Colour choices for a bedroom

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, I've been cleaning, crafting (for Halloween), shopping and sewing. My reason for doing shopping and sewing was because we are re-colouring our bedroom. The colour choices you make in a house is not only a reflection of you, but can affect your moods, and dramatically change how a room 'feels'. I'll start off with my bedroom story, and then I'll move onto some more information that you could apply yourself, so here goes:

One thing that has bothered me ever since we moved into our house and started decorating is our bedroom. Our bedroom is on the darker side of the house, and initially I was inspired by a photo of a wall painted gold, and thought it would reflect some light into the room. Unfortunately the gold wall, for most of the time, looked like a brown wall and made or bedroom feel really really gloomy. So the gold wall has to go...



Mr L and I have been ordering wallpaper samples off the internet, but the more samples we got, the more confused we became. Then I came across this picture on the Martha Stewart website...


... and I thought 'that's it, we need to use a bright colour like yellow to bring some sunshine into the room'. Of course, yellow is a happy colour, but it's also quite an energetic colour, which makes teaming it with a calming blue in a bedroom perfect. I also fell completely in-love with the yellow bedskirt on the above photo, and knew that with my white bedding it would be a perfect way to bring some extra yellow into the room. And that's why I've been sewing away this weekend to make a bedskirt and some cushion covers (6 metres of bright yellow fabric for £23 from IKEA!).

The shopping we had done was for wallpaper, we decided to try one more time ad go to a shop rather than looking online, and lo and behold we came across this wallpaper that we both finally liked (not too girlie for Mr L, but still nice and soft - and the love bird design is a good omen for a bedroom ;) .
It's quite a heavy pattern, but it's very pretty and the colours are spot on!

So after my sewing frenzy this morning, here are the results so far (I've only made one cushion cover, but there will be two)...
I'll post the photos once the wallpaper is up, and I'm also planning on painting the bedside cabinets an off-white and adding pretty drawer pulls.

Below is a close-up of the bedskirt - it's such a simple project, 3 flat panels, with the tops tucking in under the mattress. I did the edges with a 5cm seam. (I still need to iron both the bedskirt panels and cushion).

The cushion cover has a piping border made from powder blue velvet ribbon. I love cushions with a piping edge, it makes them look a bit more glamorous, especially if the piping is a different texture to the rest of the cushion cover. Click HERE for a great tutorial on how to sew piping (the tutorial is for a handbag, but can easily be applied to cushion covers).

So that's my bedroom looking and feeling sunnier already. I really can't believe what a difference it has made adding the yellow - even with the gold wall that still don't like.

COLOUR
It really is true that different colours have different affects on our emotions, and how we interpret an image, room or object. But it seems that the effect of colours vary between different cultures. Red is considered a relaxing colour in China, whilst in America most people see it as an energetic, even aggressive colour. So choosing red for a bedroom if you feel energised in a red room is probably not the right choice if you value your sleep. Remember that the colours you choose will also be affected by the room itself depending on how much light it gets. A dark room in red can feel cosy and romantic, whilst a room with plenty of light painted in red will feel energised and bright.

Combining colours are the best way to get a balance in a room right. A white and silver room can feel starkly clinical, but add some coral pink accents and the room will feel fresh, modern and welcoming. We're so lucky that with the internet and all the lovely blogs out there we have access to some wonderful inspiration, so start collecting photos of rooms you like to give you an idea of what would suit you best. Here are some wonderful examples of bedrooms that manage to be fresh, warm and relaxing.



What colour is your bedroom? Do you like it?
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