5 Ways to Add Texture to Your Bedroom

Are you looking for an easy and cozy way to add tons of visual interest to your bedroom? Look no further than texture. 

Interior designer Andrea May, based in La Jolla, Calif., defines texture as “both the way something feels to the touch and how it appears that will feel to the touch.” This is otherwise known as tactile texture and visual texture.

So, why is it important to add texture to a space, particularly a bedroom?

“Texture tells the experiential story of a bedroom space,” May explains. “Visually, texture can create an ambiance of warmth and coziness, sleek luxury, breezy sophistication, and casual comfort, to name a few.”

She also says a space with thoughtful texture provides hints of how you’ll experience the space. For instance, will the bouclé chair be a cozy spot to curl up with a book? “This is the magic of texture even before you experience it through touch,” adds May.

Although texture can live in virtually any space in a home, a bedroom simply calls for it.

“A bedroom is the perfect space to play with texture,” May says. “Visual texture builds anticipation and tactile texture makes a bedroom delicious to the touch.”

Read on to explore different ways to add texture, and some life, to your sleep space—and make it feel oh-so-comfortable and inviting in the process.

How to add texture to a bedroom

Describe how you want the space to feel

When brainstorming ways to add texture to your bedroom, May recommends choosing three words for how you want the space to feel. “These are your North Star,” she says. She lists words like breezy, ethereal, and easygoing as examples. “Textures for this space might include gauzy drapes, a jute rug, and

,” May adds.

Get serious about layering

In order to make a bedroom feel truly textured and sumptuous, it’s all about layering, says May. “Create interest by pairing the unexpected,” she suggests. “Juxtapose textures such as silky with rough, nubby with smooth, crisp with organic.”

Stick with neutrals

The bedroom is the best place for a neutral palette since these colors tend to be peaceful and sleep-promoting. They also work well if you’re weaving in various textures.  

“Stay in neutral,” May says. “Textural stories work best in neutrals or monochromatic schemes where they’re not competing with print and loads of color.”  

Consider other accessories

It doesn’t have to just be about textiles when you’re incorporating texture into your bedroom. For bonus texture, May says you can also display baskets, trays, and other accessories that have textured surfaces. Think: wicker and rattan.

Look to your walls

Texture doesn’t have to stop at your bedroom decor. You can also take it to your walls.  “Wallcoverings from faux lacquer to wood to grass cloth are fantastic ways to add texture to a space and really set a tone,” May says.

FAQs

What materials can I use to add texture to my bedroom?

For textiles, May recommends using linen (“from smooth to slubby,” she says), fine, raw, or organic silk, crisp, cool percale cotton, and silky Supima cotton. If you’re drawn to natural woven fibers, include seagrass, jute, and abaca in your bedroom. And don’t forget the wicker, rattan, and caning for a textured, bohemian vibe.

Should the texture of my bedding match the other textures in my bedroom?

“Beddings should be unified with the rest of the bedroom space—however, they don’t necessarily have to match,” May says. “Unexpected pairings make a space interesting.”

How do I maintain a balanced and uncluttered look when adding texture to my bedroom?

May suggests keeping prints and colors to a minimum so that you can allow texture to be the main star of the space.

Add texture to your bedroom with furniture pieces from Saatva

Saatva offers a variety of bedroom furniture pieces that can help you add the pop of texture you’re looking for in the bedroom. Look to bed frames, chairs,  and benches and ottomans in a range of materials, such as velvet, linen, and leather, as well as handcrafted woven rugs.