Mint green with white creates a soothing, serene retreat.
Mint green has many moods, from deeper, earthy tones to wispy shades like sea foam. Light or pale mint is usually experienced as a cool, tranquil color due to its association with nature. Mint works well in almost any decor. Compatible colors and well-chosen furnishings and accent pieces -- new or re-purposed -- help you make any bedroom into a comfortable, restful retreat.
Compatible Colors
Choose a monochromatic palette -- forest green, leaf green, dark mint -- with darker trim and accents in the same tone. Mint green always looks refreshing when trimmed with white. Use cream trim instead to lead into a range of warm naturals, from tan to deep brown. Try compatible pastel shades in addition to white or cream. Good choices based on color-wheel relationships include pink, or pastel red, a complementary color. Lavender and peach are pastel versions of purple and orange, triadic colors.
Simple and Surprising Touches
Add big style with simple touches, such as a wall painted in a striking contrast color. For a traditional look add mint-and-cream wallpaper with 1-inch stripes on one wall instead, and use that wall to display old family photographs. Paint a bold brown contrasting horizontal strip 3 to 4 feet wide across the middle of a wall to connect the walls with dark wood floors and furniture. Add narrow vertical panels to lower walls at 6-inch to 12-inch intervals and paint them a contrasting or compatible monochromatic color to create the look of wainscoting.
Classic & Traditional
Dark brown antique furniture, various rich, yet subtle mint fabric patterns and cream lamps and other fixtures and deeper mint accents can create a relaxing, restful and classic master bedroom that both spouses will enjoy. Satin fabrics for a side chair, accent pillows and duvet cover add subtle elegance. Mint green with white and black -- first used together as an Art Deco combination, according to interior designer Laura Ingalls Gunn -- creates a crisp, cool and sophisticated feel.
Summery or Shabby Chic
Use bright white trim - even paint the floor white, if you have wood floors - on baseboards, doors, window trim and ceilings. Create a soothing summery retreat by adding a few country antiques, a cream-colored, overstuffed chair and throw rugs, white bedspread and wood-framed, cream-colored botanical prints. Try a distressed dresser, bookcase and nightstands for a shabby chic feel. Old wicker painted white is a natural with mint green. Find some old iron bed frames and paint them leaf green or dark green.
Soothing, Modern and Natural
Take an imaginary trip to the Bahamas with a dark brown headboard and picture frames, light-toned furniture, luxurious light tan bed linens and cream trim. Mint green with very contemporary oak -- from platform bed and dressers to oak floors -- looks both sharp and soothing, creating an inviting nature oasis. The contemporary look can go still lighter and blond, with glossy Danish modern furnishings and tan-gold accents.
Child's Play
In families where kids rotate through the bedrooms, mint green is a useful universal wall color. Pale mint walls can go masculine. Combine furniture, fabrics and art in browns, grays and darker greens for boys' rooms. Walls can also be quite feminine when dressed up with white, cream and shades of peach or pink. Hot pink always looks great with pale mint green. Mint and lavender is quite striking too, and somewhat out of the ordinary for a girl's room. Look for mint-lavender fabric prints and paint bookcases or other accent pieces lavender.
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