97 small bedroom ideas to make the most of compact spaces
Small bedroom? No problem. These ideas, design and storage ideas from the world’s top interior designers will make all the difference, so don’t let your room’s diminutive size put you off. What small bedrooms lack in space, they can more than make up for in charm and atmosphere.
How to decorate a small bedroom
A small bedroom can be the perfect place to go bold with colour and pattern. Try out a wallpaper with a large pattern, or experiment with a strong paint colour. We’ve seen some spectacular examples of bedrooms where the same pattern is used on the curtains, walls and even the eiderdown; it’s a strong look, but it can be beautiful when done properly. Using one print across all the surfaces can create a sense of infinite space.
If your concern is to make the room feel lighter and brighter, make sure you incorporate some mirrors. When placed opposite or adjacent to a window, they are perfect for bouncing light around, and also create interesting glimpses of the room from unexpected angles. In terms of lighting, this is where wall lights really come into their own. Built into the walls next to the bed, or even into the headboard, they save valuable space on a bedside table.
The bed
As the most important piece of furniture in the room, make sure the bed does as much space-saving work as it can. If you’re buying a divan bed (and investing in a new mattress too), choose one that incorporates storage; this is an excellent place to keep bedding and linens. If you have the budget for bespoke joinery, we love the idea of building a bed into the wall, which works particularly well in a room with a pitched roof. Adding decoration to this joinery is also a great way of incorporating a decorative element and blending the bed seamlessly. Taking the opposite approach, some designers like to completely fill the room with the bed, on the principle that using small furniture in a small room simply makes everything look a bit sad. If you're feeling brave, consider a four poster bed; it’ll certainly make a statement. In a children's bedroom - bunk beds are also an option.
Storage
For a really small bedroom, bulky wardrobes and chests of drawers can be the last thing you want. If you need a reasonable amount of clothes storage, consider an open hanging rail instead of a wardrobe. If it’s a spare room, some simple hooks may suffice for hanging guests’ clothes. Again, if budget allows, building the wardrobes in can make the room feel much more streamlined. If you build them on either side of the bed, you can also construct nooks in the sides to serve as bedside tables, eliminating the need for another piece of freestanding furniture. Make the most of any alcoves, building in shelves or rails to hang clothes. Installing shelves above the bed can be another helpful option for creating storage, and allowing space to add some personality into the room with books and decorative objects.
If your room is blessed with tall ceilings, be sure to make the most of them. This means building upwards, not outwards. Add shelving to the walls for extra storage, and hang plenty of artwork.
Small bedroom ideas from the House & Garden archive
These rooms have been selected from House & Garden’s interiors archive by our editors for their practical use of space, distinctive decoration and compact charm.
Christopher Horwood1/97Box beds are the perfect solution for small spaces. This bed nook in Melissa Hemsley's Victorian townhouse is painted in ‘Garden’ by Little Greene, complementing wallpaper from Tess Newall. The Bedding is from Rebecca Udall and is topped by a pretty quilt from Sarah K designs.
Milo Brown2/97A charming guest bedroom is packed with pattern in this 300-year-old house in the Cotswolds thoughtfully reimagined for modern life by Sue Hetherington of Courtingtons. Braquenié's ‘Bengali’ wallpaper in bone, sourced from Pierre Frey, wraps across the ceiling for a cosy feel. Decors Barbares' ‘Casse Noisette’ in green is used as a fabric lining for the glazed wardrobe and introduces another pattern to the guest room.
Astrid Templier3/97If your current set-up isn’t working, consider a room reconfiguration to allow for more bedrooms. In this Putney flat decorated by Uns Hobbs, a former galley kitchen has become this lovely little bedroom, with just enough space for a double bed from The Original Bed Company. A wall hanging from Etsy, two cushions from Oka and two in GP & J Baker fabric, and a Weaver Green rug have given this small room a relaxed, layered feel that is in keeping with the country-house aesthetic throughout the apartment.
Boz Gagovski4/97In Daniel Slowik and Benedict Foley’s Hackney flat, mirrors hanging on the wardrobe cleverly expand the space, and a curtain has been used to separate the space from the sitting room. This has the advantage of taking up less space, and it can also be left open for a vista through the flat.
Dean Hearne5/97In the spare bedroom of the same house, Rachel pulled down a crumbling ceiling to reveal an extra couple of metres of height and some very old beams. “I just got this immediate sense that we were meant to uncover it – and that the room wanted Tess Newall’s ‘Herbarium’ wallpaper,’ laughs Rachel.
Mark Anthony Fox6/97In her own child’s bedroom at home in the Cotswolds, Emma Grant hung a Regency single-tester bed in yellow 18th-century fabric and lined the walls in Schumacher’s sepia ‘Harbury Trellis’ wallpaper to create a wonderfully atmospheric effect.
Christopher Horwood7/97No matter what size your bedroom is, don’t be afraid to go big and bold with pattern. Designer Sophie Rowell of Côte de Folk enveloped this entire spare bedroom in an east London house in matching red checked fabric and wallpaper by Austrian Anna Willms. Finished with a red bedcover and a plain linen bed canopy, the space feels impactful yet unfussy – a contemporary take on the traditional pattern-filled scheme.
Dean Hearne8/97Just because a bedroom is on the smaller side, it doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty and magical. In a recent project in Chelsea, designer Emma Ainsough transformed one of the children’s bedrooms with the addition of a canopy bed. This is also a wonderful way to bring in additional pattern and colour – here, the pink checked fabric of the canopy is lined with a pretty floral that complements the walls and ceiling have been in Cole & Son’s ‘Sweet Pea’.
Rachel Whiting9/97Speaking of atmospheric or theatrical designs, there could be few finer examples than this bedroom in Lucy Clayton’s Kensington’s home, which was inspired by her childhood doll’s house (she now makes doll’s houses for a living). She worked with Ben Pentreath to create this tented bed effect in rich blues and reds, featuring striped wallpaper, ticking fabric and a traditional Welsh blanket on the bed.
Rachael Smith10/97This is one of the very best small room solutions we have seen over the past year. In her Queen Anne house by the Thames, fashion designer Wiggy Hindmarch has created a sweet cabin-style bedroom in what was once a bathroom on the attic floor, with space for a little separate loo with half-glazed doors as well as a freestanding bath at the other end of the room. Placing the bed against the wall like this, with its own curtain and shelving above, adds to the cosy cabin feel.
Christopher Horwood11/97Box beds or bed nooks are always an excellent solution for small bedrooms, ensuring a space that is both practical and inviting. This spare room of an 18th-century Cotswold house by Turner Pocock features an elegant arched design and plenty of shelving for books at the head of the bed. The wallpaper is ‘Owl & Willow’ in from Morris & Co, which adds to the lovely whimsical feel.
Mark Anthony Fox12/97This potentially awkward, hexagonal room in one of a pair of Georgian follies is now a calm retreat, with the lower walls and ceiling in Edward Bulmer’s ‘Cuisse de Nymphe Emue’ and a ‘Ramses’ bedspread from Anūt Cairo. An adjoining dressing room doubles as a bedroom for the owners’ young children.
Mark Anthony Fox13/97This cleverly designed bedroom in a London house by Veere Grenney has lots of small space features we’d like to copy in our own homes. A bespoke wardrobe has been built in on one side of the bed, with a pull-out shelf that can serve as a bedside table. The wardrobe makes use of a curtain instead of a solid door, which makes it feel lighter and more decorative as a feature, and wall lights have been wired into the side of the wardrobe, doing away with the need of a bedside lamp.
Dean Hearne14/97In Tanya Burr’s north London house, she has kept the spare room simple and serene with a headboard made by The House Upstairs and covered in ‘Otomi’ from Lewis & Wood adding subtle pattern. The painting, which Tanya bought from Looses Emporium in Norwich shows Cley, in Norfolk, where she grew up.
Christopher Horwood15/97Senior studio lead Hannah Linford convinced the owners of this Coastal Cornish house by Sims Hilditch to have tongue-and-groove panelling in the top-floor rooms, where it has a wonderfully cocooning effect. Twin beds from Chelsea Textiles are teamed with striped cushions, a striped blind and round, porthole-like mirrors in a clever nod to the nautical setting.
Paul Massey16/97Curved shapes in the bed frame make the small bedroom of Caroline Riddell’s tumbledown country house in Suffolk almost ship-like. Prints on the wall, a patterned throw and a string of colourful, decorative baubles overhead give the room a whimsical character.
Dean Hearne17/97In her daughter’s bedroom in their Surrey cottage, Rachel Bottomley made the most of the space by building in a cabin bed under the rafters of the roof, maximising floor space which otherwise would be used for the bed.
Alixe Lay18/97A mid 19th-century simple pine desk is used as a dressing table in this bedroom in Guy Ritchie’s hunting lodge decorated by Edward Hurst. The wallpaper in this room is Pierre Frey Braquenie, Le Grand Corail.
Mark Anthony Fox19/97The master bedroom of Christian Bense’s flat is painted in ‘Bone’ by Farrow & Ball, against which is the headboard, made by Robert Langford and covered in Harwood Fabrics' ‘Serpent’ in ‘Royal’. Christian found the bedside tables at Marylebone Antiques.
Boz Gagovski20/97In the guest bedroom of his 18th-century cottage in Deal, Russell Loughlan has painstakingly painted stripes in Farrow & Ball's ‘Setting Plaster’ and ‘Templeton Pink’. The tonal woodwork is in ‘Eating Room Red’. The artwork is by Frankie Thorpe and the lampshade is, in fact, a Japanese umbrella from Ebay.
Astrid Templier21/97Sticking to one colour and one fabric can be a brilliant way to make a small room feel snug and coherent. In a Herne Hill house decorated by Pandora Taylor, this bedroom is painted in ‘Selvedge’ by Farrow & Ball. The bed is by ‘The Original Bed Co.’ and is upholstered in Beata Heuman's ‘Palm Drop Fabric’, which also appears on the blind.
Stephen Kent Johnson22/97If you can't spread widthways, there's nothing to say you can't maximise vertical space. This antique four poster in John Derian's characterful Cape Cod house is a great example of making a room appear taller by using its full upward capacity. Four-poster beds are rising in popularity, and having a small bedroom shouldn't stop you from living out your raised, regal fantasies. In fact, a four-poster in a small room can feel even more cosy and den-like.
Boz Gagovski23/97With minimal square footage, why not maximise the impact of the pieces you put in? This kids room in a 300-year-old cottage in the South Downs really puts the bed in bedroom. It was made by Alfred Newall and painted in Paint & Paper Library's ‘Beetlenut’, a rich red shade. The rug is from Tinsmiths, the side table is OKA and the blind is Susie Atkinson. The walls are Paint & Paper Library ‘Clay V’.
- Carolina Irving's house on the Portuguese coast</a> is surprisingly dimunitive, and she has had some seriously clever ideas for making the most of small spaces. In this bedroom, a wall decorated with Andalusian tiles has a nook built into it, which serves as storage in lieu of bedside tables. The wall divides the bed from the ensuite bathroom.","contentType":"photo","credit":"Dean Hearne","segmentedSources":{"sm":[{"height":427,"width":320,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_320,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"},{"height":853,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_640,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"}],"md":[{"height":853,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_640,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"},{"height":1707,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_1280,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"}],"lg":[{"height":1365,"width":1024,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_1024,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"},{"height":2731,"width":2048,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_2048,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"}],"xl":[{"height":1707,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_1280,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"}],"xxl":[{"height":1707,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/66901574d745710a36d91a7b/master/w_1280,c_limit/Carolina-Irving-Portugal-HG-027.jpg"}]}}}" data-testid="GallerySlideWrapper">
Dean Hearne24/97Carolina Irving's house on the Portuguese coast is surprisingly dimunitive, and she has had some seriously clever ideas for making the most of small spaces. In this bedroom, a wall decorated with Andalusian tiles has a nook built into it, which serves as storage in lieu of bedside tables. The wall divides the bed from the ensuite bathroom.
Milo Brown25/97Lonika Chande has made the most of this space in a Chelsea townhouse by installing one of our favourite small bedroom solutions, a pretty box bed. ‘We positioned the bed underneath the sash window to maximise floor space, because we couldn't afford to lose any space around the bed. We also created a shelf behind the headboard which actually lifts up to reveal storage for clutter or extra books.’ In the same room, Lonika designed a wardrobe that ‘appears to be freestanding, but has decent drawers and the depth of something built-in’.
Tom Griffiths26/97In Kate Cox of HÁM Interiors' charming flat in Bristol, tall walls are covered in Jean Monro's ‘Clover’ wallpaper in Flower Pot. Thanks to the room's generous ceiling height, the wallpaper adds a sense of infiniteness. Not wanting to crowd the room with too much pattern, Kate chose a neutral fabric for the Studio HÁM headboard: ‘Ismaelia’ Pierre Frey.
Paul Massey27/97A London flat designed by Henrietta Fitzwilliam Lay features patterned bedcovers are balanced by a headboard and blind in ‘Rabanna’ cotton and valances in linen in the perfect fool colourway, both from Fermoie. The prints are by Paul Peter Piech.
Paul Massey28/97Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Beetlenut’ on the ceiling is paired with Galbraith & Paul’s ‘Tile’ wallpaper in coral to bold effect in this bedroom in a riverside house designed by Nicola Harding. An armchair in George Smith’s ‘Mohair’ in auburn provides a pleasing contrast with the blue kantha quilt from Toast.
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