Paint colors for your home, inside and out
Cool · Bedroom · colors from 4 paintings
Cool bedroom colors are blue-gray, slate and pale blue. Three cool shades lead this page, and sand, brown and a deep blue from the same paintings round out the room.
Quick answer
Paint the walls #B6C8D2, use slate #88979E for the main furniture, brown #634D13 for wood, deep blue #355987 for a bold piece and sand #D1C6AF for textiles.
A light wall at LRV 56 with a cool blue undertone, from Renoir's Seascape. It is the lightest of the three cool shades and suits most bedrooms.
From Seascape, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A mid-tone wall at LRV 40, from Rousseau's A Village in a Valley. It is grayer than the first and has a soft, slightly lavender feel.
From A Village in a Valley, Théodore Rousseau
A mid-tone slate at LRV 30, from Waldmüller's The Actor Maximilian Korn in a Landscape. It suits a headboard wall or a large piece of furniture.
From The Actor Maximilian Korn in a Landscape, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
A light warm neutral at LRV 57, from Pissarro's The Place du Havre, Paris. It warms the room through bedding, curtains or a rug.
From The Place du Havre, Paris, Camille Pissarro
A deep warm brown at LRV 8, from Rousseau's A Village in a Valley. It suits wood furniture, a bed frame or a floor.
From A Village in a Valley, Théodore Rousseau
A deep blue at LRV 10, from Renoir's Seascape. It makes a strong bedding color, an accent chair or a single painted piece.
From Seascape, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The same paint reads differently in cool north light, warm south sun and under evening lamps. Find the column closest to your room.
| Color | Neutral daylight | North light | South light | Evening lamps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pale Seascape Blue | ||||
| Quiet Gray Blue | ||||
| Stone Slate | ||||
| Pale Sand |
Pick which color goes on the walls, the big furniture and the bold piece. Floors, shadows and trim follow your choice.
The framed picture on the wall is Seascape.
The three cool shades differ in LRV and depth. Pale seascape blue #B6C8D2 at 56 is the lightest and most airy. Quiet gray blue #A8AAB4 at 40 is softer and more muted. Stone slate #88979E at 30 is the deepest and reads as a gray with a blue cast.
For a small bedroom, pale seascape blue is the safest, because it reflects more light. For a larger room with good daylight, the gray blue gives a restful, cocooning feel.
Stone slate suits a single wall behind the bed, or a whole room if you want a darker look. At LRV 30 it absorbs about two thirds of the light, so plan on good lamps.
The suggested roles are walls in pale seascape blue, main furniture in stone slate, wood in dark olive brown, a bold piece in deep cobalt and textiles in pale sand.
Cool walls can feel chilly, so add warmth with pale sand #D1C6AF. In bedding, curtains or a rug, it softens the blues without turning the room warm overall. It comes from a different painting but sits well beside the others.
Trim and ceiling look best in a soft white. A bright white gives a crisp edge to pale blue. A warm white is gentler.
Wood furniture in the dark olive brown range gives depth and grounds the blues. A wood floor in mid-brown also works.
Deep cobalt #355987 is the accent. It reads strongly against the pale walls, so use it in a bedspread, a chair or a lamp base. Too much deep blue can make a bedroom feel heavy.
Metal finishes in brass or black both work.
Cool colors look coolest in north light. A pale blue wall in a north-facing bedroom can turn gray and feel cold. In that room, choose the gray blue, which is already muted, and warm the room with sand and wood.
In a south or west bedroom, the pale seascape blue looks clearer and brighter, and the room stays fresh in summer.
Under warm evening bulbs, cool colors lose some of their blue. The pale blue goes soft and slightly green-gray, and the slate looks darker. That is usually welcome in a bedroom, because it makes the room restful at night.
If you read in bed, make sure the lamps are bright enough, since walls with a lower LRV reflect less light.
Paint a large sample, at least two feet wide, on the wall you will see from the bed. Cool colors can look different from a chip, and it helps to judge them where you actually rest.
Look at the sample in the morning, in afternoon sun and at night under your bedroom lamps. Note when it looks most blue and when it looks gray.
Hold your bedding, curtains and flooring beside it. A pale blue can look green beside a yellow wood and purple beside a pink rug.
Leave the samples up for several days. If you are choosing between the pale blue and the gray blue, put them side by side to see which one you want to wake up to.
Pale blue, gray blue and slate. This page shows three, with LRV from 56 down to 30.
They can, especially in north light. Add warmth with sand bedding, wood furniture and warm bulbs.
Pale seascape blue #B6C8D2 at LRV 56. It reflects the most light of the three.
Deep cobalt #355987 comes from the same painting as the pale blue. Use it in bedding or a chair.
Each color lists its closest measured match, such as Sherwin-Williams SW 9145 Sleepy Hollow for the pale blue. Test the paint in your own room.
A card with every color on this page, its LRV and the paintings it comes from. Pin it, or take it to the paint store.
Cool Color Palette for Home, Paired by Painters
Emerald Green Bedroom Paint: Shades Measured from Paintings
Mint Green Paint for a Bedroom: Three Pale Green Shades
Blush Pink Bedroom Paint: Three Dusty Rose Shades to Compare
Maroon Color Bedroom: Burgundy Shades and What to Pair Them With
Blue and Green Bedroom Walls
Painting images: The Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain (CC0). Colors measured by Light & Pigment. Paint names belong to their brands and matches are approximate. Colors look different on screen than on a wall, so always test a sample.
