The walls in your bedroom are the last thing you see at night, and the first thing you see in the morning. It is for this reason that choosing the right feature colour for your bedroom is very important – it’s highly influential on your mood. Colour theorists often suggest that whilst green is soothing, red is energising and yellow is an optimistic colour, however everyone reacts differently to colour and so you should choose a colour that makes you feel good – and not a colour that an expert tells you to.

Create a Mood board

Allow your artistic abilities to explore all the colour schemes around you; whether it’s packaging, supermarket layouts, clothes shops or your friends’ home, and consider the colour schemes, which work well in your mind. Different combinations of colours are all around us, so discovering one which works is easy once you open your mind.

Taking various pieces of fabrics, paint colours and magazine cut outs and placing them close to each other to see what works for you can create a mood board. A popular way to bring a relaxed and carefree appearance to your colour scheme is to take inspiration from your travels – each country has a colour that can easily be used as the basis for an entire vacation inspired room. You could take colours from things which spring to mind when you reminisce over a favourite holiday; try to picture your enjoyable experiences there and allow items such as postcards, souvenirs and photographs to help you with this.

Colour Theory

To decide on the colours, which work the best together, look at a colour wheel. Usually the complementary colours are placed directly opposite each other on the wheel, whereas the colours placed next to each other are harmonising, for example shades of greens, turquoises and blues. 

Top Tips

• Colours can appear completely different depending on the colours used next to them, so place a paint swatch next to the existing items in your room – furniture, accessories and art you’d like to stay and see what colours compliment them. Neutral tones tend to go with everything, but are not generally breath-taking so consider what atmosphere you’d like to create and allow to paint swatch to help with the decision.
• Paint the ceiling in a light tone – this makes the room feel higher and therefore more spacious
• Avoid dark colours in smaller rooms
• Keep hold of your leftover paint – this is ideal for touch ups