Designing a bedroom can take as little or as much creativity as you wish to give it.
Creating a color scheme for a bedroom is like trying to choose color and textures for a perfect outfit -- that you'll wear everyday. Bedroom color schemes, like clothing, come down to personal taste. If you love bright colors, textured fabrics and creative accents, you'll go the colorful, funky route. For those who prefer a simpler look -- both in clothing and in the home -- a clean, minimalist approach may be the route to your ideal color scheme and style.
Go White
Create a pure white room. Going the minimalist color route opens up the space and creates unity between furniture pieces and the bed. Pick a white bedspread, shelving, dressers, tables, chairs and a desk. You can keep everything white for the full effect -- buy white pencils, white rugs and only white hangers for the closet -- or accent the white for a colorful effect. For example, add cherry-red-striped pillows for the bed or bright green valances -- ornamental window dressing toppers -- for the windows.
Culture Inspired
Pick a country's style to mimic. Blend a French look into a master bedroom or guest room by adding wood beams to the ceiling, a bay window, French doors for larger rooms, or patterned fleur-de-lis wallpaper. For a Hawaiian look, add bamboo flooring or other golden woods and full-length window walls -- floor-to-ceiling windows -- that show off a view of gardens below or an ocean view. Experiment with different looks by going through magazines or websites looking at pictures of a country's or a culture's typical bedrooms. For instance, play with an Adirondack-style bedroom -- with high ceilings, taxidermy displays, pinewood floors and walls -- to make it as extreme or as light as you wish.
Art Deco
Go with an Art Deco theme. In the Art Deco movement, artists, designers and advertisers drew color schemes from the industrialized landscape and the natural world, giving them neutral greens, pinks and blues, metallic aluminum, bronze, gold and silver, and natural floral reds and peaches. Select a few Art Deco colors for the bedroom. Pea green, hazel, egg-blue, silver, cherry red and buttery yellows are good choices. Mix and match colors to see what works together. For example, silver or aluminum furniture pairs well with sea-green; rosy pinks go well with brown and gray and blue; and orange and lilac make up a funky sunset look.
Accent
If you choose to paint or wallpaper the room with one color, or a two- or three-tone scheme, do not limit yourself to those colors. Add color and zest to the room by accenting major furniture pieces -- like the bed, dresser, desk and windows -- with punchy color and textures. For example, add a bright-purple-striped throw-blanket on the end of the bed to add dimension, or lacy green curtains to the windows in an otherwise all-white room for extra flair.
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