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How to choose paint colours for bedroom


How to Choose the Right Paint Colors for Your Bedroom

The Spruce / Aubrey Hays & Niv Rozenberg

A bedroom is your personal sanctuary for rest, relaxation, and intimacy. Whether it's a primary bedroom, guest room, teen's room, or nursery, the wall color serves as a reminder of what you want to feel in the room.

For most people, calm and soothing colors are best in a bedroom. However, you may prefer deep, bright, or saturated colors to help you feel more awake, alert, or romantic. Set the right mood by considering how to pick colors for bedroom walls from these three groups of popular hues.

About This Term: Primary Bedroom

Many real estate associations, including the National Association of Home Builders, have classified the term "Master Bedroom" as discriminatory. "Primary Bedroom" is the name now widely used among the real estate community and better reflects the purpose of the room.


Read more about our Diversity and Inclusion Pledge to make The Spruce a site where all feel welcome.

Soothing Neutrals

Neutral colors are always safe and classic choices for a bedroom. Popular neutral colors include:

Neutral colors are clean backdrops for bedrooms because they work with other bright colors in bedding, curtains, carpeting, and artwork. Neutral bedroom walls allow you to let loose by using accenting vivid colors and patterns to transform the space. If you prefer to keep your bedroom all neutral, add interest with layered bedding and textured accessories for a soft tone-on-tone style.

Learning how to choose neutral bedroom colors means taking into consideration the paint's underlying tones. For instance, white paint is rarely just pure white. Paints are often mixed with other hues to create subtle undertones of pink, blue, yellow, or brown, for example. The undertone should match your furnishings, carpet, and bedding or the room could feel unpleasant. Paint experts at your paint store can help you determine the best neutral shade and undertone for your bedroom.

Peaceful Pastels

Pastel colors are soft, relaxing, and result in serene surroundings. The best pastel colors for bedrooms include:

A bedroom with a pastel wall color can look elegant. Find the sophisticated side of pastels by mixing and matching a few washed-out colors that you'd find in a favorite quilt, add light gray bedding and accessories into the mix, become inspired by watery coastal hues, or anchor a bedroom with light and pretty walls with darker furnishings.

Expressive Colors

If bold and bright colors make you happy, why not paint your bedroom walls to bring a smile to your face? If you're an energetic person who loves to be surrounded by saturated colors, embrace the look. For example, if you love bright, fresh interiors, try deep spring green walls. Experiment with lively combinations, such as coral and dark green or red and taupe.

There are a couple of guidelines to remember when choosing dark paint colors for bedrooms, such as black or navy blue, especially if the space is small.

Keep in mind that light colors make a space look larger and darker colors make a bedroom appear smaller. If there's a lot of natural light streaming into the bedroom, the room can also appear larger

Designer-Approved Rules to Follow When Choosing Paint Colors for Your Bedroom

We’ve seen bedroom walls in every color of the rainbow and beyond, and many of us have experimented with plenty of different shades over the decades—remember that too cool turquoise bedroom from your teenage years? However, this doesn’t mean that designers agree that every single hue is destined for a sleep space. “Your bedroom should be a reprieve,” designer Chelsea Robinson noted, and the other designers we spoke with agreed. Thus, most pros will say that soothing colors are a go while bold, vibrant shades are better suited for other spaces. Which colors in particular should you toss into the “no” pile? Read on to hear what the experts think.

Unpopular Opinion: 5 Reasons White Walls Are the Best

Opinion: You Can Keep Your Expensive Sheets, I Still Love My $60 Target Finds

How to choose paint for the bedroom and living room?

Recently, many people are abandoning wallpaper in favor of painting bedrooms and living rooms. At first glance, this method of finishing seems simple, but in fact, those who want to paint a wall with paint can face a lot of difficulties. We will tell you about what you need to know when choosing paint for the bedroom and living room in this article.

Benefits of painting the bedroom and living room

The use of paint as the primary finish has several advantages.

Of course, the painted variant also has disadvantages. These include the difficulty of preparing the foundation. The wall and ceiling must be leveled, all cracks covered and flaws removed - only in this case the surface will look attractive. Another important point is the technique of applying the paint itself.

What to choose?

When painting the living room and bedroom, the balance of colors and the style of the entire interior play a significant role, in addition, you should pay attention to the paint itself. Depending on the composition of the paint are divided into types. It is difficult for an unprepared buyer to choose the right tool from all this variety.

The most popular type of paint for bedrooms
and living rooms are water-based

If we simply disassemble the composition of all paints, then they have two main components. They are pigment and solvent. The pigment determines the color of the ink composition. The solvent gives a liquid consistency, water, oils and alcohols can be used as a solvent. After painting, these substances evaporate and the composition dries.


For interiors, water-based (water-dispersion) paints are the most popular. In them, the role of the solvent is played by water, so the drying is fast enough, and the process itself does not lead to the release of various harmful substances into the environment.

Let's take a closer look at the main types of paints that can be used in the living room or bedroom.

The advantage of acrylic paint is that it hardly changes color after drying

Alkyd compounds are used for painting
metal elements to protect them from corrosion Alkyd paints are inferior to acrylic paints in terms of service life. With intense exposure to ultraviolet radiation, the surface may lose its original color, so it is better not to use alkyd compositions in sunny living rooms. Enamels are well suited for painting metal elements, they provide them with reliable protection against corrosion.

Please note that not all colors are equally well combined with each other. For example, it is not recommended to mix layers of alkyd and acrylic compounds. Due to the difference in chemical components, blisters and other defects may appear in these places. At the same time, if you cannot do without such an overlay, you need to carefully clean the base.

For interior work, oils are rarely used, as there are many more practical alternatives. When working indoors, it is important to ensure good ventilation.

Color selection for the bedroom and living room

When the paint is selected, you can proceed to the direct selection of colors. We recommend that you read the articles on our website: "Choosing paint for different interior styles", "Tips for choosing colors". In this section, we will give simple questions to answer when choosing a color.

The choice of color is not an easy task and must be approached responsibly

What mood do you want to create in the room? One of the main questions to be answered. The bedroom is a place of relaxation, so active colors there will be distracting and tiring. More options are possible in the living room. Here the choice depends on how the owners like to spend their free time. If these are noisy parties, then bright warm colors will be appropriate, pastel colors are more suitable for a measured rest.

The green color scheme is relaxing and soothing, it will be a good choice for the living room
, this color will remind you of nature

Which side do the windows face? If the room faces north, then it is not recommended to use dark cold colors, since there will be a shortage of light anyway. On the south side, on hot summer days, relaxing blue or blue will make the living room or bedroom more comfortable.

If it's hard to find "your" color, it's best to stop
on neutral shades of beige or gray

It is not recommended to paint all the walls in one color at once. It must be understood that under different lighting conditions, the color has new shades, while on the walls of the living room or bedroom, the color that seemed ideal in the store may no longer seem so suitable.


What size is the room? For small rooms, it is better to choose light shades or white, as these colors will visually enlarge the space. Warm colors in a small living room will create a soothing cozy atmosphere. Dark blue color, on the contrary, will reduce the space. There are exceptions to all the rules; for the style of an English living room, you can use a noble dark brown color. The lack of a lot of light only emphasizes this interior.

Samplers can be used to experiment with color. Paints can be applied to individual sections of the wall. You can also take small square pieces of drywall. By painting them in different colors, you can see how the painting will look in different lighting conditions.

Are there any stylistic preferences? Interior style has a significant impact on colors. Some areas gravitate towards monochrome painting, in others a combination of colors is welcome. For example, one paint with a neutral tint is applied to three walls, and the fourth wall is painted in a bright color.

An example of a combination of several colors in the living room

If there are children in the family, it would be useful to involve them in the choice of colors for the living room. Small children love to draw on the walls, so a separate place can be painted with slate paint, on which the child can safely let his creativity unfold. Read more about the choice of paint for the nursery in the article "Choosing paint for the children's room. "

Conclusion

Painting allows you to give the interior of the living room or bedroom a neat and effective appearance. In this case, we must not forget about the preparation of the base for painting. For finishing the interior, you should choose water-based paints, for walls, acrylic and latex paints are the best options, for the ceiling, you can use PVA-based paints. Places exposed to moisture can be coated with silicone paints.

7 right steps — INMYROOM

Start thinking about what colors you like and what irritate you beforehand, don't spare money for color samples and base the color scheme of the apartment on neutral tones, advises Dasha Ukhlinova.

Dasha Ukhlinova

INTERIOR DESIGNER

Graduated from the Modern Design School, trained at the Teplitskaya school. A few years ago she opened Dasha Ukhlinova Studio

1. Choose the color of the walls after choosing furniture and decor

I know it seems like a better idea to pick the paint first, but it's actually a lot easier to pick a wall color that matches your furniture and decor than the other way around.

2. Start with inspiration

Cut out pictures you like from magazines, print pictures from the Internet that caught your eye. Make a separate “board” for each room and start “attaching” pictures. As soon as there are a decent number of them, at least 5-6, you can already feel the general style and color that suits you.

3. Build on neutral colors

I'm not saying to avoid bright and saturated colors, but first, just decide where and what you want to emphasize in your room. If walls are your answer, then everything else in the room should be neutral. This is why, for example, bold colors in a bathroom can work so well because everything else in the bathroom is already neutral (white).

If you find it difficult to understand which colors you like and which you will be comfortable in, go backwards - determine which colors you definitely do not like, then which ones you might not like, and so on.

4. Use testers

Buy testers in several colors/shades and paint a large enough area on different walls. So you can see how this color behaves depending on how the light hits it. If you are afraid to paint directly on the walls - cut out small pieces (at least A3 format), for example, from drywall and paint them.

Try different shades of the same color in the same room. Paint the accents one or more shades lighter or darker than the base color. This will add depth to the space.

5. Correlate colors with textiles and furniture color

The color should be checked not only on the wall, but also imagine how it will behave in combination with the furniture that will stand in the room, and with fabrics - for example , curtains.

6. Choose the right base - with or without glitter

Any glitter in the paint will accentuate imperfections, so if you're trying to mask something, use the most matte paint base. Here are some general recommendations for various finishes:

Completely matt : no shine at all. Ideal for low traffic areas such as bedrooms. And also for ceilings.

Semi-matt (20-25%) : Has a slight sheen. An excellent choice for moderate traffic areas such as the living room. Can be wiped with a damp cloth and mild detergent.

Semi Gloss (40%) : Has more sheen and works well in high traffic and wet areas. The paint is easy to clean, so it is ideal for kitchens and bathrooms.

Glossy (more than 70%) : shiny! Gives a sheen almost like glass and is ideal for high traffic surfaces (such as railings) or furniture.

7. Create one color palette throughout the house

This does not mean that you need to paint the whole house in the same color, but the rooms that are viewed from one another should be in harmony in color. If you do not know how to combine colors, use the simplest combination - a combination of the same color in different shades. For example, if you make the hallway a little darker and the living room you enter a little lighter, then the living room will automatically visually appear larger and more spacious.

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