How to Furnish a Small Bedroom

Celebrity interior designer and author of "Vintage Remix: The Interiors of Kishani Perera", Kishani Perera explains how you can make the most of a tight space when furnishing a small bedroom.(photo: Jean Randazzo)

eHow spoke with Kishani Perera, interior designer and author of “Vintage Remix: The Interiors of Kishani Perera,” about the importance of embracing a small bedroom and the best ways to decorate the compact space. Perera also owns Rummage, an interiors boutique in Los Angeles filled with vintage, whimsical and eclectic decorative arts and furnishings. She has designed interiors for celebrities, including Molly Sims, Gary Oldman, Vanessa Marcil and Josh Duhamel.

 

What’s the most common mistake you see when people start designing a small room?

Kishani Perera: When people have a small room, they always think they need small, diminutive furniture to fill it up. They put a bed, a little dinky pillow and then that’s it. They are terrified of filling it up too much, and they are terrified [to use] big-scale pieces, which I think is a huge mistake.

It seems a lot of people try to make small rooms appear larger.

K.P.: I let [the room] be what it is, but maximize the space and take advantage of what is there. I actually like to embrace quirks and weirdness in homes. If it’s a tiny space, make it a cool, little, cozy bedroom. If not, it can be really obvious that you are trying to make it look bigger and it totally looks [as if] you are trying to fight the space. It doesn’t work at all. Don’t fight the space. Don’t be afraid to paint it a dark color and go with luxurious textiles, like a really cool shag rug, so when you come in, it's like a cozy cocoon.

Why are big-scale pieces great in a small space?

K.P.: I actually love playing with scale and filling up the room. It’s about taking advantage of the vertical space with tall, skinny things, and that can actually make it look bigger. It also maximizes your storage.

So you don’t get trapped in any pitfalls, what do you take into consideration when you first design a room?

K.P.: First thing, I see what inspires my client. I actually give them homework and ask them to pull images of what they like, what speaks to them. It doesn’t have to be a whole room, but just one thing: a color, a lamp, anything. Then I have to find out what they want to use the space for.

It seems a lot of rooms are more multipurpose nowadays.

Stack antique suitcases on top of a tall armoire. You'll get additional storage and a vintage look. (photo: Demand Media/Eileen Sweeney)

K.P.: Yes, I think, in general, people want to maximize their space now. When I was growing up, we had a dining room that people never sat in. Your bedroom can also be the place you work from now, or you may use it to watch a little TV. You have to think about all of these things when you’re designing a room. Where is the TV going to go? Is it going to be mounted on the wall? Is it going to sit on top of something? Where is it going to go? You have to figure it out — and everyone is different [when it comes to his preference].

Some designers use a focal point and work around that. Do you?

K.P.: I understand that philosophy, but I look at the whole space rather than one piece. For a bedroom, there may be a textile I build off of, but I wouldn’t say that’s the focal point of the room.

Definitely the bed [is a place to start] because you have to figure out if the person wants a platform bed, if they want it low, or like something high with lots of bedding and fluffy pillows.

How do you start building out the bedroom? What furniture do you take into consideration?

K.P.: Based on the inspiration, I start pulling fabrics. Then I consider what the person needs and the space he has, like does an armoire need to double as a TV cabinet? We start pulling pieces like that. For small spaces, I like to find furniture that serves that dual function.