How to avoid bedroom design mistakes - with Homescapes

This series of how-to and broadcasts is proudly sponsored by Homescapes, the home of ethical luxury for over 25 years. Homescapes started out by supplying luxury hotels, so if you've ever wanted that five-star feeling at home, they really know what they're doing. They're also a family-run British brand, and because they own their own specialist workshops and supply chain, you're buying directly from the maker, meaning beautifully made pieces without the middleman markups. We love their focus on natural and durable materials too, from breathable Egyptian cotton bed linen and hyper-allogenic feather duvetes to beautiful hand-loomed rugs, or thoughtfully made to bring everyday luxury into your home. With over 4 million happy homes, a 4.8-trust pilot rating and speedy delivery upgrading your space couldn't be easier. Head to HomescapesOnline.com and use our code "How to Home 15" for 15% off your entire order. Hello and welcome to How To Home Podcast, I'm Maxine Brady, and I'm Gemma Gear. How To Home is now the UK's number one home decor podcast and your ultimate interior's guide for creating your dream home. We're both professional interior stylists, with over 40 years combined experience, styling interiors from magazines, home wear brands and TV makeover shows. This podcast is where we share that expertise with you. Each week we break down the decorating dilemmas that you're facing, from choosing colours to styling your space and bringing everything together so that it finally feels right. And we've shared what we've learned, what we swear by, and what we would never do again. So whether you're redesigning an entire room or tweaking a small corner, or you just want your home to feel a little bit more like you, you're in the right place. Sting testing, testing testing. Sting testing. Hello and we're back for episode 7 of series 6 of How To Home. We're nearly at the end of the series and I have to say Gemma, I think this episode is the one that I've probably done the most amount of research for and most excited about. So our episode on How To Avoid Living Room Design Mistakes was a big hit because you all struggle with styling your living rooms. So we've felt let's turn our attention to a different room and that's why we decided to dedicate a whole episode on bedrooms. Yes and just to share some realness with you all quite quickly as well, I'm sure you can hear that my voice today is sounding a little croaky. I may have gone a little bit too hard at the weekend when I was catching up with some friends that I haven't seen for quite a while and I've managed to strain my voice in the process. It was all the gossip Gemma. Yes it was. But as they say, the show must go on so please do bear with me and just try to embrace my new voice for this episode. I feel like I need to start belting out smelly things. We will also be joined by a very special guest, Viva Avashthy, from HomeScapes, later on in this episode, who is going to be showing her top tips for designing a bedroom that you love. Oh, she's got some great tips. You're going to love it. Right, let's get into it. So, the first bedroom design mistake is a big one, and that is playing it too safe with colour or not thinking about colour at all. colour, this is our thing, isn't it, Maxine? This is genuinely our USP, our stylist. We are both passionate advocates for colour in the home, and the bedroom is where I think the conversation gets really interesting. Yeah, I mean, it really does, doesn't it? Because I think most people default to a white or an off-white bedroom, which is fine, but there's so much more you can do in there. And the bedroom is actually the room to do it in, because this room is yours. You're not decorating for anyone out. So, the first thing we always say before you even look at a paint card is to ask yourself how you want the room to feel, not how you want it to look, but feel, because that answer will lead you straight to the right colour family. Yeah, and then if you want a cozy room, a room that looks like a hug or a proper retreat where you can really switch off, then I would go for a deeper shade, like, richer darker tones on the walls, and then carry that colour up onto the ceiling. I don't like deep, inky blues or a forest green, a warm terracotta. We're talking moody plums. A moody plum jam, right? A moody plum jam. Are any of these painted on all your four walls and the seating? Quite this incredibly inviting quality, like, you're cocooned in the room. Is the most luxurious feeling of a bedroom that you can sleep in, I think, when it's in dark colours. Like, I'm completely obsessed with a dark bedroom when it's done well. I guess, obviously, not my personal taste at all. I wouldn't have it in my house, but I do really love it when I see it really dark, deep cocooning, bedroom online. And it does tempt me sometimes to go dark. It just wouldn't fit with the rest of my house. No, I agree with you there. I mean, I have to be honest. I couldn't live in a dark bedroom because I use my bedroom to get ready in and do my makeup, and I need a good light for that. My name is otherwise it gets onto thick. So, if I mean, if that's you too, listening, if your bedroom is also your dressing room, then lighter, brighter colours are going to work better. You know, you want to look at colours like soft whites, warm creams, pale sages, colours that bounce light around, rather than absorbing it. And it doesn't mean it has to be boring at all, because then you can layer in all the extra colours for your bed linen, your cushions, your throws, your artworks, like rugs. The walls are basically your canvas, and then the accessories are your colour. Yeah, that's exactly how I approach my own bedroom. The walls are a light colour, so I can function in the room, but the bed is where all the personality comes from. I've got big colourful cushions of both row, lots of interesting textures and throws, and I switch it up seasonally, so it feels very personal, but I can still find my eyeliner in the morning. That's the test, isn't it? It's nice enough to find your eyeliner. I mean, that should be in every interior design book. Right, we should probably discuss colour psychology now, because this is genuinely fascinating and worth understanding before you choose a colour for your bedroom, because different colours do have different psychological effects, and they do affect your heart rate, your cortisol levels and your ability to relax. So, blues and bluey greens are probably the most consistently recommended by sleep researchers to have in a bedroom, so things like a soft sage, a duck egg, a muted teal, because blue genuinely lowers your heart rate and your blood pressure. Like, it's associated with calm, with water, it's associated with the sky, so there is a reason why so many hotels go for this colour palette in their rooms. Yeah, I also think greens are brilliant too, because our eyes need the least amount effort to process green, which is why being in nature feels so restorative for many of us, so, you know, colours like sage and, or like, I really love rich olive or a moss, they wet beautifully in bedrooms, and then you can add in warm and neutrals, like creams, warm whites, to create a deeply restful bedroom scheme. I mean, the key is when choosing paint colour for your walls is to get the undertone right. So, yeah, a neutral with a grey or blue undertone in a north-facing room can look cold and flat and slightly sad, just not what we want for our bedrooms. Yes, and then you also have colours like the reds oranges and the bright yellows, If you're not confident with colour then I'd probably suggest using those kind of colours. as accents only in a bedroom. So you might want to have like a little terracotta cushion or a coral throw or I don't know a mustard lampshade because these colors are quite activating and they increase the heart rate and they stimulate the nervous system. That being said if you are like me and love energising colours then go for it. I have a lot of coral and yellow in my own bedroom and for me personally it works really well because I like to wake up feeling energized by the colours around me. I'm slightly different I think that's why I go for pastel shades. I find mornings hittical at the same time. A little personal preference. Exactly. But what you need to do is just test that paint in an actual bedroom on the walls before you commit. I think if we had a pound for every time we told people to test their paint samples on this podcast we would be rich multi-millionaires. We would beat it because it's true Gemma. You know by the test report paint the big patch on the wall and look at it in the morning light the evening and then under lamp lights because that colour kind of completely different depending on the brand and the shade and the tones and the time of day and you kind of need to love it in under all those conditions. Yeah because the bedroom is the room that you're waking up in and going to sleep in every single day so the colour choice has to be right. Okay so bedroom design mistake number two and this one is going to be all about the bed getting the size position and headboard right. So when it comes to your bed I want to start by saying something that I feel incredibly strong about Gemma. Okay because I think that the bed is the single most important piece in the bedroom. It is the hero piece. It's the main event because everything else in the room has to be designed around it so it's worth really thinking about what bed you're going for and getting this right. Yeah I completely agree and yet so many people have the wrong size bed for their room or it's in the wrong position and then they wonder why the room never quite comes together. I mean I'm actually working with a client project right now and I've made the bed the complete hero of the room. I've told her. I've told her my partner that she's listening to me. The whole bedroom scheme has been built around this bed and everything serves it. So the person who's inspired this approach completely is an interior designer called Kit Camp. I love Kit Camp. If you don't know who she is she is the designer behind all the Firmdale hotels like Ham Yard, Covement Garden Hotel, Crossby Street, New York. She's absolutely iconic as so is her spaces but her bedrooms are just extraordinary because she really plays with scale when it comes to the bed. She is a genius when it comes to design and the thing about designer hotels and this is actually a really brilliant tip for anyone designing a bedroom is that hotels have to get bedgamed exactly right like they have spent huge amounts of money and research on how to maximize the space and add some drama or create a sense of calm and luxury for their guests and make the comfort level feel really inviting as well. So if you are stuck in your own bedroom treat yourself go and stay in a nice hotel or even just look at some beautifully design booty hotels online and look at where the bed sets, how the headboard is scaled, how the lighting works. I mean that's so much like the layers of the bedding check how they're styled like is genuinely one of the best free sources of bedroom inspiration that you will find. I really do think hotels know how to make a bed feel like an event don't they? And that's exactly what the headboard does it turns a bed from a piece of furniture into a centerpiece and you know when a hotel bedroom is designed role as soon as you walk in you're like no but do you do that thing when you jump on a hotel bed as soon as you go in? I see it in films don't you? I never actually do. I know. My first thing that I always do in a hotel room is check the bathroom. I want to see if there's a bath. I want to see what toilet chains are. But I think it's true I think there are those things that you want to glean my days from, don't you? Because most hotel rooms aren't over furnished they don't have much in them. So without a headboard the bed looks a bit like a mattress on a base. It's kind of like floating and unankered so that's one tip that we can steal. Yeah and then we go for many brilliant options right now as well like the big big trend at the moment is for headboards that span like the four width of a wall not just the width of your bed so it's almost like a four wall of upholstery behind the bed and it looks incredibly luxurious and it's actually not that complicated to achieve like it is genuinely something I've been considering for my own bedroom and it's on my DIY to-do list. I know they mind me the 70s like those built in beds they look amazing. So one thing I've got to mention is called the odd company they make handcrafted herboards to order with different fabrics and shapes but there's lots of companies that do that that you can then upscale your current bed without buying new. So if you want a headboard that's genuinely like a statement piece rather than something from catalog perhaps have a look online to find a headboard that really does bring some wowfats to you to your bed and then if you're renting or you can't actually touch anything to your walls then you could try this trick that we use quite a lot on shoots don't mean which is hanging up a large piece of fabric or tapestry up behind your bed or you could group a row of prints together behind your bed which gives you the same visual anchor as an oversized headboard. The headboard doesn't actually have to be a headboard it just has to be something that quates a top line in your bedroom and draws your attention immediately to your bed. Yeah or you could use my the trick that I used in my previous home so I created a fake anchor behind my headboard by painting a triangle mural behind the head of my bed and it worked really well because it drew your eye directly to the wall that the bed was on so whatever you choose remember the bed is the hero so make it generous and give it the framing that it deserves. Now bedroom design mistake number three and this one affects so many people and that is getting the lighting wrong. So hands up if your bedroom lighting is one overhead light and two bedside lamps that don't really reach where you actually need them to be. I think if we hand in Britain just went on. Yeah and here is the thing okay it is not just an aesthetic problem when it comes to the bedroom okay. Bright overhead lights in the evening actively suppresses your melatonin which is the hormone that helps you sleep. Did you know this? I know about melatonin but I don't understand the signs behind. So if you have bright harsh lighting in your bedroom you are literally making it harder for your body to wind down. It's like a psychological issue and not just a design one. It sounds quite scary. Does it sound scary because of my voice? I do get the principle with bedroom lighting it doesn't need to be layered. Probably the most layered lighting that you're going to need in the whole of your house. You know you can want some ambient light for when you're chilling in your room and then you're definitely need some task lighting so you don't trial on your makeup and then of course some accent light when you're reading in bed. In the bedroom the emphasis on lighting has to be sort of quite warm, low, I love a dimmer switch in a bedroom. You can change the the mood of it and the ambience you know bedside lamps are a little complete non-negotiable. I don't care if they are fixed to the wall beside the bed but you're getting any ones that you can read properly and it needs to be at the right height and then just to make sure that when you're sitting up in bed you can illuminate your book properly so you can read well. I think the guideline is that they should be roughly at shoulder level when you're sitting up in bed. Yeah. I don't know if that's I think. I feel it kind of makes sense. Yeah. And then always always always use warm white bulbs. The cool white bulbs in a bedroom looks like a hospital. Like no one wants that warm white looks like somewhere you'd actually want to sleep. It's such a simple swap and it's such a big difference. I think people often miss that day. They buy all this fancy lighting and then they forget about the bulbs and then there's lots of areas in your bedroom that people forget to illuminate. They just do beside the bed and over the bed but actually you can in either well lit mirror, instantine your dressing table where you put to your hair and your makeup and then if you want to be really busy you can put lights inside your wardrobe. I've got a magnifying mirror with a light that I have inside my wardrobe so that when I'm doing my makeup I can see myself and that was like 5th quid. Yeah inside wardrobe lighting is such a game changer isn't it? And you can get your power LED strip lights now or you can get motion sensor lights that need absolutely no wiring at all and you just stick them in and they come on when you open the door and when you've been getting dressed in the dark for years suddenly you can see everything. It is genuinely transformed. Oh, especially in the winter months where you feel like you're getting dressed in the dark. I mean I do think natural light is really important. I think it makes you feel better. We need to bring as much as we can into our bedrooms and not ideally shutting it all out. I do think having your bedroom flooding with natural light in the morning does regulate your sideactic rhythm. You know happens to your body clock, tells you brain it's daytime and it gets you to wake up properly. I personally don't I sleep in my blinds open because I like to wake up with daylight. What? No I'm sorry you are. I sleep with the curtain open but I personally prefer that. Do you have an eye mask? Please tell me you have an eye mask. I do have an eye mask. Okay, good. But I don't like it. I'm quite sensitive to it. I know other people are different. Oh, what a weirdo. So the girl with a broken heart. Okay, bedroom design mistake number four and this one is the one that we probably all need to hear and that is not having proper storage. It had a good storage in a bedroom, is a recipe for disaster guys and this will turn your bedroom into a dumping ground and believe me I'm speaking from experience here, I made a big mistake in my last time. Oh it's just your floor rope. I had the floor robe. We need to talk about the floor robe. For anyone that doesn't know I'm sure you'll do but a floor robe is when the floor becomes your wardrobe. With all done it you've got clothes everywhere and then it's got a very close melody of actually and that's called the chairdrow. Have you heard that one? I've got that one. So that's when the chair that started life has somewhere to sit and now becomes purely for close storage system and I do think it happens for a reason. I actually think if you put a chair in a room you're asking for trouble it's a magnet for clothes but in bedrooms you do have to really think about storage because if it doesn't work it's going to become a problem. There's no place for anything to go. It's going to end up dumped in a corner and your bedroom will never look tidy. Things will never get put away. There's always hot spots in the bedroom isn't there. My hot spot in the bedroom is on the bench that we have at the end of our bed and sometimes I do just consider getting rid of the bench entirely because the laundry piles can't sit on it. But yeah sometimes there's just no escaping it. But research into visual clutter shows that a messy environment creates a constant low-level stress response in the brain even when you are not consciously looking at the mass. So in the room where you're supposed to be switching off the most this is the absolute last thing that you want. Yeah so the answer's going to be storage and I think if you have got the budget and space I do highly recommend getting fitted wall drives for keeping everything away. But if you don't have the budget for that you can buy an ottoman bed which is honestly not that expensive and it's so much easier for storing stuff than boxes that get shoved underneath there. I've got open wall droops in my bedroberment and because it's kind of a display it's actually like a feature in the room and they're floor to ceiling, wall to wall so there's no awkward gaps or any wasted space. Nothing accumulating on the top because there is literally no top and all of the internal organisation is just as important as the wardrobe itself. There needs to be a place for everything. And then I think fitted wall droops seem really expensive. If you get them done but actually you can get the IKEA packs into them. It's great. It's some really good IKEA packs. Hacks on mine. You can definitely go check them out and you can get doors made by a local carpenter and fill in the gaps so you can get them to look bespoke. There are ways of doing it at a fraction of the cost. Yeah the other thing that is really inexpensive but helps make a bed and fill karma and clutter free is things. I feel like I'm telling people to suck eggs but hooks on the back of your door or inside your wardrobe doors. It's a handy place to hang a dressing gown or a handbag or your outfit for the next day and it just means that these things stay off the floor and off the chair and outside and it takes five minutes to install and changes your morning routine completely. Yeah and as well as hooks I do think choosing a bedside table is very important. I think one with a little drawer and you have to be really ruthless because I know you have this bug there but no wires you've got to keep it quite clear. It's one of those areas where things can build up and you open your drawer and you're like why have I got that in there. I'm going to agree with you. I've actually got a bedside table that's got two big drawers and I get annoyed at myself for how much stuff I put in it and I'm constantly have to clean it out because I just shove everything in there. So I'm going to agree with you Maxine. In some cases maybe more storage is not good idea because you're actually in that with more clutter. Yeah. Now our final bedroom design mistake which is number five and this is the one I see a lot and that is getting the window dressings wrong and forgetting about layers. Yes, window dressings in a bedroom is one of the biggest missed opportunities that I quite often see as well and it can go wrong in a few specific ways. Either people have one thin curtain that does nothing with no blackout or no insulation and no privacy or they have something that looks fine but is hung completely wrong or isn't appropriate for the room so it makes the whole room feel a bit smaller and lower than it is. I think it's that key principle is that for bedrooms especially is about layers. So we always talk about this in a room so you need layers at your window in the same way that you would need layers of lighting or layers of bedding. The first layer which is going to be close to the glass you can either have a blind, a sheer or a royal panel and this is where you can adjust the light because your privacy and a bit of control and the second layer is the curtain which is going to be for warmth, coosiness and blackout and it gives you the finished overall look. Yeah those two layers together are what makes the bedroom window look properly dressed. One on its own always feels slightly incomplete doesn't it? Either too functional or it's too decorative but together they give you total control and they look beautiful. Yeah for your blind layer you have lots of different types of blinds and they all give a different result. So for example roller blind is very streamlined and what it's brilliantly under curtains because it doesn't interrupt the curtain flow while a fabric Roman blind is much softer and it can be more decorative you can choose a pattern fabric but if you want privacy during the day without losing light you could do a sheer blind or even a royal panel because then you get the light coming through so but you cannot be seen from the outside when you're wondering around in the nude and window film as well. I don't think people know enough about window film you can get solo control film as well on the glass and that reduces the glare and the heat from the strong morning sun especially in eastern south facing windows without making the room look dark at all and you barely notice it's there. I have window film at mine and that way my neighbours can't see in so I can have the bones pulled up and have loads of light pouring in but I can get dressed in peace. I don't have curtains that's the next thing I'm thinking about but I find it quite tricky because it's quite calm mistake that people make when hanging them and that's when they have them just to the window frame that's the common mistake I see people make but always always go for floor length curtains please don't go for ones that finish at the window. Oh god yeah no curtains at the window still hot lamp it just looks so dated and wrong doesn't it when you hang curtains high and wide the window looks so much bigger and the ceiling looks taller and in effect this will make your bedroom look and feel more expensive as well. It's genuinely one of the most highest impact and lowest cost changes that you can make to a bedroom. You can even just add on the next bit of fabric if you've got existing curtains that you want to pimple them up because I do think the fabric of your curtains matters so much. Yes. You really want to think about the weight, the drape, what fabric you use like linen velvet or thick cotton. A really thin stiff curtain is going to look quite cheap, regardless of the price tag. So have a look at the fabric because that will impact the drape and that will reflect and give you more luxurious look. Yeah so do not hold back on the layers and let your window dressings be the star of the show. Okay so now we are welcoming our lovely guest for this episode Viva Avashthy who is an expert at homescapes. So homescapes are proudly our headline sponsor for this series and they sell the most beautiful bed linen which is such high quality and I can vouch for this myself as I have one of their linen sets. It's incredible. Yeah. You can just feel like the perfect fit for her to have her on to this episode and she's going to give us her low down on how you can design a bedroom and dress a bed for pure luxury and I cannot wait to hear what she's to say. So let's get her in. Hi Viva welcome to our home podcast and thank you for joining us today. Gemma and I have lots of your beautiful homewear in our own homes and we've used it in our styling work as well. As our headline sponsor could you tell our listeners a little bit more about homescapes and how the brand came about? Yeah absolutely so something that I think a lot of your listeners may not know even the ones who are familiar with with our brand is that we're a family business. My parents actually started the company 25 years ago. We started off as suppliers to luxury hotels and department stores. We saw that with the rise of the internet that actually we could bring beautiful quality pieces direct to the public. Our brand is all about high quality because we produce the pieces ourselves and a commitment to natural materials and then keeping everything super accessible so that everyone can experience really nice quality at home. Yeah I mean the quality you can tell especially with the cushions and the the miles. The rug that I've got is absolutely outstanding. Okay so we talk a lot on this podcast about the bedroom being one of the most neglected rooms in our homes and obviously this particular episode is all about avoiding bedroom design mistakes. So what we would love to know is from your experience what are the most common bedroom design for the mistakes that you see people making? Yeah so I think what tends to happen from what we've seen is that people will put loads of effort and energy into their living room because that's where they can show off their space and entertain their guests and their friends and their family. Whereas with the bedroom it's like not so many people visit you know. So sometimes it tends to get pushed to the background but because it is the space where you want to decompress and you want to feel relaxed and you want to feel good. I'd say that actually something that's worth bearing in mind is that you want to feel good and that you want to sleep well. So there's two aspects. One is the parts that you can't see which is how does your bed feel? How do you feel when you wake up? How do you feel as you're sleeping and then the other aspect is how does it look? I think it's truly like our bedrooms are quite private spaces and so sometimes they slip down out of do list but actually doing what your bedroom is a bit for self care isn't it? Yeah. You're making sure that you're sleeping well and when you sleep well you function better. So if you kind of ignore those things I think that can be quite a big problem that interior design can fix. Yeah. I think doing your bed is an investment in yourself just as much as it is in your home and it is so important. So if someone was really unhappy with their bedroom, where would you suggest that they start fast? When you're next in your room, jump into your bed and just feel, okay, like does my body get the chance to just feel relaxed? What's happening? Are my pillows supporting my neck? How's my spine feeling? Making me want to go up and jump in my bed now. Yeah, it sounds fun, right? It's a fun, good way to get feeling good. So get into your favourite kind of cold up position or sprawled up position and are you feeling supported? If you don't have so much of a budget that you want to spend on something like a mattress, what about a lovely mattress topper that can provide fantastic support? I would say go for natural materials where you can, it's just naturally temperature regulating, you tend to last longer. I do think when they are doing a bedroom, they think about just getting the dovet in the bedding and they might buy cheaper and then you end up being quite sweaty in it. Yeah, that's the worst. I stayed in the air being being leased for a wedding last year and they had this beautiful apartment and then the dovet was this horrible lumpy thin thing. You just don't sleep, so there was no problem. I said, "Bedlinen is just not the thing you should not scrimp on." You're investing in yourself, you're investing in your comfort, you're investing in your sleep. But it's just very important and I do think a lot of people don't think about that. Yeah, but it can be quite everywhere we can to know where to start with bedding. Where do you suggest they start when shopping for bedlinen? Yeah, so it can be overwhelming, but it's so transformative isn't it? So the first thing to think about is go for natural materials because like Maxine was saying that that's sweaty feeling, you don't want that. And that's the beauty of natural materials is that they are breathable. And by that I mean pure natural materials, so sometimes you'll come across blends, which means it might be like 80% cotton, 90% cotton even, but you've got that 10% synthetic. And that can make the difference and still cause that overheating. So with doofets you want to be thinking about the season, so pick your what's known as a tag for the right season, make sure that you're going for the heavier tag, so the higher numbers in the winter and the lighter tags in the summer. If you're not sure what's going to work for you then go for what's known as an all seasons do they where you basically get the best of both. You get two different tags and then you can clip them together. So you see the thing with the Fred count like it doesn't really make a big difference. I know that it goes up to numbers, but I don't really understand personally what it is. I just know that you go to be thin and I kind of know about the talks and do they is. Yeah, that for me is a bit of a minefield, so I'm sure listeners would love to learn more about that. Yeah, so with Fred count, it can be quite confusing because actually a lot of retailers make it confusing. When you think about Fred counts, you might naturally think, oh, the higher the thread count, the better the quality is going to be right. Like if something is 200th bed count versus a thousandth, the count surely the thousands going to be nicer and better. But there is more to it. So there are two types of weave when it comes to cotton bed linen. So the first is percale weave, which is also what's known as that crisp and cool, that kind of weave where you get into it, you instantly feel that freshness, that crispness, a lot of hotels will have this kind of weave. But then the other one is what's known as satin weave, which is the smooth and kind of like buttery soft sort of bed linen. If you tend towards being a hot sleeper, you're going to be better off with a percale crisp and cool weave. Which is made. But that's made. That's made. But then what I would say is if you still love the softness and you want that really nice softness that you do get in the premier luxury hotels, then go for an expertly woven cotton satin weave. So for example, organic range, which is the 400th bed count and then a thousand, which is our premium premium premium range. Both of those buttery soft, but still breathable because we use what's known as extra long staple Egyptian cotton. So the thing that really matters is the extra long staple. That means that each cotton strand is very long and that makes it strong. So it lasts really well. But at the same time, because the quality of the cotton is high, it has that breathability and it has that basically all the wonderful things that you want to experience with your bed linen, it has that. So shorter staple Egyptian cotton or cotton is it's like it's not often talked about, but the problem with it is that it won't last you as long. It won't feel as breathable and so you could have somebody claiming well, where a thousandth red count or whatever the red count they want to claim, but the quality of the cotton itself to weave that the red count may not be as hot. Oh, that's okay. No mind. Oh, it's good. It's good. It's technical here. It is quite technical. And then the second thing to bear in mind about the red count is this. It's that there's something that is known as ply. So single ply versus multiply and what that means is each each of your cotton threads. You can weave them together in two different ways basically. You can either get a bunch of weaker cotton threads and spin them together and then call that a yarn or you can work with higher quality cotton from the get go. And then you're not spinning together lower quality. You have single high quality strands. That's how we do it. We go for the single high quality strands because it means that your bed linen is going to be more breathable last longer. Get off do with every wash like age beautifully. But what that means is that when it comes to the thread count number, you'll find that some places where you can get your bed linen. They will inflate the thread count number because they've got more of those basically lower quality threads that they were going together. And that way they can claim that it's a higher thread count because there are more threads involved quite a lot of lighting. But the good thing is that you can tell quality when you feel it. So at the end of the day, like yes, it's technical, but you will feel the difference when you go for something that has a better quality and you'll feel better when you get up. You'll feel more excited to get into bed. I mean, I feel like everyone's quite excited, you know, to sleep. It's a beautiful part of life, but you'll feel even more so with the right bed linen. So if I listen to God their bed sorted, they got their lovely quality bedding. Are there other areas that they could pop some attention into that you think would help that other areas that you see people making mistakes with their bedroom? Yeah, absolutely. So this is something that you guys have discussed actually in previous episodes lighting. Lighting is such a beautiful way to bring the sense of peace and calm into your space or to bring that drama if you want drama because you know for many of us our bedrooms can be a place to escape and lighting is just fantastic because you can play with so many moods. I think it's so we've said we have to say we've said it before, but we can't hammer it enough to our listeners that it is the most easier single way to completely change the ambiance in a room. It gets the tone for it. And I think bedrooms are definitely not a room to be overlooked when you're getting definitely. Yeah, and then actually the other thing when it comes to lighting that does tie into our range is blocking out the light. So we start getting the right blackout curtains and then really measuring them properly because if you don't measure them right you'll still have that light sneaking through the bottom. So making sure you're getting your curtains and they are long enough and they are wide enough. You know and go for what's known as a triple pass coating. So that's your 100% blackout because as you go and look for blackout curtains you'll often come across different types of blackout. And a lot of the time you'll get not 100% blackout will be 80 or 90% because we focus so much on really high quality sleep for our customers. We make sure that we offer 100% blackout so it's really good idea to when you're awake have beautiful ambient lighting and then when you're asleep make sure that you you know really block out that light and get the rest that you need. Yeah, I think window dressings are probably one of the most important things to get right in a bedroom isn't it because the end of the day if you're not blocking out the light it can be crucial to your sleep. If they're not right and we've got some blinds in our bedroom and I'm like constantly thinking I need to probably get some curtains in that just especially in the summer now that it's getting brighter at the moment it is quite crucial. Yeah, yeah, definitely let's talk about rugs as well because I think that is sometimes something that a lot of people can get wrong especially in a bedroom. So how do you think the right rug can help bring a bedroom together? Yeah, so rugs actually can be a really nice and coony room and take up a lot of that floor space. But something to bear in mind is that if you go for natural materials what you'll experience is that your rugs are going to be kind to your health basically. So the beauty about natural materials is that that temperature regulating effect comes through. So when you're in the summer it's basically contributing to a room that feels like nice cooling space to be as opposed to our furnace. And then the other thing I would say is that you can also bring a lot of personality and storytelling into your bedroom through your rug. So because there is such a beautiful history of hand woven and loom woven rugs. And like I know that you guys have been on some lovely holidays recently and you would have them sure come across some of these traditions in various parts of the world. that's something that we love at Homescapes as well. So our rugs are traditionally loom woven, so we've got these techniques that are passed on down the generations, artisans who love their work or proud of what they do and they spend hours putting together is beautiful. Each one is unique, each one is an expression of work, workmanship and expresses your taste and your mood and your style, you know? I'm going to go out there and say that rugs are probably one of my favourite things to pick for a room, when I'm visually designing a room, rugs are probably my favourite. They're fun, they're really fun. And you can get a bit of personality into a room with a rug. And then figure out all the colours of your accessories so it can really pull a room together. And there's nothing like when you bake up in the morning and you just pat about on a nice rug with your bare feet and it's a lovely and cold floor board. Yeah, absolutely. So what exciting things have you got happening at Homescapes? Have you got anything new coming out that we need to be updated on? Yeah, definitely. So we've got some lovely new pieces coming in which we're very excited about. We've just launched a new cooling bedding range actually, which is great for what is expected to be quite a hot summer. And we've got some new muslin collections coming in, some new muslin throws and cushions. And we've got some lovely new candles coming in. So that is our forage, the world of lighting. But lots more lovely decorative pieces and each piece has been thought out to be made to last to harmonise beautifully with our existing collection. And we're very excited to have you guys having picked out a beautiful range of pieces. And then we asked you to stay back. That was a lot of fun during. We were going through your website and we were like, OK, this goes well. And yeah, it's been really fun. Yeah, I mean, it looks fantastic, guys, that you've done a really beautiful job. The creative collection we pulled together, but so nice that everything in that collection works. I've started in my garden. You've started in your bedroom. But all the pieces work well in any space. And I love the fact that when you look at it, you could just so easily shop the look and instantly update your bedroom just like clicking and putting a few things in the basket and you're done. Yeah, it's beautiful. So we're all very excited. Yeah. It feels so lovely to add into you. Could you just tell our followers where it's best to find more about you and follow you? Give us your social handles and things like that. So we're over at HomeScapesOnline.com. And in terms of socials, yes, come follow us, come interact with us. And we've got lots of styling tips and so on. Over at @HomeScapesUK. We've also got a special offer on. Follow the lovely listeners. So if you use the code, how to home 15, you'll get 15% off anything you like over your collection. I can see lots of our listeners are going to be making over their bedroom now and shopping with this camp. Thank you so much for all your tips. Thank you so much. It's been lovely chatting for you. Thank you. Thank you. Needless to say, I'm going to be jumping straight into my bed after we finish recording this episode. A massive thank you to Viva for joining us today. That was fascinating learning about the bedcamps. I just did not realise it was so technical and so controversial, either. I know. That's the sound of our stylist toolbox, which we have packed with even more takeaway resources. They've shaped how we think about our bedroom specifically. And today we have lots and lots of book recommendations for you because educating your eye before you spend money is always the first step. So firstly, our book recommendation is Terrence Conran's Essential Bedroom Book. It's an oldie, but it's a goodie. It covers everything from layout to storage, to lighting and textiles, all specific to the bedroom. The print supports a completely timeless, and if you want to understand how the room should actually function as well as look beautiful, then this is definitely the book that you want to start with. And then for colour specifically, if you get a bit stuck on that, we really want to recommend, after everything we discussed today, Karen Halle's Little Book of Colour. Karen is a colour psychologist, and she explains exactly how different colours affect your mood, sleep and energy. It will completely change how you think about choosing a bedroom colour in the future. So be prepared, repaint your bedroom before you get enough to reading it. It really is a good book. And then for the sleep environment, from a scientific angle, there's a book called Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. And so this is not actually an interior's book at all. It's just one that we thought would be quite interesting to add, in case you wanted to know a little bit more, because it's all about the neuroscience, but the chapters on the bedroom environment are genuinely fascinating. So it covers light, it covers temperature, I think there's some colour in there, it goes over clutter, and it's all covered from a research perspective. And once you have read it, you will never think about your bedroom in the same way. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. And then of course, there's Farron Balls How to Decorate, which is all about understanding how colour and light interacts in a room. They're really good books for people who know paint. The bedroom chapter is particularly brilliant for understanding where some rooms can feel calm and others feel restless. That's always my go-to book, but I pick up. I love the Farron Ball book. And that is a wrap on our bedroom design mistakes episode, honestly. I feel like we've barely scratched the surface. I know we could probably done about three episodes of bedrooms alone, but I think we've got enough there for people to get going, get started. They're going to change up their bedside tables, lamps, bedding, paint colours, they put it up. Oh, don't get them started. So hopefully there we've given you some advice and things that might be holding back your bedroom design and give you some simple ideas that help make a real difference. Without you having to rip your whole room apart. Unless you want to, obviously. Next week is our final episode of the series, which is both exciting and slightly emotional for us. So we're going to be ending with our ever so popular and highly requested Q&A episode, as well as, and you guys have sent in some brilliant questions. There's definitely been a fair few dilemmas that has had us both going all up. That's a good one. I know there's some really juicy ones. Yeah. So make sure you subscribe so that the phone or episode lands straight to ears next week. And if you've enjoyed the series, we'd be grateful if you could leave us a review on any of the stream platforms we listen to us on. It does help people discover the podcast and we do read the most, please help us. And it helps us keep chatting on about a series every week. Yeah. And as always, keep up to date with all of our latest news and updates. Over on our Instagram at howtohome.podcast. But until then, happy decorating and we'll see you next week. Bye. This series of howto home podcast is proudly sponsored by HomeScapes. Head to homescapesonline.com and use our code HowToHome15 for 15% of your entire order.