Green Bedroom Ideas

The colour green is one that, until recent years, has been commonly swerved in our interiors – save for the avocado bathroom suites of the seventies. Despite its broad range, from jewel-like teals to ice cream shades of pistachio and mint, it’s a bedroom colour idea that many are unsure how to use, especially in the bedroom.

But green is the shade most closely linked with nature. It has instant familiarity. Green in your bedroom, or any room of the home, imbues freshness and provides an instant positive lift to a scheme.

Colour consultant Karen Haller explains: “The main positive psychological properties green communicates are peace, balance and harmony. It can rejuvenate and restore, giving the feeling of being connected to nature and feeling safe and secure.” It makes sense then that green, in a room that centres around rest and recuperation, should lend itself perfectly to where you sleep.

Green has many faces. Go dark and daring and your bedroom becomes sensual. Favour soft sage and your bedroom becomes fresh and feminine. Opt for rich brown- or yellow-tinted greens like khaki, loden, moss or olive and the look becomes far more trendy, with a nod to Mid-Century, retro splashes of saturated colour. Here are a few of the shades to consider in your own scheme or colours to match them with.

Perhaps not two colours you’d instinctively combine, but grey adds a contemporary spin to a green bedroom. Pale grey generally works best in this colour duo. In the Brendan Wong four-poster bedroom, the effect of soft grey walls and a silvered carpet provide a lulling backdrop that means the stronger hits of green don’t overpower the scheme. Grey acts as the anchor and green as the sails. The same applies in Studio Ashby’s contemporary grey and green bedroom. The dove grey feature wall is similar in tone to the moss green cushions, and together, their effect is harmonious and relaxing

A mint green bedroom needn’t be sugary. Introduce stronger accent colours such as walnut or mahogany through your furniture, textured fabrics like linen or wool, knotted rugs or exposed wooden floorboards, and busy prints on any throw pillows, curtains or blinds. Mint green then becomes a pretty background setting that brings femininity and crisp character to a bedroom, but juxtaposed with expressions of solidity and coarse texture.

Sage green walls with cream or warm white furniture and gilded frames of artworks around the bedroom creates a very elegant, classic scheme that suits period properties. Sage, as country as it is, can be brought up to date with sleeker materials such as marble and brass and striking grass green rugs, or, play to its provincial nature by teaming it with rustic oak furniture and linen or cotton textiles.

Nothing is quite so fresh as a green and white bedroom. Pair apple green, sage green or mint green with white and the look is instantly spring-like and crisp. Marry period tones of green and mid-greens with white and the result is classic and enduring. Even the darkest shades of green, like those used on the partition door and rug in the Kelly Hoppen bedroom pictured below, suit white, because though the contrast is high; green somehow softens it, making it appear richer and the white milkier.

There’s something quite regal about olive green. It’s sophisticated and a less-obvious colourway, and is a helpful green tone should you want to add understated glamour to your bedroom because it suits gold and brass so well. As a result of its velvety base, olive green combines well with materials that are equally as opulent, such as polished marble, or with contrasting textures like rattan, sisal and jute – use these on rugs or storage baskets. On the subject of velvet, olive’s innate lustre means that it transfers beautifully onto fabrics, such as velvet headboards and the single strip of silk on Kelly Hoppen’s bedroom’s linen.

If white feels too sharp and crisp, lean towards a green and cream bedroom – white’s gentler relative. Because of cream’s yellow base, it suits darker tones of green. Otherwise, a light green bedroom means that cream soaks up any green tints, as you can see in the Beverly Hills Suite image, where the mid-green curtains result in the walls appearing like a very muted shade of green. Try cream alongside fully-saturated greens, or if you’re comfortable with a high country look, match it with sage.

Regardless of the room and irrespective of the colour scheme, accessories will always remain fundamental in developing a colour palette.

Green bedroom accessories can head in one of two directions. If you’ve decided to keep the rest of your bedroom’s interior muted and green-free, then you can turn to accessories to dial up your use of colour. In the Brendan Wong elegant bedroom pictured, green begins in the subtlety of the leaf detailing on the end-of-bed canapé sofa. It is then exaggerated by the two, large square cushions that are enrobed in emerald green velvet. This shows the effect that just two accessories can have on determining a bedroom’s palette.

A similar effect is achieved in Studio Ashby’s Art Deco meets Mid-Century bedroom through the stage presence of the forest green headboard. Of course you can go beyond just one piece and have repeated accents of green throughout the room, and the amplitude and scale of green references can vary. For example, a green trim on a window treatment versus drapes that are 100 per cent green; green scatter cushions on the bed versus green patterned bedding; or a piece of statement green bedroom furniture versus a wooden dresser topped with green trinket boxes and a green-framed piece of art.