Britain’s top hotel designers reveal the secrets of crafting a chic yet relaxing place to sleep
The importance of getting a good night’s sleep has been thrown into sharp relief in recent years, when there has certainly been enough happening in the world to keep one awake at night. According to new research led by University College London, middle-aged people should get at least seven hours’ sleep a night to reduce their risk of developing chronic health conditions such as cancer, diabetes and arthritis – and that concept of the “magic seven hours” is nothing new.
But can the design of your bedroom have any influence on how well you sleep? Perhaps to find ideas and inspiration, we should look to some of the country’s best hotels, and the interior designers whose job is to create the most welcoming, relaxing and sleep-inducing bedrooms.
Hotel bedroom sizes vary widely, from the palatial to the petite, so designers need to be clever with layout in order to make a large room feel welcoming rather than overwhelming, and a small room feel cosy rather than claustrophobic. Most private homes are more likely to have the problem of bedrooms that are on the more bijou side – but there are tricks you can employ to maximise the available space.
It may seem counterintuitive, but many designers recommend going large on the bed in a small room, rather than skimping on a small double in the hope that it will make the room feel bigger; most of us, after all, sleep more comfortably in a bed with more space. “A big bed makes a room feel generous even when its size isn’t,” says designer Nicola Harding, whose hotel projects include Beaverbrook Townhouse in London and the Rose in Deal, Kent. “Putting a four-poster bed in a small room is a great way to make what could otherwise feel like a bit of a box into something really exciting and dramatic. It’s so often the case that the small bedrooms in the hotels we do end up being everybody’s favourite room. You’re at your most vulnerable when you’re going to sleep, and there’s something quite primal in us that likes to feel cosseted and safe in a small room.”