To Cocoon Or Not To Cocoon, That Is The Question

Posted: 29 July 2009 by Metricon Homes

Tags: colours, fireplace, layout, lighting, modern, trends, zones

Bedrooms use to be places to just crash in and grab some sleep day ready for a bright start to the morrow. But increasingly, they play a different role in our lives.

One of the interesting themes spotted in home design is how people are using their bedrooms as private zones into which they can retreat, away from the activities in the rest of the home. Increasingly, this is seen as a response to the “opening up” of the downstairs or living hub in a home. As that area has become more integrated and shared amongst all family members, so the privacy and peace and quiet of a bedroom becomes more important.

This is reflected in certain obvious recent trends:

• Increasingly, people want TV, radio and music available in their bedroom, either in an adjacent leisure area, or in the room itself. This has led to media niches in bedrooms, and increasingly “wired” houses with multiple media outlets.
• Bedrooms can double as study zones if they are also equipped with seating, tables and/or desks, and internet access.
• Increasingly, master suites are accessed from their own corridors, or via lockable double frosted glass doors, both to provide an “entrance impact”, but also to give warning of little pattering feet landing on the occupants at all hours.
• Bedrooms come configured with “open fires” (usually of the gas variety) and comfortable seating.
• The stripped pine of the minimalist late 60s and early 70s, when the whole world looked like a Swedish furniture store, seems to be gone. Furnishings have become more ornate, and softer. There is increased use of pillows, cushions, heavy-flock wallpaper, and deeper carpet.
• Colours tend to be deeper and richer. Browns, purples, reds and dark blues continue to abound on the walls, floors, and in furnishings. There are always exceptions, of course, but the bare white look of our parent’s years seems to be gone forever.
• Bedroom lighting is often more complex, and capable of being manipulated to create certain moods. This reflects our more conscious “scene setting” in our homes, and also, to an extent, the smaller windows required by five-star energy regulations.

One thing is certain. Life is likely to become more pressured as the years roll by, not less, as we all become increasingly time poor and as the demands on our attention of both career and entertainment become more complex. A bedroom that doubles as a peaceful cocoon starts to sound like a great idea, doesn’t it?

And in a modern, new home, it is increasingly easy to create.