Bedroom colours: how to choose for easy sleep and a good mood in the morning

Which bedroom colours help you relax?

A bedroom doesn't need a colour that demands attention. The colours that work best are usually slightly muted, low in saturation, light to mid-tone, because your eyes don't have to work hard. You open the door and it feels like you've left the day's high heels outside.

Be careful with very bright colours over a whole room, such as bright red, bright orange or lime green. They aren't wrong, but the room will feel too lively for the time you want to switch off. If you love bright colour, keep it to cushions or a blanket, which are easier to change.

Warm vs cool bedroom paint: which should you choose?

Warm tones such as Oatmeal, Linen, Coconut Ice Cream and Mineral Finish in Latte feel like a cotton blanket on a weekend morning: warm and safe. They go with warm white lighting and wood, and suit rooms with little light or rooms you want to feel a little like a hotel.

Cool tones such as Mist, Tea Leaf and Blue Clouds make a room look cool and easy on the eye. They suit rooms that get strong afternoon sun in a hot city; one look and it feels as if the air conditioning was switched on before you came in. If you're somewhere in between, try Taro Cream, a soft lilac that is gentle and cool at once.

If you can't decide, look at which way the window faces. A room that gets afternoon sun calls for cool tones; a room with little light calls for warm ones. Then try sample bottles of both and compare them first.

An air-conditioned bedroom with the door shut all night: which paint?

Most bedrooms in Thai homes have the doors and windows shut and the air conditioning on all night, so the same air circulates in the room. Beyond the shade, think about the paint itself: choose one with little odour and low VOC.

Voqe Wall Paint is 100% pure acrylic, low VOC and low odour, made by Dyno Paints, which holds the Green Label. It is touch dry in 20–30 minutes and ready for a second coat in 1–2 hours. Once you've finished, we still recommend opening the windows to air the room for a while before you close it up and switch on the air conditioning for the night.

As for sheen, most bedrooms suit Eggshell, which is smooth and soft, so light from a bedside lamp doesn't glare back into your eyes.

• Choose a low-odour, low-VOC paint
• Open the windows to air the room after painting, before closing it up with the air conditioning on
• Use Eggshell to cut glare from bedside lights

The headboard wall: the one place to go dark

For a bedroom with character that doesn't feel busy, paint only the wall behind the bed in a dark colour. It's a wall you don't look at while you sleep, but you see it every time you walk in. A deep blue like Midnight Indigo or a dark brown like Coffee Bean makes the room feel deeper, like a boutique hotel room.

If you're drawn to texture, try Mineral Finish behind the bed, such as Chill Beige or Doi Luang Blue. The matt surface carries hand-made brush marks, so when the bedside lamp is on, the wall has soft shadows like a plastered wall in a resort.

Paint your bedroom yourself in one day: how much paint?

Voqe Wall Paint covers 35–40 square metres per gallon per coat. With two coats, a typical bedroom usually takes 1–2 gallons. Work out your actual wall area with the paint calculator on our website before you order. A 1-gallon (3.785L) can costs ฿1,299, and a 100ml sample bottle costs ฿75.

If you'd rather not paint it yourself, use our Supply & Apply service and a team of trained painters will do it for you. Or send a photo of your bedroom to LINE @dynohomes first, and the team will help you choose a colour for free.