I ‘ve been browsing the bedrooms on Houzz looking for rooms where one thing – one imaginative stroke – makes all the difference in the design. It might be an accessory, a paint color or a piece of furniture. But if that one thing weren’t in the room, the look would be substantially diminished. Take a glimpse at some of these bedrooms, and see if you can figure out what the one thing is before I reveal it. Hopefully, you’ll begin to appreciate how you can enhance a space with just a single move.

Paint absolutely tops my list for achieving brilliant design affordably. Can you imagine this enveloping bedroom without the rich milk chocolate walls? All the individual ingredients are good, but it’s the paint color that makes it great.

A bold color on all the walls may be too much for you, but you can still employ a single spot of color – to finish off a room like the ribbon on a present. The tangerine in this alcove works like the ribbon here, and the color is casually repeated throughout the space. It’s the singular move that makes this bedroom croon.

Again, a single color – in this case the golden yellow of the bolster and the lumbar pillows – even when added with a very restrained hand, can still revolutionize a room. This bedroom would sing a different tune without that hue.

Upholstering the bench in yellow made all the difference here, as well. A less accomplished designer might have chosen to repeat the color scheme of the bed. But applying a color that until that point appeared in only the most perfunctory way? Perfecto! (Notice in both these rooms how beautifully yellow and black complement each other. by the way.)

That single transformative item can be as simple as a great lamp. This glass fixture with its deep-pink base brings the soft, fuzzy colors of the bedroom into focus and upgrades the entire scheme. (Plus. it’s filled with gum balls!)

Isn’t this green Windsor style chair cheeky and fabulous? Even in a bedroom filled with interesting and imaginative touches, the chair is a standout and adds a certainje ne sais quoithat makes such a difference.

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