A Room With A Hue - Bedroom Colors

Your bedroom is the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night. Are you happy with what you see? The colors of your room are a major influence on how you feel about your room. Here are some ways to use color to treat yourself to a room that will make you smile.

Choose your hues
Pick at least one color for your room and decorate your room around that color. It doesn't have to be your favorite color as long as it's a color you like and can live with day after day. Sure, you can always repaint the walls or hang new wallpaper, but it will save you a lot of time and effort if you make a good choice to begin with.

You don't have to drown your room in the color you've chosen. If you've decided on pink, you can pair pink curtains with white walls. If you prefer green, you can have cream walls, green-and-cream sheets on the bed, and a potted plant in one corner. In fact, it's a bad idea to decorate your room all in one color.

Imagine how tired your eyes would feel if you had orange wallpaper, orange curtains, an orange bed, and a host of little orange items scattered throughout your room. Provide visual relief by adding objects in white, black, and other neutral hues. A room dominated by one color would also benefit from the addition of different textures, such as natural materials. For example, wood blinds, rope rugs, and potted plants can help refresh a predominantly blue room.

Reinvent the wheel
You don't have to stick to similar colors when decorating your room. Remember the color wheel from your grade-school art classes? If you don't, look it up in an art book or on the Internet. You might recall that colors beside each other on the color wheel are called analogous colors. Putting analogous colors together in the same bedroom will create a unified, harmonious look. For example, decorating your bedroom in blue and green spells "PEACE" in capital letters, and may remind you pleasantly of the sea or of skies and trees.

Colors opposite each other on the color wheel are called complementary colors. Decorating a room in complementary colors can really make your room pop. Putting red and blue together, for example, results in a visually interesting space. Be sure to add plenty of objects in neutral colors to prevent sensory overload.

Let there be light
It's generally a good idea to use light colors instead of dark because light colors are more relaxing and more cheerful. Also, light-colored walls recede visually, making your room seem larger. And who doesn't want the feeling of more space?

Play it cool
The cool colors (blue, green, and lilac) are generally best for bedrooms because they make you feel at peace. Like light colors, cool colors recede visually and make your room seem more spacious.

Warm it up
It's also possible to create a restful space using warm colors such as red, yellow, and orange. But you'll have to be careful. Stick to lighter, more muted shades, because bright warm colors will be overwhelming and too stimulating for a bedroom. Can you really imagine yourself relaxing in a room with fire-engine-red walls? Now imagine a room with pale yellow walls, white windows and doors, and a pale orange carpet: the colors may be warm, but the feeling is still cool.

Stay neutral
Black, white, and gray are the only true neutral colors. In fact, they're not actually colors. They are a combination of all the colors in the spectrum and are not part of the color wheel. Muted earth colors such as beige and cream are also considered neutrals.

Decorating your room in a neutral color is a good idea because neutrals are both calming and elegant. And because they go with everything, neutrals allow you plenty of flexibility. If your room has beige walls, you can make it look completely different simply by changing from green curtains to peach or from blue sheets to red.

You can also use neutrals together. A white room with black furniture would look modern and cool. A beige room with white furniture would look simple and sophisticated. A room decorated all in neutrals, however, tends to become boring. You can counter this effect by using different textures in the room or by adding colorful objects.

Have fun
Don't forget that the point of decorating your room is to make you happy. No matter what colors you end up choosing, remember to enjoy yourself, and to create a space that you will love falling asleep in and waking up to.