How to Blend Masculine and Feminine Styles in the Bedroom

I think the biggest obstacle when designing a bedroom for a couple is bringing in both masculine and feminine styles.

I wanted a romantic retreat, but what means romance for me isn’t exactly masculine enough for my husband.  So what is one to do?

I set out to create a room that fully represented us: masculine and feminine.  And here’s what I learned along the way.

When we added on this master suite last spring, we installed the floor-to-ceiling board and batten.  Thankfully, we both LOVE that, so it created a textured base for the room that really represented both of us.

Then, it was time to decorate!

 First Define Both of Your Styles

With a blog whose bread and butter is finding your own, unique style, I knew that I wasn’t going with blanket masculine and feminine.  

So I took a look at each of us and nailed down exactly what masculine and feminine things did we love.

For my husband, that means rustic woods, clean lines, and a few dark elements to weight all of my white and color down.

For me, I wanted a little floral, lots of pattern and texture, and a little sparkle.

An idea for our Rustic Meets Bohemian Bedroom was born.

Add in Style Elements Layer by Layer

   I began by taking the three “style definers” for each of us and tried to choose a large element in the room that would fit each one.

The inspiration for this entire room was this floral quilt made by my great-great-grandmother.

I love the colors and it really inspired the blue and green color scheme.

I love items with a soul and history to them, so this was perfect.  I knew that I’d be draping it over the bottom of the bed and keeping our white bedding that was a wedding gift.

So major feminine moment in the room checked off!  I needed to seriously balance this floral with some masculine for hubby.

So, I started with his main love.  My husband loves rustic wood.  If I had to choose just one from his list, that would be it.  For him, that says masculine.  So, I decided to go rustic and masculine in a big way with the wood round headboard.

 

Once we had the wood round headboard for him, I knew that the vintage black trunk with gold trim that I had in storage would look great at the end of the bed.

That addressed another of his masculine style points.

Balance Your Style Elements

My goal was to really balance our style elements.  I wanted it to feel like a perfect, eclectic picture of us…not all me and a masculine element thrown in.

So, the wood headboard with the dark trunk did a lot to balance the floral quilt, but the view of the bed still felt like it was lacking some “me.”

So, I brought in some textured, bohemian pillows that aren’t overly girly, but they are so me!

I knew I wanted to have an eclectic light fixture that was both masculine and feminine.

I knew it needed to be light and preferably white since it was right beside the chunky wood headboard.  I also was really hoping to add in some sparkle to address my girly tastes.

I immediately pictured some sort of industrial pipe light fixture that was really modern, but it wasn’t bringing in my feminine side enough.  Since the masculine moments so far were pretty heavy, I really wanted a little feminine in the lights.  For balance!

So, I took some copper fruit bowls from Target and used them as the shade.  I love the wire texture.  The pattern really appeals to me without being overly feminine.  But the industrial pipe base really appeals to my husband’s tastes.

Once the lights were complete, I felt like both of us were represented fairly well in the main elements.

In layering on all of the finishing touches, I tried to focus on texture, and “neutral” elements.

Basically, I felt like masculine was really represented with two very large elements and my floral quilt was a huge focus.  So for the pillows, rug, and styling details, I tried to choose things that we both would love.

On the nightstands, I stuck with greenery, books, and candles.

For the rug, I wanted a pattern, so I went with a class blue and white palette and clean lines.  It’s a Moroccan-style shag rug, which majorly appeals to my bohemian love.  But the color scheme and clean lines really appeal to Chris.

I’m loving our bedroom!  It turned out even better than I had it in my head.  We both have elements and we love and in the end, love the whole picture!  It feels like us.

I’ll be doing a dedicated post for so many of the elements in this room starting tomorrow!  There is just too much to say in one post!  Tutorials and more design details are on the way!

Up tomorrow: Wood Round Headboard Tutorial!