Strings of fairy lights can illuminate a small space.
Small can be sparse -- clutter is anathema in tight spaces -- but diminutive doesn't have to be austere. Decorating a small bedroom means becoming a curator. Everything counts and whatever you add should be quirky, beautiful, inspiring, one-of-a-kind and compact. It should also be functional and work as storage, if possible. Doing it yourself gives you the chance to customize the perfect decor for your petite boudoir.
Headboard Love
Save yards of space by skipping the big bed frame and parking your twin or double up against the wall. When a tiny bedroom has a decorative fireplace, cover the unused firebox with a sheet of plywood, paint the mantel and plywood to match your decor, and make that the head of the bed. You focus attention on the architectural detail and gain a fancy headboard without adding a thing to the room. Another trick for the indecisive, is to go for sophisticated deep gray walls and sketch your own headboard. Paint the wall behind the bed with medium or dark gray chalkboard paint, push the bare frame and mattress against it, and doodle a headboard in chalk over your bed. When you get tired of the Art Deco headboard, switch to a fancy French four-poster with the swish of an eraser.
Let There Be Light
Fairy lights sprinkle magic in a bedroom. Use tiny light emitting diode lights that stay cool and save energy. Create the illusion of privacy in a shared room by hanging curtain rods over the head and partly around the sides of each bed. Drift translucent sheers from the rods and hang strings of fairy lights vertically, like a rain of stars, from the rods behind the curtains. The gauzy separations feel open, not walled-in, and can keep two princesses happy. Hang a spray-painted bicycle wheel with spokes horizontally from a central ceiling pendant fixture for an instant chandelier. Drape the rim and spokes with white icicle lights connected to the ceiling wiring so they turn on and off at the wall switch.
Rave Pillows
Make a teen someone happy with a reminder of a favorite concert. Heat transfer paper and a hot iron will do the trick. Scan the ticket stub, print it on the paper and iron it on a pillowcase -- purchased or homemade. Close the pillowcase with large, decorative buttons and buttonholes or sewn-on loops. Use the concert-stub pillow to stash PJs, or print the whole length of the ticket on a long pillow, stuff the feather duvet into it and store it at the foot of the bed by day. Scatter a few more do-it-yourself, hand-sewn pillows, salvaged from cool t-shirts, over the bed. Center the main logo on the pillowcase front and overlap the back sections for an envelope closure.
Balloon Again
Recycle leftover party balloons for colorful, functional accessories in a cramped bedroom. Stretch long balloons over and around a chair-height stool and knot them in place. Paint a recycled stool in high-gloss finish to coordinate with the bedroom. But cover almost every millimeter of it with balloons for a bright, original piece of art you can sit on. Use the same balloon treatment on an empty picture frame for a matching bulletin board that holds photos and notes securely in its every-which-way weave. Line up a series of coordinated mini-vases on the windowsill, made from balloons stretched over old plastic cups. Keep the mouth of the balloon on the open top as you slip it over the cup, then poke it down inside the cup before adding water and a single cut flower.
Tags: fairy lights, from rods, paper iron