Decorative Paint Ideas for Bedrooms

Paint colors and styles set the mood for each of the bedrooms in your home

By Stevie Donald

Photo by iStockphoto.com

Perhaps more than any other room in your home, the bedroom is a place to express your personal style. Whether it's your tranquil master bedroom, a child's cheerful and fun bedroom or a welcoming guest bedroom, personalize the room with decorative paint. In a single weekend, paint fluffy clouds on a sky-blue ceiling or transform a plain white wall into a sun-washed Venetian accent wall. Ideas and inspiration for decorative painting are virtually limitless.

Color and Light

The first step in any painting project is choosing a color palette. Whether you plan on painting decorative accents, faux painting or just changing the wall color, you will be working with a color palette. You may already know which colors you naturally gravitate toward. These are the colors that lift your spirits and make your house feel like home. Colors are either warm or cool. Warm colors are earth tones like browns, reds and yellows, while blues, grays and greens tend to be cooler. Natural light from a north- or east-facing window will cast a cooler light in your bedroom, while natural light from the south and west tends to be warmer. The electric lighting you choose for your room can also alter the appearance of colors. Go to a paint store and choose as many color swatches as you like (they're free.) Bring them home and assess then in your bedroom. Hold the swatches up to other design elements like your bedspread, window treatments and wood furniture. Once you've narrowed it down to a few colors, go back to the store and buy testers or quarts of the paint and paint large samples directly on the wall. This is an important step because colors appear very different when up on the wall when compared to the little swatches. Live with the samples for a day or two so you can see how it looks in different lights. Don't be afraid to try deep or rich colors, either for the whole room or for an accent wall.

The Ceiling is Your Fifth Wall

Unless you are using very subtle shades on your walls, don't limit yourself to a plain white ceiling. A flat white ceiling paired with vivid colors or decorative wall painting can look as if the ceiling was forgotten. Consider a much paler shade of the main wall color on your ceiling. Don't discount the idea of painting your ceiling a darker color than the walls, as this can look stunning. Pale blue with fluffy white, sponge-painted clouds is a whimsical kid's bedroom idea and easy to do. One decorator trick is to pull the room together by echoing flooring color and designs on the ceiling. Paint the ceiling a honeyed beige to match hardwood floors, or repeat an accent rug design on the ceiling with stencils.

Faux Techniques

With their rising popularity, decorative faux finishes are easier than ever to do. Many paint and home stores carry a wide range of faux finish paints, glazes and specialty applicators to make the job quite easy. Ask around about free or inexpensive faux workshops -- some stores have workshops in hopes that you get inspired and buy all your decorative painting supplies from them. Many decorative finishes are easy even for the artistically impaired. Stencilling designs and lettering is a fairly simple job with pre-cut stencils. Specialty textured rollers allow you to roll on a decorative finish with little more effort than rolling a regular wall. Being imprecise and even somewhat sloppy is an asset when doing a color wash, ragging or glazing since the irregularity of these techniques is part of their charm.

Specialty Paints

Consider specialty paints for a faux effect without the effort. Since bedrooms tend to be low-traffic and it's not as important to have washable walls, the soft look of suede or sand on bedroom walls can create a soothing ambience. For more drama, metallic paints can give a sleek, elegant effect.