What is on your bedside table?

Editor’s note: Please welcome the SY interiors expert, Kristie Castagna from Elements at Home. Kristie is a professional blogger, interior stylist and colour consultant so who better to give some advice on getting the most out of spaces at home?

I love decorating my bedside but I think it is one of the hardest zones to decorate with deliberate success. It is a very personal space and it says so much about its owner and how they use this room. After observing my own bedside decorating habits, I discovered that I decorate my bedside with my mood and what is happening in my life at that point in time. This happens weekly when I change my sheets. I take all my sheets off, my quilt cover and sweep everything off my bedside. Then depending on how I am feeling I shop my house and pull new things in. I might name my bedside moods, so you know where I am at.

1. Relaxed (no big events or outings this week, I am hiding behind this word instead of OCD)
2. Bookie (you have book club or need to feed the reader in you)
3. Workie (deadlines and accounts need actioning)

Let’s also point out right now that we are not talking about my husband’s bedside. His side never changes… it has a bedside light and the largest docking iPhone alarm clock radio with rocket launchers and a subwoofer that I have ever seen and he loves it and I don’t, so let’s pretend that side of the bed doesn’t exist.

Let’s look at the items that are the most popular to style with and come up with a go to list that will help us all land on the best tips and tricks for bedroom styling no matter what your mood.

These are my items and your items could be the same but a different style, either way I think the list is fairly universal:

• Bedside or chair
• A vase or two… or three!
• Plants
• Books
• Crystals
• Candles
• Frames
• Artwork
• Magazines
• Bedside light

Let me now show you how the four looks were put together, starting with the addition of this incredible wall sticker from The Wall Sticker Company. Its a customisable sticker that can also be painted with watercolours to appeal to my adult colouring in addiction. The other amazing part of this sticker is it can be moved and reused on different walls in different rooms. So this starts the first of our looks; Relaxed. Using the things you love, the pieces that make you smile or the “things” that fill your heart.

Bookie; ok I am not the usual bookie kind of girl with novels or short stories but I do love to sit in bed of an evening and read through my decorating books. Essential is a bedside light and I stack the books when I make my bed in the morning so it’s nice and neat for the day.

This is Workie, the style of my bedside on the days I need to relax in bed and research on my laptop without any distractions and allow my Hubby to enjoy watching tv in peace without the constant tapping of keys.

I added in a console table to help fit in everything I need around me when working. Layering your tables and heights is great in a small room and allows extra storage and places for the things that make you happy when you’re styling your room. This look works for a room that is wider rather than deeper or if you have your bed hard up against a wall. This adds a feast for the eyes and fills the senses.

As you can see we have one room one bed and one bedside and all I had to do was use some key elements in different ways to create different looks.

Let’s recap a few quick tricks and tips to decorate your bedside:

1. Start with your bedside light and add the first few items around the base.
2. Consider highs and lows and make all the items slightly overlap or “talk to each other”.
3. Add each piece and stand back and assess.
4. Don’t fill every open space on the bedside allow negative space as well as filled space.
5. Pick a mix of textures, timber, glass, paper, wicker and fabric.

Sometimes I think of any decorating surface with the Coco Chanel quote in mind “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”

Before you finish decorating take one thing away.

I would love to hear what you have on your bedside?

Kristie Castagna spent 12 years as a Visual Merchandiser enjoying styling and retail focused design and its many diversities before starting her blog Elements at Home. She is an interiors stylist, colour consultant and professional blogger – not to mention mother and wife. She can talk design for days if you corner her at a party!