Bedrooms are personal spaces that should be a retreat from the outside world, but sometimes these most private spaces can begin to feel lackluster and out of style. Rather than letting outdated trends dictate your bedroom design, knowing what new looks are available can help you make small changes to make your bedroom feel exciting and fresh.
Aside from aesthetic considerations, these outmoded trends can limit functionality and clash with emerging new personal preferences like warm earth tones and sustainability. Refreshing your space into a more harmonious setting that better fits with contemporary lifestyles and design principles begins with understanding outmoded bedroom design trends.
Bedroom design trends are constantly evolving, but even if you aren’t interested in keeping up with the latest and greatest design ideas, having an idea of what is not trending now will help you to make wiser choices moving forward.
Heavy Matching Furniture Sets
Matching furniture sets, in which everything—including the bed, dressers, nightstands, and mirrors—has the same style, are an outdated bedroom design trend that we hope never comes back. This style became popular because it seems effortless to coordinate, but you will only end up with a bedroom design that looks like it came straight out of a furniture showroom. This look lacks personality and interest and will limit your creativity and ability to show off your own personal style preferences.
Instead, consider mixing furniture styles from various eras and materials, such as wood, metal, cloth, and stone. Pairing a wooden bed with marble and brass nightstands or a lacquered dresser with an upholstered headboard will give your bedroom a unique personality. This approach also makes it easier to add and remove pieces as your preferences and needs change. You should also feel free to incorporate furniture from various time periods into your bedroom design, as a mix of vintage and modern pieces creates a more thoughtful and intentional atmosphere.
Too Many Decorative Pillows
Today’s bedroom trends appear to revolve around both comfort and creating a design style that is uniquely yours. Too many decorative pillows on the bed may appear upscale, but they are not adding to your comfort. Instead, they make tidying up your bed in the morning more difficult.
Rather than covering your bed with more decorative pillows than are practical, consider opting for a simple bolster pillow or at the most three decorative pillows with varying textures and colors to add personality to your room. Modern bedroom design trends are also moving away from European shams in favor of more standard sizes.
White and Overly Neutral Color Schemes
White or neutral colors once dominated the design spotlight in every room of the house, including the bedroom. While color palettes dominated by these tones continue to look stunning in bedroom designs, more color personality is making its way into the design landscape. The difficulty with white and other pale neutrals is that they are difficult to get right. Instead, these bedrooms often look flat and uninviting.
To update your bedroom design palette, consider incorporating rich, earthy hues like deep greens, warm terracottas, and lustrous blues on the walls and in the soft textiles like bedding, rugs, and curtains. Even in a room with white walls, just a few pops of color can create a dynamic, lived-in feel.
Too Much Technology
While the dominating trends are always pushing us toward more technology, technology in the bedroom can be problematic. An excess of technology like TVs, gaming consoles, and even smart devices can disrupt relaxation and interfere with sleep rhythms. The temptation in the bedroom is often too great to resist.
Rather than designing your bedroom around technology, it is best to minimize it to promote the best rest. Replace your TV with soothing artwork and place your devices outside your bedroom to charge them to avoid the distraction they pose. If you cannot fully commit to getting rid of these items, try to find ways to hide the TV when it is not in use and charge your devices in drawers using built-in chargers in the nightstand.
Wall-to-Wall Carpet
Wall-to-wall carpet, which was once popular for its warmth and plush feel underfoot, often looks outdated today because of its limited design versatility, its ubiquity, and its maintenance challenges.
Hardwood makes a bedroom instantly appear more luxurious and unique. This does not mean you have to forego comfort and warmth. Cover your bedroom floor with large, layered rugs to provide a soft landing when you get out of bed on a cold morning. If you do need to install carpet due to cost or to provide an additional layer of insulation, consider using a patterned carpet in a neutral color. This will give the bedroom a more thoughtfully designed appearance.
Elaborate Bedroom Curtains
Overly fancy and heavy bedroom curtains like layered valances and curtains with fringes and tassels may be appropriate in historic bedrooms, but in most homes, these can make a bedroom look outdated and fussy. Additionally, these window treatments also block natural light and feature designs that are not adjustable.
Modern window treatments are usually simpler in form and have a design that is more functional so that you can open and close them according to your light and privacy needs. Keep your curtain style relaxed by using flat panels along the side and add depth and functionality with another layer of blinds, shades, or sheer panels to cover the window itself.
Accent Walls
Accent walls were once a popular way to add interest and a splash of color to a room without having to cover the entire wall surface. Today, accent walls are held in less favor than an overall color or wall texture. A single bold wall can make the bedroom design feel disjointed and lack the enveloping look that is so striking in contemporary designs.
Trendy bedroom designs frequently include a consistent wall color throughout the room or two colors that work well together. Consider using textured wallpaper or paneling throughout the room to add dimension and depth.
Themes or Strict Single Decor Style
Themed bedroom designs for kid’s rooms or even bedroom designs that stick too close with one design aesthetic are outdated today because they feel proscribed and limit creative expression. These designs rely heavily on obvious decor choices and matching elements, which leave less room for personalization and alterations because of changing preferences.
Rather than committing to one theme or style of decor, consider blending elements to create a more nuanced bedroom design. Focus on bringing in a variety of differing textures, colors, furniture styles, and decor. For example, for a nuanced nautical design, introduce subtle coastal touches using blue, off-whites, and sea greens. Introduce natural fibers in the design and an abstract wallpaper that has an outdoor aesthetic. Bring in a few pops of a bright color using a fun rug and wall art to keep the design from feeling staged or predictable.
Large Bedrooms
Oversized bedrooms were once a symbol of luxury and elegance, but if the area is not utilized properly, it can feel like there is so much wasted space. The open space can also work against the cozy ambience that you want to create in a bedroom.
Many homeowners today are content with bedrooms that are smaller, but this means that they have to be intentional with how they use the space. If you have a large bedroom, consider ways that you can use zones to use a large bedroom more efficiently. Create zones for sleeping, sitting, and storage using elements like dividers and rugs to differentiate the areas.
Overstyled Bedding
Fussy or overstyled bedding like multiple layers, too many decorative pillows, or any blanket or quilt that requires special care has fallen out of favor and replaced with options that prioritize comfort.
Modern bedding styles can still be gorgeous, but the bedding today tends to be simple, high-quality, and breathable fabrics that are easy to maintain. Rather than elaborate bedding with endless layers, consider minimal bedding using materials like linen or cotton with a down or down alternative quilt to hold in the heat for the cold months.
Generic Room Design
Bedroom designs with cookie-cutter furniture and bland color schemes are generic because they can be found in anyone’s home, regardless of the individual characteristics that distinguish each person. Home design is becoming more personal overall, and this should be a particular feature of such a personal space as a bedroom.
Current design trends encourage the use of a wide variety of textures, furniture, decor, and colors to create a one-of-a-kind look. This can include both vintage and modern pieces, as well as elements that tell a unique story, reveal personal history, or demonstrate an interest. There are few rules for this approach beyond blending the elements into a pleasing design; the bedroom design should reflect who you are and what you enjoy.
