Hi all! I'm a graduate student moving into a new city for school. Yesterday I visited the room I'll be renting and now I want to plan how I will decorate it, but I've never designed my own room before. The picture shows how it looks before the room is emptied. To me it looks like the walls are painted light brown, the ceiling is white, the floor is carpeted with gray. I want my future room to look bright and cozy, but I can't repaint the walls. Any advice on the colour of bed frame, desk, area rug, and accents I should choose? Thank you!
How big is this room ? I assume it is in town with people on the window side ! What kind of lighting does it have ? I would stay with a creamy white for case furniture and bright white for the frames of any artwork you might have ! accent colors can be any thing you like as long as they are on the bright side of the color palette ! Pale colors will just wash out. Even red would be a good splash of color for a pillow or two !! Area rug should just blend with the accessories with some white or other light color in the print ! You will likely need a window treatment since you will be changing clothes in the room ! Stand in front of the window and measure to your chin. That is where the top of the window treatment should be and leave above that open. White is what I would use for those as well ! ! Use a curtain rod that allows you to slide the curtains back on either side so light is unobstructed when possible. That way even if you are dressing the top part of the window will allow light in but obstruct the view below your chin ! Kind of hard to judge heights ect from a pic ! Just my opinion !
You have a very neutral palette right now. The walls, floor and ceiling are all neutral tones, which is a huge plus because it means you have a lovely array of color to work with. I'm a very visual person, so rather than telling you, I wanted to share some images with you. They're all of rooms that compliment brown tones. The walls are going to be the most noticeable in your room as you decorate, so I've chosen to accent that rather than the gray or white, though most of the colors in the various palettes I'm sharing with you will also not clash with the gray. The choices of color in this room warm it up. They're warm rather than cool tones. See how the pops of the reds, oranges and yellows complement so nicely the brown of the walls and couch? Here's another picture with an entirely different flavor. The colors chosen here are cooler colors, though every bit as attractive with the brown. Though the walls are a green/blue tone, the couch, floor, area rug and armchair dominate the room and have brown shades, but the curtains, cushions and other accents add enough restful color that the room doesn't look bland or dreary.
Thank you so much for all of your input! Mart: The room size is about 13x13. Compared to most student rooms, I think I have a lot of space to work with! I like the idea of using bright accent colours in some of my pillows, and I will definitely look into the window situation. Would you happen to have sample images of area rugs that you think would look good? Ronni: These are beautiful pictures, thank you! Instead of seeing the room as dark and hard to work with, you've definitely simplified it for me and now I view it in a more creative perspective!
Andrea, because it will be easier to find accessories to match an area rug than it will be to find a rug to match accessories, I'd do my rug shopping first. My suggestion is to go with a soft pattern rather than a harsh or very angular geometric shape, just because the softer pattern will give the appearance of space. Do you like paisley? Florals? Trellis? Ikat? Chinoiserie? They are all different kinds of softer patterns. I like the rug in the first picture...and though it does have a geometric shape, it's very faint and doesn't dominate the space. And because you can choose a rug with a variety of different colors in it, you can pick one or two of the colors as your accent pieces and match just those. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about. I tend to prefer bolder patterns in area rugs so I'm personally drawn to those. You want something more muted or subtle but these images will still give you ideas for color combinations/patterns.
Hmm, you definitely need to decorate the room in light colors, such small details like colors affect our brain every day. I am fascinated by light gray, white or beige colors in the interior of the rooms, it fills the room with a kind of freshness. I advise you to think about the milk color rugsdoneright.com, I think it's perfect for the style that you like. The bed frame can be beige or light gray, and you can also make your lighting at the headboard with LED light. It's just your choice, but I advise you to use as many light colors in the interior as possible, you'll see, you'll be soo pleased to spend time in your room.
