Bedroom paint colors, in real bedrooms

The bedroom is where designers take the risks they would not take in a living room, and the rooms here show it. Of the twenty colors, only three are whites. Five are blues or blue-greens, three are earth tones in the brown-to-terracotta band plus an ochre, three are pinks, and three are deep enough to count as dark rooms. The most photographed bedroom color on the site is not a white at all but Little Falls, a dusty mid-tone blue, with eight rooms.

The other thing the photographs show is restraint in saturation, not in depth. Nothing here is bright. The blues are grayed, the pinks are plaster and mushroom rather than rose, the yellows are ochre and honey, the greens are frosted or deep olive. That matches what the color consultants we read recommend: Lick's Tash Bradley says to avoid anything 'overly stimulating or highly saturated.'

The claim that blue bedrooms help you sleep is everywhere, and the evidence behind it is thinner than the claim. The Sleep Foundation says that 'in general, people tend to associate blue with calmness and relaxation' and that 'one survey found that people with blue bedrooms had the longest average sleep per night,' without naming the survey. Sleep psychologist Katherine Hall, in Apartment Therapy, goes further: 'Studies have also shown that households with blue bedrooms sleep the best compared to any other color!' No study is named there either. Sue Peacock, another sleep psychologist quoted in the same piece, is more careful: 'blue tones also tend to have more calming effects on the brain.'

What the color experts agree on is saturation. Tash Bradley of Lick, in Homes & Gardens: 'Avoid any color that's overly stimulating or highly saturated.' In Livingetc she adds that 'blues work well in the bedroom because they provide a sense of serenity and clarity of thought.' Helen Shaw of Benjamin Moore: 'consider using pared back, dusky pastels as these are wonderfully relaxing and encourage tranquility.' Green gets the same vote; the Sleep Foundation reports that 'people report that green has a relaxing effect and evokes feelings of comfort, peace, spaciousness, hope, and happiness.'

On this page the blues are Little Falls, De Nimes, Borrowed Light, Pale Powder and Wythe Blue, and the greens are Pine Frost, Duck Green and Sage. Every one of them is grayed or muted. If you want the blue bedroom the surveys point to, Little Falls (eight rooms, LRV 41) and De Nimes (six rooms) are the two with the most rooms here; Borrowed Light is the pale option.

Three of the colors here are dark: Duck Green, Sage and Southwest Pottery, with Tack Room Door and De Nimes not far behind. Designer Artem Kropovinsky of Arsight, in Real Homes: 'Dark wall colors such as navy blue, charcoal gray, or even black will make a bedroom feel cozy and warm.' Brynn Olson, in Domino: 'Going dark in your boudoir can be scary, but the reality is that it builds a sophisticated foundation.' Farrow & Ball's own light guide offers, as 'another approach' to a cool room, 'not to fight nature.'

The argument is about the trim. Patrick O'Donnell of Farrow & Ball, in Homes & Gardens, advises that you 'paint your woodwork in the same color, especially if the room has quite low ceilings.' Ricky Allen, in Real Homes: 'I like to opt for a monochromatic color scheme to create an intimate atmosphere.' Deborah Bettcher of Decorating Den takes the other side: 'I like to paint the trim in dark bedrooms a white trim for a crisp contrast.' Both work; the one-color room reads as a cocoon, the white-trim room reads as a dark room with its edges drawn.

The caveat is black. The Sleep Foundation notes that 'people strongly relate the color black to negative emotions such as depression, sadness, anger, and fear,' and designer Rebecca Atwood, in Apartment Therapy, says that if you go more gray in a bedroom, 'it's important for it to be chromatic so that it doesn't feel sad.' The dark rooms on this page are green, olive and clay, not black, and that is the lesson.

Farrow & Ball's light guide: 'Northern light tends to bring out the cooler tones within a color.' Patrick O'Donnell, in Homes & Gardens: 'For north-facing rooms, a clean white can simply feel too chilly.' His answer is pink: 'Pink is a color for those poorly lit north-facing bedrooms.' Tash Bradley of Lick, in Livingetc, agrees from the other direction: 'If cuddles were a color, they would be pink - one of the best colors to use in a bedroom.'

The pinks here are the grown-up kind. Templeton Pink is the brand's plaster pink that 'becomes surprisingly deep' in low light; Hebe Hatton of Homes & Gardens says of it, 'I can imagine in a room with little natural light, it gets really dark and beautiful.' Dead Salmon is barely a pink at all: 'less pink, more mushroomy than Templeton Pink and in some lights, it almost looks like a warm gray/brown,' in Hatton's words, and 'very much a contemporary neutral' according to Tom Rutt of TR Studios. Pink Cloud is the pale one, in the kids' rooms.

For a north-facing bedroom that does not want pink, the earth tones do the same job: Foxy Brown, Southwest Pottery and Hollywood Gold all carry the warmth a cool room is missing. Ruth Mottershead of Little Greene, on calm bedroom colors, suggests you 'opt for warm natural stone colors or greens.'

Designer Robert Stilin, in Livingetc, has the rule: 'for a bedroom that is moody and cozy, go with a shade of white that is a bit darker and warmer,' and 'if you are concerned that the room lacks light, simply go with a brighter shade of white.' He also has the warning: 'White rooms take on a different look as the light changes throughout the day and from season to season.'

On this page the three whites sit exactly on his scale. Swiss Coffee at LRV 81.91 is the darker, warmer one for the cozy room. White Dove at 83.16 is the middle: warm, but with the yellow grayed out so it stays white at night. Pure White at 83.957 is the brightest and the least warm, the one for a bedroom with good light. Pine Frost, at 65, is what you choose when a white is too plain and a color is too much.

The brands are close to unanimous. Benjamin Moore: 'A matte look lends a luxurious touch to many interior spaces, including bedrooms,' and its matte 'is nearly as shine-free as flat.' Sherwin-Williams' starter guide puts matte and flat on 'adult bedrooms and other areas that won't get roughed up by kids,' while its current sheen guide allows a step up: 'A soft, calming feel can be achieved with eggshell or satin.' Farrow & Ball's Estate Emulsion is 'our classic finish for interior walls and ceilings in low-traffic areas,' 'a very matte finish with a chalky 2% sheen,' and Michael Rolland of The Paint Shed confirms that 'Estate emulsion is often the preferred choice for ceilings, bedrooms and low-traffic areas around the home.'

Dominic Myland of Mylands, in Homes & Gardens: 'We recommend matte paints for bedrooms and as living room paint finishes where the walls are exposed to less moisture.' The reason matte wins in a bedroom is the same reason it loses in a hallway: it hides the wall and shows the color, and nobody is scuffing a bedroom wall. For a one-color room, keep the walls matte and take the woodwork up to eggshell or satin so the trim reads as trim.

The kids' rooms on this site are a small sample, eight rooms in four colors, and two of those colors are on this page: Pink Cloud in three rooms by The Kirby Home and Summer Harvest in three by Studio Coco Greenblum. Both are pale and warm, which is what the designers recommend. Judy Smith of Crown, in Homes & Gardens: 'If you're decorating a child's room, paler colors tend to be more calming and soothing.' Kathy Kuo suggests 'warm neutral hues or softened versions of classic colors, like sage green and light blue.' Sherrell Neal of Sherrell Design Studio: 'Blue has always been a universal choice that fits every age.'

The finish changes. Patrick O'Donnell of Farrow & Ball: 'For walls, choose finishes like our Modern Emulsion, which is washable and wipeable for accidental disasters that strike.' Sherwin-Williams puts kids' bedrooms in the satin column, 'ideal for high-traffic areas most likely to attract nicks, scuff marks and stains.' Matte for the adults, satin for the children.