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Bedroom Needs a Makeover
Makeover for a Dark Bedroom
Once upon a time, I worked the night shift. Oh, don’t feel sorry for me, I loved it. There were some real advantages to working nights:
- Less traffic while commuting to work
- Smaller workload
- No supervisors!
- Fewer phone calls
- Fewer interruptions during work times
- Quieter work area with less stress
- Bonus money – Night Shift Differential Pay!
- Night Shift workers get to sleep all day!
Sleeping all day can be a real problem for some. After 18 years of working nights, I had my sleeping times all planned out and had no trouble enjoying sleeping during the day. In fact, I still have trouble sleeping at night because I love staying under the covers during daylight hours.
When I went back to a ‘normal’ daytime work schedule, I needed to update my bedroom to allow for sleeping at night. The room was very dark at night and because I had black-out curtains on the window, it was very dark in my bedroom during the day.
Optimal Sleeping Conditions for Day Sleepers
Sleeping during the day requires some very specific parameters. The do-it-yourself decorator has no real challenge to prepare a bedroom for a night shift worker. Just make sure that the bedroom is:
- Cool – A temperature of 68°F is perfect. (20°C)
- Dark – Black-out curtains are essential for all windows. Only dark posters or art for walls.
- Quiet – No phones, no TV, no radio. A “white noise” generator is fine if it helps.
- Isolated – The bedroom should be at the back of the house or as far away from the front door as possible.
Once these parameters are met, try to decorate with subtle or dark colors for everything. Bed sheets should be dark-colored or black. Bedspreads and duvets should also be very dark. A dark bedroom for sleeping during the day is not depressing at all for the sleeper. It is very comforting.
DIY Bedroom Decorating
How to Re-decorate for a Lighter, More Day-friendly Bedroom
Changes needed to be made to my old bedroom which was optimized for sleeping during the day. While redecorating, it’s also a good time to do some spring cleaning!
This room is sorely in need of a whole new bed or at least new mattresses. Not being able to afford new ones, it’s time to call a steam cleaner and have the mattresses steam cleaned. Because the bed is the largest piece of furniture in the room, people notice it first, so a clean bed is essential. Has the carpet steam cleaned too?
Everything else in the room needs to be cleaned or thrown out. Take everything off the walls and clean the walls too. Dry dusting isn’t enough, use a good, natural cleaning solution and wipe every square inch down.
Clean out dresser drawers and underneath the dresser and other furniture. Add clean-smelling sachets to the dresser drawers or chest of drawers. Get a plug-in air freshener to match and replace it every two or three months. Open the windows occasionally and let clean fresh air in for a day.
When everything is clean and ready, begin to assemble your new lighter, brighter bedroom.
How to Remodel – From Old to New
- After everything is cleaned, start with the bed. Buy new bed linens and throw out all of the old linens. If they are still good, clean them and donate them to Goodwill. Do not store them thinking you will use them again someday. This is just clutter and may turn into hoarding.
- Do the same with curtains or drapes. Get rid of the old ones! Buy matching bed linens and curtains. It really ties the room together and relaxes the eyes.
- Replace or thoroughly clean any artwork, posters, and dream catchers. My personal dream catcher has been redone several times now. I tend to stay with my main colors of blue, blue-green, and white. Occasionally, I try one contrasting color, but generally, I prefer blue.
- Lamps need to be replaced, or at the very least, they need new lampshades. In my case, I replaced the old lamps with an electric dolphin lamp from Spencer’s on one side and a clip-on reading lamp on the other side.
- All of my dark art was replaced with lighter, more whimsical art. My posters are in inexpensive Michael’s poster frames. My old posters were just pinned to the wall. Framing really makes a difference! Even with cheap frames, the posters look better.
- The only other thing I would have done to remodel this bedroom would be to paint the walls. I’m not very good at doing things myself, or I would have. It’s definitely worth considering with any remodel project.
Side-by-Side Comparison – Before and After Bedroom Makeover
