Home Remodel
Room guide

Primary Bedroom Remodel design

One piece of furniture sets the whole room, and it is already chosen.

What the room has to do

A primary bedroom remodel works around a bed that cannot move much and cannot shrink. What changes is everything around it: where the storage goes, how the light works at both ends of the day, and whether the room still has floor left once the wardrobes are in.

Layout rules

  • Leave 30in of clear floor on both sides of a double bed and 36in at the foot if there is a route past.
  • Hinged wardrobe doors need 24in of swing; sliders need none, which is usually the deciding factor.
  • Centre the bed on a wall with no door and no window if the room offers one — the headboard wall should be uninterrupted.
  • Keep a wardrobe run 24in deep; anything shallower will not take a hanger square-on.
  • Allow 42in between the bed and a wardrobe you have to open.

Lighting plan

Two switching positions, door and bedside, or the room fails at the only moment that matters. Ambient on a dimmer, a reading light per side aimed at the page rather than the room, and nothing overhead directly above the pillows.

What usually goes wrong

  • Wardrobes along the only wall that could have taken the bed.
  • A single ceiling light switched only at the door.
  • Bedside tables narrower than the mattress overhang, so nothing sits flat.
  • Curtains hung to the window rather than to the ceiling, cutting the wall height.

In a small one

Under 11×11ft, wall-mounted reading lights and floating bedside shelves buy back the floor that lamps and tables take. The bed can also lose its frame — a low platform makes a small bedroom read taller.

Primary Bedroom Remodel ideas by style

40 styles