"Great blog! I've been here several times and always find your posts informative and interesting, especially for a relatively color-challenged person like me.Alrighty then, let's take a look at what Anna's working with here...
Our house is in the northern Arizona desert and it's a very neutral-toned area: lots of creamy pinks and sandstone colors. We like a fairly serene color scheme, but of course color is good.
So here's our color dilemma: We'd like something soothing in the bedroom, keeping with the mood we've got in the rest of the house..but also something stimulating.
I'm not a fan of colors schemes that seem disjointed in living spaces (i.e. "I like this color and this one and this one, so I'll slap 'em all on the walls in different rooms"). I'd like the entire house to flow, color-wise.
We've been really into blues lately; but while that turquoise color you featured is fantastic, it may be a bit much for us. Is it possible to find a soothing, yet stimulating color?
Color swatches are just bewildering me right now! Looking forward to your ideas!"
-Anna
In their bedroom, the master windows face the southwest. They can see the sunset while laying in bed- how cool is that? The ceilings are high (10 ft) and there is lots of natural light throughout the house. Anna just wants to paint the large accent wall above her bed and leave the rest of the bedroom in Navajo White, a creamy off-white from Behr paint. Here's the other side of the bedroom, facing an office area.
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This is going to be their new bedspread from Dwell. They'd had an idea of continuing the graphic up the wall, reversed-out to mimic the white leaves against some color background.To give you an idea of their existing palette, here are some snapshots of other rooms in the house:
In the living room, they've replaced white with Navajo White and painted some accent walls in Behr's Milestone.In the kitchen, they painted it Behr's Blue Agave.
My first reaction actually has nothing to do with the bedroom, but instead, "where did that kitchen color come from?!" As far as flow and cohesive palettes, I'm wondering how the bright blue kitchen walls fit into the picture of serene colors. But that's for another post some other time.
Our dilemma at hand: Anna wants to know if there exists a serene, yet stimulating color. My answer would be "It's personal."
Everyone has a different reaction to colors. What one person considers exciting, dynamic and uplifting might give another person a headache. Conversely, a calm, soothing tone to one might appear dingy and depressing to another. What I'm getting at is that there are no recipes when it comes to the psychology of color. Personal tastes, the desired goals of a design, and the context of a color all come into play.
So, where does Anna go from here? I might suggest a soft blueish gray or lilac, which would set-off the warm blonde wood and golden art above the bed.
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This would be in keeping with the existing Navajo White and Milestone colors elsewhere in the house, while anchoring the bedroom a bit more. I'd also suggest considering painting the office alcove, as this space has an entirely different purpose than the bedroom area.I love the idea of incorporating a graphic onto the wall above the bed. A sense of organic movement would be quite lovely. Be careful not to continue the pattern exactly as it is on the bedspread, but instead take inspiration from it to create your mural.
Here is a mural my friend and I created for her little girl's room, taking inspiration from her Dwell bedding.
I'd love for you all to weigh in too, as there are always multiple solutions to any color quandary.
What would you suggest Anna do?