Green bedroom ideas: 11 ways to create a sleeping oasis
Take your cue from Mother Nature with our fresh but calm green bedroom ideas.
Image credit: John Lewis
Take your cue from Mother Nature with our fresh but calm green bedroom ideas.
There are so many reasons to get excited about green bedrooms. For one thing, with the colour’s newfound popularity, there is a bounty of brilliant bedroom colour ideas involving green that spoil us for choice.
That isn’t to say that there isn’t room for fresh thinking in green bedroom design. It’s just that for the longest time people stayed away from green as a décor choice, as it was seen as too quirky.
The shade is now getting its fair dues, with our renewed reverence for calm and tranquillity. Now there are more materials and textiles available than ever for you to create an individual green bedroom that stands out.
The most challenging question you’ll face is where to start. After all, it can feel like Mother Nature went into overdrive when green was created. There is certainly no shortage of shades.
“All greens remind us of the natural world and if you’re not sure how to use them in a space, look to nature,” advises paint entrepreneur Annie Sloan.
“What are some of your favourite outdoor spaces? You’ll see green with every other shade in English cottage gardens and Amazonian rainforests – just knowing this versatility in nature gives me confidence with this colour!”
Start with plants if you’re really nervous, then move onto throws and consider painting a small piece of furniture such as a bedside table.”
Use it as the base for a wall-to-wall green scheme
Nature does not hold back when it comes to splashing green about, so, why should you?
Take the lead from Carpetright and go about it with layer upon layer of green glory. Start with a deep-pile green carpet as a base that you can really sink your toes into, then add a large-scale feature wall mural showing a pine forest behind your bed, for a full forest feel.
A comfy grey-green bed topped with moss-coloured pillows and throws will make you feel like you’re sleeping in the great outdoors.
Grab some house plants – we recommend aloe and peace lily, which are great for air purification and a forest scent. Add accents of natural wicker here and there to enhance your scheme. Finally, spritz the air with a natural pine-scented room fragrance. You’ll sleep like a hibernating bear.
Take a colour tip from autumn
As any interior designer will tell you, some colour pairings in bedrooms were just meant to be. And at the top of the list is green and burnt orange.
The technical explanation is that, on the colour wheel, green and orange are complementary colours. But you only have to look to nature to understand why we have an affinity with this pairing.
The start of autumn is all about the green and burnt orange mix. Take a cue from Mother Nature when deciding what tones of green and orange belong together. Walking in nature when the seasons are changing is a great way to note what shades of orange go hand-in-hand with green.
You might notice that the richer greens like emerald or jade are naturally complemented by burnt tans or burnt orange.
So, to keep the room serene, follow K&H Design’s lead and use burnt orange in velvet as an accent in a room painted green and filled with other neutrals like grey, beige and cream. Try Soho Home or Oka for quality velvet cushions.
Mix traditional window dressings with contemporary furniture
Considering adding floral curtains in your green bedroom to add a touch of bucolic charm, but worried it will make your room feel too busy?
It’s all about pairing contemporary furniture and accents with more traditional touches. Take, for example, this bed, in this green bedroom by Sean Symington Interior Design.
Its clean lines give it a modern edge that is not diminished by being next to boldly floral curtains. In fact, they enhance each other and create a cosy and inviting room, that would appeal to all ages.
We like how the lighting is kept traditional, but the white window seat is all about the now. Match your accent cushions to the curtain fabric, as the designer has done, and tie it all together.
Play to green’s sleepy strengths
Think of a bedroom with a view of rolling hills, where the only sound for miles is cows lowing. That is the feeling designers at Cave Interiors achieved with this peaceful green bedroom.
Selecting a pastel hued green helps to create this effect. It’s a delicate shade that makes no harsh demands on our eyes. To keep the room as harmonious as possible, the pattern is extended to the curtains, which all but disappear. The look is finished by a headboard fabric in the same green as the paper and some equally quiet accents in light green, dusky pink and lightest beige.
There is very little to distract by way of contrast in this room and that is why it works so well. Want a create a similar look? Try John Lewis’ Cow Parsley wallpaper.
Cow Parsley Wallpaper, Mineral, John Lewis, £25 per roll
A simple Shaker-style design will feel timeless
If kitchen design is anything to go by, our love affair with Shaker styling isn’t ending anytime soon. And why should it?
Borne out of the Shaker religious movement of the 18th century, this pure, unfussy style of joinery simply does not date. In fact, we think as timeless green bedroom ideas go, you would be on to a winner if you added some Shaker panelling to your bedroom scheme.
Shaker panelling is somewhere between modern and traditional, and so, suits all property styles. It has the power to turn a flat and boring green bedroom wall into something altogether more homely and appealing.
Not only will you enjoy a lot more texture for your chosen green paint, but Shaker panelling helps you play with light and shadows. This gives your room life, especially when layered with lighting.
Wooden shaker panelling is surprisingly easy to install. Check out our easy DIY projects, one of which is panelling.
Bring crafty charm to your green bedroom
Embroidered bed linen is just plain irresistible. It can bring an extra layer of flower-power boho joy and fun to your bedroom. That is because there is something so down-to-earth and wholesome about embroidery. Even if it is reasonably priced and machine made, we make the connection to classic intricate embroidery that was traditionally done painstakingly by hand.
So, on your bed, embroidered linen can feel crafty and luxurious all at once. We suggest using it to decorate a guest bedroom that you want to give some special green charm to.
What we also really like about linen as a green bedroom idea is that bed linen is such a sustainable choice for switching things up. When you fancy a change you can simply wash and store, and enjoy your green linen afresh, another day.
Choose an in-between shade for maximum serenity
For a green bedroom with an abundance of calming charm, Studio Peake director Sarah Peake reached for Celadon by Edward Bulmer Natural Paint. Peake says:
“It’s a softly spoken, harmonious blend of green and blue that works equally well as a pastel contrast to creamy whites, or as a muted backdrop to more vibrant colours.”
Blue and green work wonderfully together – after all, they both feature widely in Mother Nature’s palette and are both known to have a positive impact on our sense of well-being. So, follow Studio Peake’s lead and dot blue around your green bedroom.
Blue hues are used here in the headboard, armchair and accent cushion, rug and also the framed artwork.
The two make a pretty pair
What do you get when you mix restful bedroom walls in green with a bed in a dreamy pink hue? Snooze nirvana, that’s what. These two colours are a great balancing act.
The green stops the pink from becoming too overly sweet and the pink adds a touch of flirtatiousness to green, which can otherwise sometimes border on sensible. The green throw and foliage accented white bed linen emphasise that the theme is rooted in nature.
Plenty of house plants dotted around also ensure that the pink and green pairing feels earthy and grounded. We also love the scalloped edging applied to the wall panelling, which makes the feature feel more playful and less traditional.
Wondering where you can find a lovely green throw to work with your pink bed? Try the John Lewis Plain Wool Throw (John Lewis, £90).
Emily Upholstered Bed Frame, King Size, RRP £649
Take a lesson from trees
There is no reason all the best green bedroom ideas should focus on the standard four walls. In fact, we think your ‘fifth wall’ or ceiling is an excellent surface to lavish with love to create a green-centric bedroom.
Since you will be seeing this colour as soon as you open your eyes, make sure you opt for a particularly soothing option. Mylands Serpentine No. 192 is a lovely hue of calming olive. You might want to try something in this shade or in the celadon family.
We like how the colour is brought down off the ceiling onto the wall. This creates less of a sharp contrast and a greater sense of intimacy – this is a particularly good trick to try if you have very high ceilings.
Besotted with the oh-so-regal green-brown velvet cushions tying the whole room scheme together? Oka sells a velvet cushion that’s a dead ringer.
Plain Velvet Cushion Cover, Oka, RRP £60
It gives green a new dimension
For green to work in your bedroom, it doesn’t always have to be a soft touch. For those who crave a more active take on this supremely restful hue, geometric patterns may be the answer.
We like this Facet Moss wallpaper by Rebel Walls. Many shades of greens are brought together as they would be in nature, yet in an abstract and unexpected way. If you are using this or a similar paper, take a cue from this décor scheme and keep the other elements restful and low-key. Spreading the paper across to all walls makes the space look bigger and creates a pleasing cocooning effect.
When using strong geometric patterns, it’s wise to keep furniture and accessories chic and simple. The linear bed, bench and desk set a modern-classic tone, while the sculptural lampshade echoes the arcs of the wallpaper design.
Facet Moss wallpaper, Rebel Walls, RRP £41.52
It’s a great approach for beginners
Green can feel like an intimidating shade to use for the non-interior designers among us. So if you are eager to decorate with it but lack colour confidence, keep it simple. Use a deep but muted green as your backdrop, then keep everything else to a simple palette of off-white and black. It’s smart, soothing and sophisticated, all in one.
Taking this approach will give you a restful scheme where you can then experiment with accent colours. Here we see a few flashes of red by way of a cushion and plates on the wall. The great thing is, if the accent doesn’t work, it’s easy (and affordable) to get rid of it, with no harm done to the overall look.
Silhouette Full Depth Ticking Stripe Upholstered Headboard, Double, John Lewis, £399
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