The bed headboard thread got me thinking about this. And the fact that I’m considering hiring someone to paint our currently badly needs painting bedroom.
Is your bedroom a comfortable, desirable place to hang out? Do you hate to leave it in the morning or look forward to going to it at night? Do you have a sitting area or tv area or office area that creates a space where you spend more time there?
Or are you like me and have no real attachment to your bedroom - it’s a place to sleep and store clothes but not much else. One of the last places I want to/do spend $$ on to make look better.
Since I only have one kid still coming home during college breaks now there are plenty of other spots to “spend time” - including other empty bedrooms if I need to! At the same time I sometimes think that our bedroom is sort of “wasted space” besides sleeping there.
Your bedroom - haven or just a place to sleep/dress???
no haven here in the midwest. we have the same furniture my husband had as a kid. I’m kind of sentimental about it now. We have a sitting room off our bedroom that is filled with tubs of kids stuff/books/toys. I’m sentimental about all of that too! It’s pretty in there, but not a haven.
According to some psychologists, a bedroom has to be just like that - a place to sleep. No TVs or any distractions of any kind, so your brain associates the place with zzzzz…
I never really desired to have a tv in the bedroom…but I wouldn’t have objected to a sitting area for reading especially when the kids were little for a little 20 minute get away!
My kids were the same way - never really spent much time in their bedrooms.
We recently moved, and purchased a new mattress (don’t judge - first new one in 25 years!) and new bedding.
We mounted a TV on the wall. We have two TVs; one is in the family room and the other is in our bedroom.
I LOVE to be in our bedroom. Our new mattress and bedding is incredibly plush and comfortable. We have a rocking chair, but I mainly use it for sitting when I put on socks/shoes, since our bed is fairly high.
The room is spacious enough that it doesn’t feel crowded, but doesn’t have a sitting area or room for a desk.
In the evening, it’s my favorite place to go to either read or watch TV. So yes, I’d say it’s a haven for me.
Not a haven. And our laundry is in our master closet, so our bedroom has turned into the laundry room. It is also the dumping ground for those piles/boxes of junk that have to be hidden quickly when someone comes over. Attached sitting room/office is full of books/papers. Not quite a hoarder room, (about 2/3 of floor still visible) but getting there. It has a gas fireplace which we have never used. Not well insulated–too cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Also (I know this sounds crazy, but…) I was standing in my closet/laundry room when I received some horrible/traumatizing news several years ago, and I can’t help associating that place with that moment/those bad feelings. So I avoid my room as much as possible. I prefer to hang out downstairs in the kitchen or living room. I do love our bed (Tempurpedic mattress) though, and I have a hard time pulling myself out of it on cold winter mornings.
I think an “away room” is a good thing for a house to have, so I think abasket has a good point there. That said, our house really never had much of one - the basement is semi-finished, but that’s about it. We’ve never had a tv in the bedroom and wouldn’t want one there. Our bedroom is strictly for clothes and book storage and sleeping. Most of our fiction is stored there. (A - S)
Haven. No TV (ever), but the room is lovely and the bed is heaven. Both DH and I smile or make some type of “ahhh” sound or comment when we get into bed. We both read in the bedroom, mostly in bed, but there is a small seating area and window seat. As a few posted on the things that bring you joy thread, the night that the sheets are fresh and the room is pristine is the best. Though I don’t spend much daytime in that room, I look forward to going into it each night and never want to get out of that bed. The room is peaceful, easy on the eye, and comfortably luxurious.
Even before I left for college, my bedroom was my haven. DH and I have always put a lot of time and love into all the bedrooms in each of the houses we’ve owned as we like our guests to feel pampered, and we wanted our son to have his own haven. That kiddo’s room ended in squalor each day says he didn’t quite get the message, but that is a topic for a different thread.
Our bedroom is for sleeping only and I like it like that. Our furniture is the set I had as a teenager. I keep telling DH if he thinks we’ll ever get grown up bedroom furniture? But we need so many other things, that it just doesn’t seem important since nobody sees it anyway. My guestrooms have the updated stuff. Actually, our guest room is more of the place I might hang out a little. I store all my photos there and every so often I’ll go up and spend some time looking through them.
Interesting question, abasket from the headboard lady here
I’m trying to make it more of a haven but space is limited, so at any point in time our bedroom has a clothing rack filled with runner’s clothes. We do have a TV (DH’s choice). I’m pushing to repaint the walls (from their off white to a gray color) which I would find more soothing but hitting some resistance. I love the feeling of a hotel bedroom – soft and serene and muted colors (plus those amazing pillowy mattresses!).
I would never have a TV in a bedroom and don’t understand how or why anyone could or would. Our bedroom is comfortable, certainly. And ever changing as I like to make quilts, curtains, pillowcases etc.
I have been sick and basically in bed for the last five days. I don’t watch TV all the time, but I’ve turned it on now and then to watch a favorite show or catch the news in order to distract myself from my misery. I also often watch my favorite show in my bedroom because the recliner is the comfiest chair in our house. Occasionally I retreat to my bedroom to watch something because I don’t care to watch the ball game DH is watching in the family room.
No one needs to apologize for a tv in the bedroom. Or a mini fridge. Or a Keurig. Or whatever!
It’s your space - if it works for you that is what is important. However if something doesn’t work for you (like my bedroom now - ho hum!) then it’s nice to get feedback on options.
Haven. If it had a kitchen I could live in it. We moved in nearly 2 years ago and the house was a rebuild so it is really quite a suite. We put sonos in there so I can listen to music in the bedroom and the bathroom. It was one of the earlier rooms to get made over this time and I had a decorator help me. We work mostly from home, I’ve had a lot of company, a lot of workers - it’s fabulous to have a beautiful retreat. We live on the water and the bedroom faces a stunning view with a small balcony as well. It also has a gas fireplace I turn on nearly every day. I need a space where I’m away from it all. We also have a great bed that is extremely comfy.
I love my bedroom and spend a lot time in there. I have a TV, a chair and a desk in there. Lots of light. Walls are almost bare, but lots of family pictures on the dressers and stuff.
Ds2 and I were just talking about one night watching Parenthood in my bed and then staying up until 1 on a school night talking about the issues raised in the show. Great bonding memories in that room.
@BunsenBurner , that doesn’t preclude making it a haven. You can create a restful space without electronic screens or distractions, and it could be both a haven and a place to sleep.
I think of a haven as a place that you can make very dark for sleep, with comfortable mattress and linens, no screens of any kind allowed, maybe a reclining chair, dust-free (no carpet), good lighting for reading, windows for daylight, a walls painted a color you find restful.
Haven. I love my bed. It too makes me smile just to crawl in. I spend a lot of time (at least an hour) reading in bed most nights. Before my cat died he would lay with me. I never had a tv in the bedroom until we downsized and now we do but it’s only for illness or when there is a rare conflicting show schedule (surely less than 3 hours a week).
My bedroom is huge, one of those fancy downstairs master bedrooms. We had a treadmill in here for about ten years, so it was my place to run when it was hot outside or to squeeze in a run if I had something in the oven/dryer. Then the treadmill died. I finally persuaded H to get rid of it (sigh, we could have thread on people who are attached to broken electronics…) and for awhile there was nothing. The bedroom was for sleeping.
We did a big remodel a few years ago and added a giant TV and a double recliner to the bedroom. This was a major lifestyle change. Before then, people only watched TV in the bedroom if running on the treadmill. (“People” was me.) Now we hang out in the bedroom more. I am alone in the house quite a bit and spend much more time here. H watches ballgames here. We joke we have turned into an old couple sitting on our recliner in front of the TV.
We are planning another remodel to upgrade the master bathroom and I think we will acknowledge how much more we use the bedroom.
At the same time I sometimes think that our bedroom is sort of “wasted space” besides sleeping there.