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How do you want to feel in your bedroom?
Do you want this room to be …
… a glamorous, seductive boudoir?
… a cool, sleek, minimalist space?
… a warm, inviting retreat?
… a chic multi-purpose room for work and rest/play?
… a place where your dreams come alive?
Below are some bedroom color decorating ideas for you - each is accompanied by an interior decorating picture to illustrate what the room could look like.
All designs are based on the same, simple blueprint so you can compare the effects of each bedroom color scheme without being distracted by details.
Bedroom Decorating Colors
For a Haven of Tranquility
You can get the most tranquil bedroom color schemes from… - neutrals (black, white, gray)
- earth colors
- blues (water colors)
- and greens.
To create the best color scheme for a tranquil bedroom,
- use as few colors as possible,
- use minimal pattern and
- keep the contrast between light and dark colors low.
There are no dark color values in this room. The darkest colors (in the picture, cushions and carpet) are mid-tones, and there are only very few white highlights.
The carpet picks up and ‘grounds’ the bolder blue tones of the picture on the wall.
If either your carpet, or your bedspread, or the wallpaper has a conspicuous pattern, it’s best not to use much pattern elsewhere in the room – it would lead to visual clutter.
Keep the walls a light color, and the ceiling white to maximize light.
Pictures can help soothe the mind: land-, sea- or ‘skyscapes’, or abstract art prints can contribute stylishly to an effective color scheme for a haven of restfulness.
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Bedroom Decorating Colors
For a Glamorous, Seductive ‘Boudoir’
Purple bedroom color schemes can look utterly gorgeous and very sophisticated. In the European tradition, purple is the color of kings and princes.
Imagine your bedroom with a silk velvet bed spread in deep, complex hues of purple, snow white bedlinen peeking out from underneath, against a backdrop of flocked luxury wallpaper (hung by someone who knew what they were doing) – it's the ultimate in seductive luxury.
Unfortunately, purple bedroom color schemes can have a few drawbacks.
- Men generally don't seem to go for purple ...
- Some dark shades of purple can make your bedroom walls look grungy in the morning sun ...
- Synthetic fabrics in purple can look garish under some light sources.
Should it turn out that, regrettably, a purple bedroom is out of the question, there are some alternative bedroom color schemes that
- can create a similarly gorgeous effect, but
- don’t come with the pitfalls of purple, and
- appeal to both sexes as well.
Check out these two combinations for their bedroom color scheme potential:
Indigo & Ochre
Dark indigo combined with muted, earthy orange and/or deep hues of ochre would make an effective color scheme for decorating a sexy, masculine bedroom:
- the mix of indigo and earthy reds looks strong and beautifully balanced;
- you can go for a somewhat ‘rugged’ look by using denim and linen instead of silks and velvets
- you could paint the walls with suede-effect paints rather than using glamorous, flocked wallpaper.
Coffee, Chocolate & Cream
These popular bedroom decorating colors make for a modern color scheme that appeals to men and women alike. Here, too, the look hinges very much on the paints and fabrics you use:
- For a chic shared bedroom, try suede, baby cord, linen and cotton.
- For a more feminine take on the same bedroom decorating colors, combine brown velvets with cream-colored (silk) satin bedlinen, mirrors, and lampshades trimmed with Swarovski crystals – you’ll have a winner.
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Bedroom Decorating Colors
For a Sleek, Minimalist Space
In current minimalist home decorating trends, dark woods (floors and/or furniture) are often played off against white (or gray) walls and fabrics. Color is kept to a minimum, and reserved for a few ‘statement’ pieces of furniture or art.
If you’re creating a clutter-free, minimalist bedroom color scheme, lines and contrast are the main issues to watch:
- For maximum contrast, combine dark furniture with white walls (or vice versa). All shapes and lines will stand out strongly against a contrasting backdrop. Big dark wardrobes might ‘tower’ over you if they’re too close to the bed.
- Gray walls can reduce the contrast and soften the visual impact of dark objects.
- To free up wall (and breathing) space, keep storage low to the ground; that will widen the room and ‘lift’ the ceiling.
It’s a modern color scheme of gray, dark purplish blue and deep fiery red (the cushions are in two different hues of red to jazz the bed up just a bit).
The headboard is attached to the wall; it could either be painted with deep blue, high gloss paint, or upholstered with the fabric of the bed spread – which would soften the lines somewhat and make Sunday morning coffee in bed just that little bit more comfy ;-)
Other Modern Color Schemes
If you’re not into the purple/vermilion color mix, you could use some of the following bedroom decorating colors to create alternative modern bedroom color schemes:
- aubergine, taupe, and mustard
- chocolate and powder blue
- deep burgundy and olive green.
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Bedroom Decorating Colors
For a Warm, Inviting Retreat
Warm, peachy pinks ‘hug’ you when you enter a room. They make the walls feel a little closer than they really are.But unlike orange and red, pink bedroom color schemes won’t turn up the emotional heat (or your heart rate, for that matter).
In this illustration, I have added low shelving and a row of pictures to “stretch” the back wall and make up for the 'advancing' effect of the wall color.
Soft (warm or cool) pink bedroom decorating colors are generally very calming and comforting, but if you don’t want to go for outright pink, you can create a similar effect by mixing yellow into the pink to produce apricot hues.
The red bed spread adds a bit of visual energy to this bedroom color scheme. Alternatively, you could
- use a lighter tint of red, or red-biased terracotta, to reduce the contrast in color values, or
- add a few tones of blue to the mix (for example a patterned bed spread in sky blue, pink and red) or
- stir in some green – it is complementary to red, and some of the best color schemes in interior decorating history have used this combination to great effect.
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Bedroom Decorating Colors
For a Multi-Purpose Room
If you’re using your bedroom during the day, for example as a home office, you’re likely to want some brightness and maybe also a bit of ‘wake-up’ color in there.In the interior decorating picture to the left, the bedroom decorating colors are a combination of sky blues and a yellow-biased, zesty lime green.
This works well for bright, sunny rooms; it may not work quite so well if your bedroom is north facing or very dark.
In that case, light-reflecting, slightly warmer colors will serve you better - for example bedroom color schemes of
- pale yellow combined with warm blue pastels, or
- a composition of pale apricot and light, chalky greens.
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Bedroom Decorating Colors
to Kindle Your Dreams
Almost everyone dreams of “a place in the sun” where they’d rather be, or where they hope to retire to one day.Which is it for you?
A Caribbean island? A lakeside villa in the Italian Alps? A log cabin in British Columbia? A bungalow with ocean views?
For many people here in northern and central Europe, that magical place is the Mediterranean - so the interior decorating picture above shows a room design made up of Mediterranean bedroom decorating colors.
It’s another red-green color scheme, with some neutrals thrown in. The walls are ragged to produce a rustic, slightly aged look.
The lower part of the wall has an undercoat of earthy, muted red – the same color as the stripe and the ”headboard” (which is painted onto the wall!)
You could put an ornament above the 'headboard' as a token of your dream – I've used an antique piece of ironwork from the South of France.
Here are some more ideas to choose from:
- an old photograph
- framed bits of antique fabric from the place of your dreams (which might also serve as a cue for your bedroom color scheme)
- decorative trims from an original piece of furniture
- an ornate piece of woodwork
- or anything else that keeps your dream present for you.
And the best color schemes for your home often include an element of surprise - an unexpected, exotic, strange dash of color that will add a bit of mystery to daily life.
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For more information about selecting color schemes, check out some of the following:
Creating Room Color Schemes (the Basics)
Choosing Interior Paint Colors (Step-by-Step Guide)
Creating a Neutral Color Scheme
Color Wheel Chart
Color Psychology (Overview)
Psychological effects of particular colors:
white, gray, black, brown
yellow, orange, red, pink,
purple, blue, green.
Color Meanings
Where to Find Color Scheme Ideas ...
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