Should You Paint Your Bedroom a Different Color Than the Rest of Your House?

Room Color in General

• White, cream or tan are quite common as basic wall paint in new homes, condominiums and apartments. A neutral color seems "safe," which is usually true -- unless you build a home yourself, choosing colors along the way. If you buy a newly constructed home, you can choose whatever colors you like to change the paint that came with the house. With the array of "designer" colors available today, you could paint every room the same color, a different color or paint only one or two rooms in colors that differ from the rest of the house.

Choosing Colors

• You can choose paint color based on your existing or life-long favorite colors, or choose a color to match your existing or desired furnishings. The choice boils down to what you think will look and feel best in your own dwelling. You can get brave and go wild with a bedroom painted bright red while the rest of the house is pale gray or tangerine. Or you can paint the bedroom a light teal, paint the den dark teal, the kitchen traditional teal and the rest of the house cream. Visit a few showrooms and paint stores to get ideas and color swatches.

Meaning of Color

• Color can certainly contribute to the way a room feels. Knowing whether you want your bedroom to feel bright and airy, dark, subdued or vibrant can help in selecting your paint color. Colors are associated with symbols and meanings you might want to take into consideration also. Whites are about purity and innocence while reds can suggest energy, war, danger or desire, love and passion. Greens can symbolize healing, growth and fertility. If you want to paint your bedroom using symbolism, just do a little research on colors and their meanings.

Feng Shui

• Another approach to choosing whether to paint your bedroom the same color as the remainder of your house is to use a divination system, or something like the art of Feng Shui, which can help to bring about harmony and balance in your home. Feng Shui consultant Ken Lauher says that "pink is considered to be one of the best colors for the bedroom because it is the color associated with relationships." But other colors can be used, too.