Jonathan Scott wants you to get some sleep.
“Everyone focuses on areas like kitchens and baths, and they forget about the most important room in the house,” the star of HGTV’s Property Brothers tells PEOPLE of how often people skip decorating their bedroom. “You have to have somewhere to sleep in and relax.”
Scott has teamed up with mattress brand Stearns & Foster to create the Redesign Your Retreat campaign, which features tips, tricks and inspiration for creating your best bedroom. He insists that you have to give your “sleep station” the attention it needs. And if you make a few smart choices, you may not even have to spend much to do it.
“Bedrooms are pretty much the least expensive room in the home to design,” Scott, 38, says. “You don’t typically have fixtures or plumbing. It’s usually just www.”
If you’re planning a redo for your retreat, here are some of Scott’s expert tips for where to save and where to spend.
SAVE: Curtain call. “[For] half of the rooms we do on Property Brothers, I end up getting the window panels for less than $20,” Scott reveals. “I’ll add a detail just by getting a piece of fabric to make it look more expensive.”
But proper tailoring is essential to make your curtains look sophisticated. “You don’t want to have flood pants, like people who wear their pants too short,” he says. “You want to have them just kiss the floor so they fall nicely to give them that high-end look.”
SPEND: Mattress matters. “People need to invest in a good sleep,” he says. “It’s worth looking for other ways to save money in the room so you can spend a little bit more on something that’s a good fit for you.”
If that’s not enough to convince you, maybe this “nerdy” stat will. “You spend more than a third of your life in your bed,” Scott says. “So it’s worth putting some thought into.”
SAVE: DIY design. “Take a few hours and go through thousands of pictures, on Google images or Houzz or Pinterest, and mark all of the things you love,” Scott says. “You know, ‘I love this bedding and I love those colors and I love that side table,’ and you can put together your own design. It sounds like a lot, but it’s a lot easier than you think.”
SPEND: Luxe lighting. “You should have a beautiful fixture, because typically when someone walks in, one of the first things they naturally look at is the light source,” Scott says. “I like having something with a little character. It doesn’t have to be a crazy, wild, big chandelier, but something a little bit more upscale.”
SAVE: Décor details. Personalization is key to designing your best bedroom, but you don’t have to use store-bought accents to make it come together. In Scott’s own bedroom, he focuses on memorabilia from his life and travels — like souvenirs from Bora Bora and the key to the city for Las Vegas — to add color and act as conversation pieces.
“If I ever tour someone through, there’s a million different stories I can talk about,” he says.
Scott also proudly displays a collection from his past that we can all relate to.
“I’ve got my old high school yearbooks with the worst hairstyles,” Scott says. “That’s usually a conversation.”