Color Ideas For Small Master Bedrooms

The colors you choose for a small bedroom affect the feel of a room.

Color affects the way you perceive a bedroom space, in terms of its size, depth or height. All colors have advancing or receding qualities, that is, the tendency to come forward or fade away, depending on your perception. Using this characteristic, you can use color in a bedroom to give the impression of a larger size or smaller, creating a cozier room.

Receding Colors

The colors in the blue, green and purple region of the spectrum are receding colors. Painting walls in these tones make the room feel larger, as the walls move away in your perception. Avoid choosing the darkest tones of these colors however, as darker colors can have the opposite effect of making the room feel smaller.

Advancing Colors

If your decorating goal is not to expand the size of the room, the warmer colors in the yellow, red and orange spectrum will make the room feel cozier. Colors in this range tend to feel closer to you, and will move the walls of the bedroom in. Match the tone of the color you choose to the natural lighting available, so as not to overdo this effect.

Monochromatic Colors

Choosing colors from the same pallet and combining them, can move walls in relation to one another. For this color scheme to work, choose colors very close to one another. A shade lighter and a shade darker is all it takes for the eye to discern the contrast and see the walls of the bedroom as nearer or farther away.

Contrasting Trim

Paint the trim and moldings a lighter color than the walls. While white is often the default color for this woodwork, don't be afraid to choose a lighter shade from your color pallet. The lighter colors of the trim expand the room size, making the walls appear farther away.

Colors Raise the Ceiling

The ceiling of a small bedroom is often forgotten, and may go through the entire life of the home in the same color that the builder left it. A trick to "lift" the height of the ceiling is to first paint it wall to wall with a brilliant white or other light color in a gloss finish. When that is dry, paint a 4-inch border around the perimeter of the ceiling, using the color of the walls. This has the effect of extending the walls and making the room feel larger.

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