Decorating Bedroom To A Theme Can Be Fun

Bedrooms can be the last part of the house we plan to decorate.

Sometimes they are forgotten altogether because of satisfaction with the way the rest of the house looks. After all, we decide, no one is going to see the bedroom anyway.

Our bedrooms are meant to be quiet and peaceful for sleeping, but they also need to revitalize and inspire us for each new day. They shouldn’t be so calm they bore us to death.

Remember the excitement of planning baby’s new room with a theme of Mickey Mouse or clowns or nursery rhymes? And the thrill of finding something that would look just perfect in that room?

We can still have the fun of planning a themed bedroom.

After giving attention to the mattress, lighting and storage, we can enjoy decorating our bedroom with ideas we may think look too silly for any other room in the house.

It usually begins with a favorite picture, as in this bedroom done recently: Above the bed, we used an already-owned picture of a big plump rabbit smiling at us from its hutch. This picture inspired our “Happy Springtime” motif.

Three birch branches imbedded in a path-type cobblestones were placed in one corner with a large ceramic rabbit.

The owner displayed a small collection of decorated china eggs on the nightstand below a wicker lamp, and to provide a morning greeting, a pot of tall tulips and a pretty garden trowel adorned the dresser facing the bed.

A connecting bath presented two finishing touches: a nest-shaped soap dish holding fragrant robin’s-egg soaps, and, on a hat rack by the mirror, a spring bonnet tied with a crinkly flowered bow.

We had fun, but the most enjoyable thing about themed bedrooms is the ability to quickly design the motif without the need to change color schemes or furniture.

Q. I want to buy a new sofa and chair but have seen a sofa/loveseat combination I like. What do most people choose? I may not have room enough for these two pieces plus a chair.

I also need to know if the sofa should be plain and the chair patterned, or vice versa. I have never given this a thought over the years, and now I feel like these are silly questions.

A. Don’t feel alone. These are my most-asked questions. Here is what I have found:

The sofa/love seat combination came into being as a result of the popular L-shaped sectional. It soon became apparent no one was able to sit in the corner seat, so it might just as well be replaced with a logical table and lamp. What was left then, was a long side (which became the 7-foot sofa) and a short side (which became the 5-foot loveseat). This added even more logic, because now the short piece could be used on either side.

Manufacturers began to promote the sofa/loveseat grouping, but it is not necessarily the best choice for all homes.

Here is a better idea: Two matching sofas or loveseats can be placed facing each other since they are the same dimension (or can still be used in an L-shaped arrangement).

The best idea, however: The most versatile group of all, is a sofa and two chairs of the same fabric. You can have the chairs on each side of the sofa in a symmetrical arrangement, two chairs facing the sofa with a table between, or two chairs side-by-side (no table between) used as a loveseat. I hope you have the room for this best choice.

It would not matter whether the sofa is flowered and the chairs plain or vice versa. This is a personal preference, based more on where they will be used in the room and what will be placed around them.

Note: You don’t want all your pattern on one side of the room and all your plain on the other.

MEMO: Send your questions about decorating to Marilyn Jackson, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210, or fax them to 459-5498.