10 Cozy Bedroom Ideas on a Budget for the Best Sleep Ever
The best bedding, paint colors, and decor to create a cozy bedroom with high end style that doesn’t break the bank.
Ever since Robert and I painted our bedroom black a couple of years ago, we have never slept better! I think I’m sold for life on creating a cozy bedroom that feels like a dark cocoon of comfort after a long day.
If there’s one thing homeownership and decorating has taught me over the years, it’s that the primary bedroom is usually the very last room to get a makeover. And yet, it really deserves to be one of the first.
Friendly PSA: Just because guests don’t see your bedroom doesn’t make it any less important! Decorate that bedroom, honey. You’re allowed to have a retreat for yourself. Right?! It’s self care.
There’s nothing like a cozy bedroom designed to help you escape from everyday stress… maybe you needed to hear that.
What makes a bedroom feel cozy? It mainly comes down to soft bedding, warm lighting, and a few little decor touches to make your bedroom or guest room feel like a hug.
Here are some ideas to help.
10 Comfy Cozy Bedroom Ideas
1. A piece or two of wood toned furniture
And I’m talkin’ warm wood toned furniture since cool toned wood furniture can sometimes feel, well, cold. If all of your bedroom furniture is painted and something feels “off”, chances are it needs just one piece of wooden furniture to up the cozy factor.
You can find endless amounts of wooden dressers, chests, bed frames, and nightstands on Facebook Marketplace and in antique shops. Just give the wood a deep cleaning to make them look good as new. Or fake the look on one of your existing bedroom furniture pieces with this DIY wood look using paint.
(I found our bed and dresser at a consignment shop. But you can find more beds similar to this one here.)
2. Go dark and moody with the paint color
I have zero regrets since we painted our walls black in the color KILZ Rebel (though the thought of black walls definitely terrified me at first). Contrary to popular believe, dark paint colors actually don’t make small bedrooms look smaller. They create the illusion of more space.
Add some blackout shades to block out natural light as needed (we have these shades in Bonaire Flaxen) alongside black wall paint and you’ll sleep like a bear in a cave… in a good way.
If black isn’t your thing, try navy blue like Benjamin Moore Hale Navy or a deep green like Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue.
3. Go warm on the color palette
Especially in the fall, I love adding a warm color scheme like amber, rust, mauve, merlot, or chocolate brown to add a touch of comfort. A warm color palette helps a space feel more inviting. Swap out a couple of pillow covers, maybe add a warm toned blanket, and you’re done.
4. Layer bedding
You know those big squishy beds you always see in Pottery Barn catalogues that are just begging for people to bury themselves into them? Bedding adds to the coziness of a room the most.
Layering your bedding by including a fluffy duvet, bed blanket, and throw blanket helps create that look. (Here are some tricks to get a fluffy bedding look for less than paying the real deal high end prices.)
I put two of these inexpensive duvet inserts into this waffle textured duvet cover to create the look of a more luxury duvet. These gel sleeping pillows never go flat for a fully fluffy bedding experience.
And these super soft sheets create a silky luxury feel for way less than the real deal high end sheets. I love them so much that I have two pairs for each of our beds so that I can always rotate them in the laundry.
Best Luxury for Less Bedding
5. Go textured on textiles
Including a chunky knit bed blanket adds to the cozy feeling too. We’ve had this chunky knit bed blanket for two years and still love it! It has a good weight to it that almost has the effect of a weighted blanket.
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6. Add a little pattern
It’s fun to play with a little bit of pattern in rugs, pillows, and blankets to make a room feel cozier and more curated.
Try mixing a floral print with a geometric print like stripes or plaid if you feel a little stuck. This vintage style rug, this houndstooth knit throw blanket, and this striped pillow make the room a little more interesting.
7. Use down or down alternative duvets and pillow inserts
Nothing makes a pillow look flat and sad like a thin little polyfill pillow insert that often comes with store bought throw pillows. I like to buy pillow covers with zippers so that I can replace them with these down inserts (or these down alternative inserts if you prefer).
Use an insert two inches larger than the pillow cover. Throw pillows look much more full and fluffy that way, and you’ll have less to store later. See how to mix and match throw pillow prints here.
Tip: If you don’t want to spend $20-30 on a pillow insert, check the clearance aisle at HomeGoods, Marshalls, or TJ Maxx. I often find down filled throw pillows in the clearance section with a not-so-pretty or damaged pillow cover for around $5-10. Ditch the damaged cover and just buy it for the insert.
8. Include some flameless candles
An open flame in a bedroom makes me nervous since the last thing I’d ever want to do is burn our house down, but I love the cozy glow candles make. These flameless candles that can be set with a timer and dimmed come with a remote and look so real!
9. Snip branches or flowers (real or fake)
Bring a little nature inside to make a bedroom feel cozy using just a couple of branches from your yard.
For this vase, I just used these fake branches because I don’t particularly enjoy picking up dead fallen leaves everywhere. See more realistic flowers and realistic branches here.
10. Lean into soft white lamp light
Anywhere you can fit the soft lighting of a lamp, do it! Soft white, to me, is the best because it’s the goldilocks of light bulbs – it doesn’t look too blue or too yellow.
I gave this thrift store table lamp a makeover for just a few bucks worth of spray paint.
So now that the nights are getting longer as we get further into fall, we might as well enjoy it with some cozy bedrooms, right?
The dark, cold days make me a little sad, but a comfy warm bedroom makes the upcoming fall and winter months better for sure.
Here is everything I used in this bedroom if you want to know where to find something.
Cozy Bedroom Sources
- Paint color: Kilz Rebel
- Bed (similar – mine is nowhere to be found since it was consigned)
- Dresser (similar)
- Ceiling fan
- Nightstands (DIY)
- Closet doors (DIY)
- Wall mounted lamps
- Table lamp (DIY)
- Duvet inserts
- Duvet cover
- Mauve colored throw pillows
- Striped oblong pillow
- Houndstooth throw blanket
- Chunky knit bed blanket
- Sleeping gel pillows
- Ultra soft sheet set
- Area rug (mine is discontinued but this is similar)
- DIY grid molding
- Jewelry dish
- Eyeglasses holder
- Picture frame
- Fall flowers
- Dried flower bundle
- Fall branches
- Marble tray
- Flameless candles
- Large vase
- Small vase
- DIY landscape art
One day, I would love to add ceiling beams in here or maybe a planked detail to give the illusion of high ceilings. Or a reading nook chair in front of a window. What do you think?
Got any other cozy room ideas you’d add to the list? There’s plenty more but those are the top 10 for me for sure.
More Bedroom Decorating Ideas
- How to Redecorate a Room in Under an Hour + Guest Bedroom Decor Refresh
- 10 Small Bedroom Ideas to Make Your Space Feel Bigger
- 7 Tricks for How to Make a Bed Fluffy for Less
