Most of us like to keep things straight forward when it comes to our home decor. Neutrals are a great option as they never date with their timeless appeal, they’re an easy fix for shared spaces, but also a good choice for longevity in a room. – So if a child’s bedroom is turning into a guest room or study, a neutral colour palette will pretty much guarantee that the décor will need minimal updates during periods of transition.
But sometimes, there might be that niggling feeling that an all-neutral room is just a bit, well, blah? After all, if there’s anywhere you can experiment with colour, it’s guaranteed to be in a child’s bedroom. - Loss of childhood inhibitions and all that.
Colour is a powerful thing. It can help energise and calm us, it can inspire us and affect our behaviours.
So without further ado, we present from greige to stage: How to level up your use of colour in the kids rooms, and all-importantly, our top tips on how to best bring in those colour pops.
Here are our top 7 ways to add colour to a neutral bedroom scheme:
1. Be bold with a geometric print wallpaper. If strong colours aren’t your thing, wallpaper used sparingly – eg above or below a dado rail, or even just on a chimney breast, can work wonders for injecting some colour and personality into neutral bedrooms.
In this room set featuring the Fargo small double bed in Painswick blue, we’ve opted for a geometric arrow design in a bold mustard, indigo and grey colour way. We’ve then pulled the indigo through with the Painswick Blue painted furniture and added in more pops of chartreuse through accessories.
2. Create a colour pop on the bed. The bed is the hero product in a child’s room, and as such will automatically be the focal point in most cases. This means that it makes perfect sense to create impact with colour here. – It’s the ideal opportunity! Take a look at this room with our Classic high sleeper bed. The wall colour is a warm neutral, but the use of zingy mustard yellow on the bed lifts the whole scheme to create a feast for the eyes.
3. Introduce a feature wall. Feature walls have never gone out of fashion, in our book. They’re great for introducing a splash of strong colour and work particularly well with neutral furniture standing in front. Take this bedroom featuring our Fargo day bed in Farleigh Grey. The chimney breast and exposed brick wall are both neutral, which allows the bed to take centre stage against the rich red wall behind. Pull the same tones through on the bedding and repeat these colours elsewhere in the room (in at least 3 separate locations) in order to tie the look together.
4. Use tonal palettes. If strong colours aren’t your thing, and you prefer softer more gentle hues, then try opting for paler shades of a colour. Colour blocking like this is an easy and fool proof way of creating impact with colour.
Here’s how to achieve it:
Stick to one colour in lots of different shades for a contemporary, trend led colour pop! For this Classic High sleeper bed photograph, we’ve combined different pinks together to give a seamless and soft dreamy colour scheme. This method of styling can work well with any colour; not just pink.
5. Be bold! Go all out. – Why not?! As long as the colour scheme is consistent, have fun playing with colour. Here we’ve used a fresh combination of petrol blue, teal, lime and navy. These are all quite cool colours, so we’ve teamed them with a warm oak floor and repeated this tone through some brown cushions.
6. Choose colourful accessories. If painting the walls a daring colour choice feels just a little step too far, then consider using some carefully selected colourful accessories instead.
In this Classic High sleeper bed photo we’ve opted for a lime green futon chair with bold orange buttons. Along with hot pink, we’ve then used these colours throughout all the accessories and off set it all with mid grey painted walls for a high-contrast, summery feel.
7. Select colourful bedroom furniture. Beds and furniture with either a strong colour scheme, or even painted just a subtle colour, can work wonders for introducing more visual interest in a bedroom.
In this bedroom featuring our EDIT single bed with red ends, we’ve repeated the red theme throughout the bedroom. We’ve also introduced navy (through a futon, lamp and cushion) to prevent it all from looking too warm. The pale biscuit walls create a soft backdrop for the riot of colour.
So there you have it – our guide to using colour in the children’s bedrooms. We hope that you’ve found it useful, and that it has given you the chance to think about how you can use colour in your own homes.
For more ideas on using colour in bedrooms, head over to our Pinterest account to see lots more examples.
Happy colouring! x
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