Lights: Being able to dim the lights in your bedroom is ESSENTIAL, but lots of people don’t have the option of dimmer switches—especially since they don’t work well with CFL bulbs. Buy lights that you plug in! Just turn on the lights on either side of the bed and turn off the main light.
Paint: if you have the option of painting, we went for a “feature wall” setup, in which three walls are white while one is a rich, deep red. This works really well! The room is bright because of the three white walls, but the feature wall stops it feeling clinical, and makes the room seem bigger because one boundary isn’t so hard. As bold decorating decisions go this really paid off. [Edit: just noticed the main article suggests this too.]
For sex—people are in my experience much more likely to feel relaxed and sexual in dim light than either bright light or no light. But for any other time you want to be able to be relaxed in your bedroom or you want other people to be.
Two personal notes:
Lights: Being able to dim the lights in your bedroom is ESSENTIAL, but lots of people don’t have the option of dimmer switches—especially since they don’t work well with CFL bulbs. Buy lights that you plug in! Just turn on the lights on either side of the bed and turn off the main light.
Paint: if you have the option of painting, we went for a “feature wall” setup, in which three walls are white while one is a rich, deep red. This works really well! The room is bright because of the three white walls, but the feature wall stops it feeling clinical, and makes the room seem bigger because one boundary isn’t so hard. As bold decorating decisions go this really paid off. [Edit: just noticed the main article suggests this too.]
Why is this? On/off has worked fine for me.
For sex—people are in my experience much more likely to feel relaxed and sexual in dim light than either bright light or no light. But for any other time you want to be able to be relaxed in your bedroom or you want other people to be.
Ah, that makes sense.
I think my normal lights are dim enough that they’re fine for relaxation and sex, so I haven’t noticed this.