Basics of Decor for a Bachelor Flat

A bachelor’s rooms need not be large or expensive, and ought not to look as though they were arranged chiefly to impress callers. They should, however, suggest that the occupant has considered how he lives in them and has made the necessary provision.

The standard is not elaborate, yet enough men live among a mattress, a screen, and the packing cases in which their possessions arrived to warrant a few particulars.

Consider the lighting first. A room illuminated solely from the ceiling soon acquires the character of a waiting room; one floor or table lamp beside the place where you read will make the evening considerably more comfortable. Choose a warm bulb, leaving the hard white glare to offices and those public rooms in which forms are completed.

The walls may carry a framed print, a photograph, or a map which is of some interest to you. Fix it properly and at a height at which it can be seen; paper attached with tape has the temporary air of student lodgings, while an entirely bare room seldom becomes intentional merely by being called minimal.

The bed requires clean sheets, a covered duvet or blankets, and pillows which still possess some shape. Since a third of life is spent there, it is a curious place to economise upon washing or comfort.

Provide a small table and chair for meals, even if the table must also serve another purpose at other hours. Clear it before eating; the division between dinner and the rest of the day is worth preserving in modest rooms as much as in a large house.

The shoes by the door require a rack or tray, and the post upon the counter must be answered, filed, or discarded. Nothing further is required by way of decoration until these ordinary arrangements are working; comfort comes more readily from a room kept in order than from another object bought to improve it.