Blue Bedrooms: Bedroom Color Ideas
For A Cool, Calm Sanctuary

Blue bedrooms look great in any style: the color blue is easy on the eye and incredibly versatile.

dark blue and white bedrooms
Deep blue & white bedrooms with flooring in pale sand (© left & right: housetohome)

Add some white into the mix, and you can combine the color scheme with pretty much any kind of wooden furniture or flooring, stained or not, from ebony to limed oak. (For accent colors, check out my selection of blue color schemes.)

When you're (re-)decorating, hold off on the bedroom wall colors as long as you can.

There's always a bigger choice of paints than of fabrics, carpets & furniture.

Blue and white are probably the most popular bedroom colors, ever. They embody the spirit of sea & sky, of summer days spent on the beach, of lying in the grass and watching white clouds sail across a translucent blue sky.

Mediterranean bedroom in blue, white and rose madder
Blue colors for the bedroom: French blue is 'warmed'
by bordeaux red hues and deep browns. (© Didier Delmas for côté maison)

This blue themed bedroom epitomises Mediterranean ease and lightness, with its bed canopy of loosely woven muslin arranged with a healthy dose of nonchalance over the simple wooden bars.

Dark Blue Bedrooms

deep Prussian blue walls in a contemporary bedroom
Dark blue bedroom walls by day & night
(© left: blue; right: evil august)

Bedrooms in deep blue look gorgeous by night - like a dark, magical place where your dreams can take flight. (To get the most out of dark blue colors for the bedroom, use wall paint with a really luxurious velvety finish.)

If you're using your bedroom for daytime purposes as well (say, a home office), then deep blue walls can feel a bit gloomy even when the sun shines. One way to get around the 'darkness' issue is to paint bedroom walls a dark blue up to the chair rail and go for a lighter color above (e.g. pale grey or chalky blue).

Blue Bedrooms, From Regal To Rustic

blue bedrooms, castle style: tester beds in France and England
Left: Hardwick Hall, Chesterfield, England (© Damian Entwistle)
Right: Chenonceau Castle, Loire Valley, France (© Dream Home Decorating)

Historically, blue is a 'royal' color, and blue silk damask or velvet makes for fabulously rich, elegant canopy beds. So if you fancy a regal look for your bedroom, blue bed curtains are right up there with deep red and golden ones! (Some more examples of this on the page about traditional Tuscan beds.)

country bedroom in white and blue shades
Blue country style bedroom with mismatched blankets and a touch of toile.
(© Emma Lee for homes & gardens)

These simple country beds, on the other hand, are covered in sumptuously textured, vintage woollen blankets. The lower part of the wall - to above chair rail height - is painted in a slightly dusky sky blue. Extending that blue color field right across the door helps to keep the entire paint scheme calm and unified!

For more bedroom color ideas in blue & white, check out the page about blue and white bedrooms!

Accent Colors For Blue Bedrooms
1. Orange

early 19th century bedroom in blue and orange, Germany
Bedroom interior (around 1800) in Monschau, Germany (© Noora Al-Meer)

Orange, the warmest color on the color wheel, is complementary to blue, and this beautiful bedroom shows how you can get an 'orange effect' without using any paint color at all. Softwoods often darken with a subtle orange hue, and honey-colored wood stains add elegance and warmth to blue-based bedrooms without overwhelming the color scheme.

To compare, here's a blue/orange bedroom with pure, undiluted, juicy citrus orange:

bedroom in bright blue, orange and white
Upbeat blue, white & orange bedroom (© BHG)

You'll find many more blue/orange bedroom examples, plus a list of suitable wood stains, on the page about orange bedrooms.

Some of the best orange color ideas for blue bedrooms:

Clean citrus hues like orange & tangerine are very bright, but they're just the thing for a 'Caribbean', azure/white/sand bedroom paint color scheme. (Examples on the blue color palettes page!)
Burnt orange is an earthy, slightly desaturated version of orange, very popular for Tuscan color schemes, and gorgeous with darker blues.
Terra cotta comes in different tones and hues, depending on the composition and properties of the clay. It usually has some pink and grey in it, so it works well if you need a very subtle accent color.
Warm reddish browns - burnt sienna, red ochre, cinnamon, and similar 'fired earth' and 'spice' hues look great with blue wall colors, too.

Accent Colors For Blue Bedrooms
2. Yellow

elegant contemporary Italian bedroom in white, yellow and blue
Blue/yellow coastal bedroom, Italy (© capri suite)

On the four-primary color wheel, yellow & blue are 'opposing' colors. If you use these two as pure, undiluted hues, the combination will look very in-your-face. But check out some of the blue/yellow color ideas on the yellow color schemes page - these palettes are great for blue-based bedrooms, too!

Accent Colors For Blue Bedrooms
3. Brown

brown lamp and colored cushion against a navy blue wall
Brown lamp and bedstand against navy blue bedroom wall (© Courtney Walker)

Brown and blue are a match made in heaven, and you can sprinkle brighter accent colors into that palette without doing any harm. (Several examples on the page about blue interior color schemes!)

The combination of blue and brown creates a very neutral background that is neither warm nor cool in character. Brown/blue bedrooms can easily stand on their own (white highlights are nice, though!), or you could choose to jazz them up with a few additional hues.

Accent Colors For Blue Bedrooms
4. Green

Iris blue headboard set against jade colored walls (© sköna hem)

Green & blue are neighbors on the color wheel chart, and they combine extremely well in a multitude of hues, tints and shades.

Check out the blue and green color palettes on this site for examples, and have a look at the green bedroom page for some really striking blue/green bedroom color schemes. A mix of blue and green is one of the most likely candidates for all-round color success!

Accent Colors For Blue Bedrooms
5. Red/Purple

bedroom with red and purple rugs and a dark blue wall
'Gradation' from deep blue via purple to red, against a
neutral color background. (© sköna hem)

On the color wheel (both the 3-primary color chart and the 4-primary model) red and blue "meet" in purple. However, a red-purple-blue color palette can be tricky to get right, because both red and purple are powerful colors that tend to dominate a room.

For more examples of blue/red color schemes (not just for bedrooms), check out some of the following pages: