brightly colored paint or wallpaper on just one wall, perhaps behind the bed, adds individuality as well.

Pretty lamps and light fixtures can add glamour, according to Rossi, who says many Florida home owners are now replacing ubiquitous ceiling fans over the bed with chandeliers.

"Lighting helps soften the room," Sherrard says, adding that three-way lamps and dimmable fixtures provide the option of bright light to read or less light to create a touch of romance.