ADVERTISING PROMOTION
Urban living tends to invoke images of busy lifestyles, hurried crowds and acres of traffic but this doesn't mean that your home can't be a haven of tranquillity.
It's a dream of many city folk to one day be able to enjoy the relative peace and quiet of the country lifestyle. If this dream feels too far off, then you can easily bring a bit of country style to your own house with these ideas from Dunelm Mill. And where better to start in creating your own rural oasis than the bedroom? The room where we retire at the end of the day, where we prepare for the day ahead - the room that, more than any other place in the home, reflects our own personalities?
To help you create your own rural oasis, we'll take a look at some bedroom furniture and window dressing ideas that combine modern style with a distinctly rustic, rural feel. All of the products mentioned below are available online from Dunelm Mill - with more pictures and ideas available on the Dunelm Mill website.
1. Know where to start with bedroom furniture
If you're not in a position to replace all of your bedroom furniture, you may want to purchase a few key items that you can dot around the room to enhance the atmosphere - a vase here, a lamp there, an attractive print on the wall.
2. Give your room a country-style bedroom furniture revamp
However, if your budget and situation allow it, then you can achieve the desired look in one fell swoop by purchasing parts of, or the full range of, a bedroom furniture collection from Dunelm Mill. The web-exclusive Chichester furniture collection, for example, contains a range of oak products that will provide a welcome tonic to the inevitable stresses of urban living. You can pick and choose from the range depending on your needs and the space you have available - with bedside cabinets, dressing tables, beds and wardrobes complemented with a selection of mirrors, stools and accessories. All of the bedroom furniture in this collection has been built from hand-picked oak, which has been gently distressed to bring out the natural characteristics of the wood. The chunky proportions and extra-thick tops complete the charmingly rural look.
3. Make the most of light and windows
With furniture in place, the next areas to focus on are your bedroom windows. It's far too easy to forget the importance of complementary window dressings when designing your dream country-style bedroom. Flat and functional blinds may be attractive in a minimalistic, urban-style bedroom, but if you want to truly bring a bit of bucolic beauty to your bedroom, then you'll need to purchase an appropriate set of blinds or ready-made curtains.
4. Check out these perfectly practical blinds
Thankfully Dunelm Mill has a wide selection of window dressings available to suit modern and traditional decorative schemes. Why not choose a patterned set of Roman blinds to bring out some of the earthy tones in your new furniture, or some Venetian blinds made from light wood for the optimum balance of brightness and privacy? A set of linen-look roller blinds will look unfussy and stylish in virtually any setting, whilst a set of vertical blinds are ideal if you're lucky enough to have a large, bright window at your disposal.
5. Add colour quickly and easily with ready-made curtains
The beauty of ready-made curtains from Dunelm Mill is that they can often be purchased in conjunction with matching cushions and other accessories. Consistency breeds tranquillity, so why not go for an understated floral pattern on your curtains and cushions, with a complementary chair (or even a beanbag) positioned so that you can soak up some sun as you read a book, relax and forget about the hustle and bustle on the streets below? Perfect.
