Heart & soul bedroom design
When we hear the word bedroom, most of us envision a restful and relaxing retreat that’s infused with luxurious details and thoughtful design touches. Is your sleeping space in need of some bedroom therapy? Prepare yourself for sumptuous inspiration with Lisa Kahn.
As part of a new series – Bedroom Therapy – we’re snooping in the inner sanctuaries of interior designers and design enthusiasts. Lisa Kahn, founder and owner of the Kahn Design Group and featured designer of Chelsea House Inc. has focused her career on creating luxurious living spaces for her clients. She’s gained a reputation for gracious, sublimely elegant work and she’s the first to admit that as a working parent, finding balance in her life is a daily struggle. We hear you, Lisa.
Beautiful design begins with soul searching
Lisa believes interior design can affect personal wellbeing and she approaches all her projects – including her own bedroom – with a holistic lens. “My decor style is a reflection of what is important to me: timeless investments, elegant grace, relaxing comfort, peace, inspiration, integrity of materials, environmental sensitivity, nurturing energy, strength of character and a good sense of humor.”
Lisa’s sense of design has evolved throughout her life, gently morphing as she’s grown as a designer. Her bedroom has become the most sacred space in her home and the place where she naps, meditates and dreams. “I use my bedroom to do all sorts of things: sleep, read, watch movies, snuggle with my loved ones (both the furry ones and the non-furry) pack for trips and make lists,” she shared. “I love making lists and often take a fair amount of ribbing about it.”
She admits that her bedroom is also a repository or books – ones she’s read and ones she wants to read. “I enjoy being tempted to open a book I’ve never read before or lose myself in a great story or discover the inspiration I’ve been searching for,” she explained. “Some people think books can deaden the energy flow in a room but I can’t imagine my bedroom without them – they sooth and revive me!”
To sleep, perchance to dream…
At the end of the day, it’s night and a bedroom that enables the drifting of the mind is bliss. Before bed, Lisa avoids TV and movies because they engage her imagination and make it difficult to turn off her overly-active mind and imagination. Her bedtime ritual involves a luxurious, lavender-scented bath paired with herbal tea. “Together they relax my body and my mind,” she said. “I throw back the sheers on the sliding doors and let the moonlight pour into my room, which makes me feel like we’re cocooned in a magical blanket.”
Because Lisa spends her life designing living spaces for clients, she’s well versed in how to shop for a mattress (her current mattress is eight years old). She prefers a medium-firm latex mattress with a pillow top and is an equal opportunity sleeper – stomach, back and side. “I pile on my feather down nest-making deliciousness of duvets and pillows and sink into it.”
We’re always eager to know if people make their bed in the morning and why. And every designer we ask shares something truly unique.
“My mother would be so proud to know that I make my bed every morning,” she mused. “Making my bed makes me feel as though I’ve closed the chapter on sleep and opens the next one of the new day. And I hate coming home from work to an unmade bed and getting into rumpled sheets. I know, I know…”
