Savvy Consumer: Bedded bliss can be easy with these decorating tips

Find your bedroom bliss with one of these three bedroom looks, and meld your styles into a perfect retreat for two.

Guy style meets girly

Think balanced patterns inspired by men's suiting with romantic lavender hues and soft florals.

Well-dressed • Plaid sheets are cozy for you, and unfussy for him. Multiple gray and charcoal tones are easy to combine with throw pillows in dusky purple velvet and a bloom-strewn bolster pillow.

Floral notes • Two accent shams with hazy purple blossoms are the hubby-friendly way to do flowers - in small doses. Play up the hues, and pull the whole bed together, with a lilac blanket. Tthe color is feminine, but a windowpane check heathered wool are borrowed from the boys.

Not two of a kind • Who says nightstands have to match? A pair — one is wood with drawers, the other metal — can marry well, as long as they're both similar shades of gray.

Graphic group • To let the dramatic headboard take center stage, cluster artwork off to the side. The arrangement feels more original than the standard-issue matching prints hung directly over the bed.

Garden variety

Botanical greens and weathered accents create a fresh gender-neutral zone that's ideal for slumbering.

Bring the outdoors in • Sheets patterned in tiny brown leaves have unisex appeal - and set the eco-chic tone. Since the dense print acts as a neutral, adding vivid pillows with intricate floral and trellis motifs gives a cohesive, not chaotic, look. An understated celery coverlet ensures that all the patterns pop.

Outside in • Aged with lime, clean-lined nightstands can look like they've been left outdoors — in a good way.

Box it up • Stacked in pairs, four vintage crates can become a storage bench. Use the bench for a temporary landing for clothes or books; then, at night, flip over the top crates and toss in the quilt or pillows until morning.

Pretty preppy

A little nautical and a whole lot of graphics makes this a dream team. Strong hits of navy blue will sooth a color-shy spouse.

Bright stuff • Go classic with modern edge, like simple white sheets energized with coral dots and a brand of khaki. To inject some pizzazz - and establish a room's blue and white color scheme layer on a throw and shams in high-contrast geometric patterns. A quilted indigo coverlet reinforces the tradition-with-a-twist theme.

Personalize it • A practical padded headboard with a flax linen slipcover recalls a summerhouse by the shore, and is an easy and less expensive way to update a headboard you're tired of. Steal a page from The Preppy Handbook with stitched monogram in the middle, then top it off with your own mugs as artwork.

Trunk show • Nightstands wrapped in leather and trimmed with nail heads evoke the steamer trunks of yore, and add a subtle shine. Double down on the maritime references with coiled lamps made of hemp rope.