MY HOME - How to style your bed simply

The very obvious electric blanket cables hanging out from under the bed sheets totally let down my styling! I know, you can see a thousand (or many more) images on Instagram and Pinterest, of perfectly styled rooms. But this is my rented home, simple is best. No, I don’t love the bedside cabinet either, which came with the house furnishings …. but we have so little storage in the house, that it will just have to do.

On an upbeat note, my haphazard purchases from The Remnant Basket in Dundalk, together with some beach combing and crafting, have resulted in a simple coherent look that goes with my style which I like to call “elegant bohemian”.

I knitted the green cushion cover in simple plain and purl stitches and attached it to a linen back. I love the texture when I lie on it. The little linen bolster with green trees is from a fabric offcut that was lying around after another cushion making extravaganza. The emerald green wasn’t a conscious choice but now I love it, with the earthy brown tones in the headboard and base of the bed. You can’t see in this picture but we also have pinkish-red and brown rugs on the floor giving a colour triangle in the room.

I made the wall hanging in a fit of inspiration from a library photo book that I borrowed (Global Bohemian by Fifi O’Neill). I love it as it brings the outside in - driftwood from our local beach together with woollen tassels that I had made in an earlier attempt to recreate a Justina Blakeney lampshade (that ultimately went horribly wrong - but I did manage to salvage the tassels!).

The biophilic trend to fill your home with houseplants is nothing new. There are many specific great plants to have in your bedroom for optimizing the CO2 - Oxygen cycle. I have 3 plants in our bedroom at the moment, but we also have a lot of air circulation with huge single glazed windows and an open fireplace in the room anyway.

My next big step is to buy linen bedsheets instead of cotton, but I have to save up for those! I have my eye on a few different brands, but these gorgeous ones from Blanc Cerise are at the top of the list. Which colour do you think would suit? And I am scheming about a trip to Normandy in France to see the flax fields and know more about the process of making linen! Husband is on board for the history part of Normandy, but it will be much more about shopping, photographing and eating for me! In the meantime, my cotton sheets are by Yves Delorme, White Company and my favourites by Olivier Desforges.

I know, eagle eyes will notice that these sheets are not freshly ironed - but that is because I am keeping it real! I only have time to iron sheets when my husband is at home (he works abroad). The yacht stewardess in me, screams that linens must always be ironed. Believe me, I know this! And standards must be upheld - so at the very least I am pedantic about making my bed every morning. This is not making my bed as my husband would do it, but rather a complete stripping down and reassembly with lots of pillow fluffing and straightening. It makes a difference to the whole day, knowing that the bed is made and the room a sanctuary.

So there you have it, a very brief visit to our bedroom.

And what books are on the natty bedside table?

I recently celebrated my birthday, so I have 3 new books to read. I am currently halfway through Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

Also you will find two further gift books:

Bowie’s books - the hundred literary heroes that changed his life by John O’Connell

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I found two wonderful independent booksellers recently. I love supporting these shops and have a recurring dream about owning a bookshop café - but then, who doesn’t? I urge you to visit these:

Roe River Books, Dundalk

Rathgar Bookshop, Dublin

xoxo J.