How To Decorate a Tiny Bedroom
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I may make a small profit at no expense to you. For further information, please view my policies.
Decorating a small space can be a challenge, and decorating a small bedroom can sometimes feel even more challenging! Not only do you need to make it functional, you also want to make it look nice—after all, the bedroom is the first thing you see every morning and the last thing you see at night!
But guess what… I happen to have some tips for making your small bedroom feel a lot more spacious and organized!
1. Avoid Using Bulky Bedding
There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to decorating a small bedroom: first, don’t make the bed too bulky. If you’ve got a small space and you’re trying to make it feel bigger, you might want to skip the huuuuuge puffy down comforter and multiple fluffy pillows. This look does look and feel cozy, but it can make the room feel cramped. So make sure to balance the size of your bedding to the scale of your room.
2. Use a smaller dresser
As much as we love those biiiiig, wide dressers with ample amounts of storage for all our things, sadly, they’re not always the best choice for small bedrooms. If you can’t leave enough space to flow around such a large piece of furniture, you will risk it taking over the rest of your small bedroom.
So instead, try using smaller, narrower dressers with fewer drawers—or even a few strategically placed shelves! This option will help maximize space in your room without cramping your style (or more crucially, the flow of your room!).
3. Short headboards are best
Headboards are cute, but really tall ones don’t do great things for small bedrooms. To create the illusion of more space, choose a bed that leaves some breathing space above the headboard! Or better yet, maybe consider losing the headboard altogether, like in the image of the tiny bedroom above.
4. Use Multi-Purpose Furniture
You’ll want to make sure you’re utilizing your room’s furniture to the best of its ability—and that means choosing multi-purpose pieces. If you can’t fit a dresser, consider a bed frame with built-in storage. This is one of the best ways to maximize space! If your bed takes up a significant part of the space in your room, this is a really good compromise.
But under the bed storage isn’t the only kind of bed with built-in storage. There are also beds that have cubbies, drawers, and shelves built into their headboards as well!
If you’re younger, or you’re decorating a younger person’s room, then a loft bed is another good option for a small bedroom. A loft bed is great because it uses the empty vertical space in a room, and it adds a nice addition to the bedroom that looks good, too! The space below the loft bed is super cozy and versatile – it can be turned into anything from a desk and study area, to a chillout area with a small loveseat and a TV, or maybe even a cute little nook to play video games. I had a friend who built their own loft bed out of scaffolding, and you can too – check out this link for how to DIY a loft bed.
5. Keep the Floor Space As Clear As possible
When it comes to making a small space feel bigger and more open, there’s no substitute for keeping floor space clear. So try to find ways to hang as many of your things as possible:
- Use floating night tables or shelves instead of nightstands
- Hang your TV—if you have the wall space, this is a great way to eliminate the need for a TV stand or cabinet.
- Hang your mirror—if you’re tight on space, hanging your mirror instead of putting it on top of a dresser can really help open up the area.
- Use hooks—these are great for hanging things like backpacks and coats so they’re not cluttering up your floor.
The second rule of thumb is to use vertical space. If you have room in your closet, consider hanging a closet organizer so that you have more room on the floor to put things like shoes or books. But if you can’t get rid of the things on your floor (like your bed), consider shelves that are tall enough that they don’t take up valuable floor space.
6. Think About lighting
I’m a sucker for lighting in any room of the house, but when it comes to small spaces, making the most of your light sources really can make the world of difference.
Floor lamps can take up valuable floor space, so hanging your lights is preferable in small spaces. Pendant lights are a great way to maximize a small space by keeping them off the floor and up high, where they take up vertical instead of horizontal room.
Wall sconces are also great for small spaces— if calling in the electrician is a no-go, then opt for plug-in versions rather than hardwired, as they’re easier to place wherever they’re needed, especially in rentals.
7. Add under the bed storage
If you don’t have built-in storage in your closet, then you could invest in large plastic or cloth under the bed box containers. These are essential for people who have little space in their bedroom and need to store things like winter clothes or extra linens and such throughout the year.
Make sure you measure your under bed clearance before you buy your bins. Additionally, if you vacuum pack your clothes you can fit a TON of stuff in them.
Here are some great options available on Amazon to get you started with organizing under your bed straight away:
Or you could use other methods such as under the bed roller drawers; you could even try building them yourself! There are a lot of tutorials out there, I recommend checking out this one. Or the image a few paragraphs up by Grillo Designs also links to another great DIY.
8. Skip the gallery wall
When you have limited space in your bedroom, it can be hard to know how to add decorative touches that don’t make a room feel overcrowded.
As much as I love gallery walls, I feel that a gallery wall can sometimes create a lot of visual busy-ness. So one of my favorite tricks is using one large piece of wall art instead. This helps to creates a focal point in a small bedroom but doesn’t create a lot of visual noise. And it still elevates and decorates the space.
Click here for more ideas on how to decorate your walls!
9. Adding Mirrors
Mirrors create depth, which is particularly good for small spaces. They also reflect light, which brightens up your room and makes it feel bigger. Here are some valuable tips regarding using mirrors in your small bedroom.
→ One really important trick to remember is to try and place your mirror in a position that reflects the light and the view from outside back into the room! Not only will it create more light in the room, but it will act like another window, and create an extra view to the outside!!
- One of my other favorite ways to use mirrors is to group them together on one wall. This adds a sense of visual interest and fills in empty space without adding bulk or interfering with the flow of the room.
- Don’t be afraid to get creative with your mirror placement! You can use them in unexpected places—above nightstands or dressers, behind a door, or even in the closet.
- If you want to go for maximum effect, consider getting a full-length mirror. You can lean it against a wall, or hang it up to keep your bedroom floor clear. Remember that the mirror doesn’t have to be super expensive—even cheap ones work well if they’re large enough and framed correctly.
Some favorites floor mirrors:
10. Remove your closet doors
I would only recommend removing your closet doors if you don’t actually need to use your closet for storage! (Probably not likely if you’re living in a really small space, but you never know! Everyone has different living situations, so I like to cover a lot of options and suggestions for you.)
By removing the doors to your closet, you can instantly open up your room. Once you remove those pesky doors, you can think outside the box with new ways to use that previously unused space. Some ideas include turning it into a “cloffice” (meaning a closet+office – a lockdown and work from home favorite!), installing some fun wallpaper to the inside back wall of the closet, creating a little reading nook with a bench and a lamp, installing a bench.
Some people even carve out extra sleeping space by hanging bunk beds in spare closets! Have fun with it and personalize it to your own needs!
11. Add a Striped Rug
Why stripes? Because stripes help change the way you perceive the size of a room. Placing stripes on your floor via a rug can help draw the eye across the room for longer, making it appear larger than it is. Make sure the direction of the stripes points in the direction you want to make appear larger.
I hope my tips above will help you to decorate your small bedroom for less. The key is to carefully plan the space so that it’s used efficiently, only keep what is really essential, and to make sure you have a place for everything. Getting creative with your storage can help you save a lot of room. Even the smallest bedrooms can look their best with just a little planning and styling!
For more tips on how to decorate small spaces, check this post out!
Very nice post. Good job