Charcoal Bedroom
- Grey room ideas
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In recent years grey has become a steadfast favourite for decorating, in any room. Thanks to its versatility grey is considered to be a timeless shade that never goes out of style, making it a fashionable choice for creating chic bedroom ideas.
'Between light greys and dark greys, warm greys and cool greys – and not forgetting all the greys in between – there's more to this ultra-versatile neutral than you might think' explains Charlotte Cosby, head of creative at Farrow & Ball.
Grey is one of those wonderfully adaptable shades that works with just about any colour accent, making it ideal for living rooms and bedrooms especially, areas in which you are most likely to introduce larger accents of colour, through sofas and soft furnishings to upholstered beds and bedding.
Grey bedroom ideas
Take your style into consideration when planning a grey colour scheme. Meaning look for the best grey paint for walls to suit your own personal tastes, then build a decor around that shade. If you prefer a modern bedroom, you may want deeper, more dramatic shades of grey. Team them with metal and glass for an industrial edge.
In a vintage or traditional bedroom scheme, bring in gentle powdery tones of blue or pink to temper the grey. One of the joys of decorating with grey is its sheer versatility – it looks fabulously at home in any style decor, as you will see with our grey bedroom ideas below.
1. Keep it simple with pale grey walls and flooring
Image credit: Future PLC/ Jo Henderson
For a gentle bedroom colour scheme, paint walls, floors and even a clever built-in wardrobe to match in a mid grey tone. It becomes the perfect backdrop for any accent coloured bed linen selection – whether plain or patterned, you just can't go wrong. Try pinky terracotta and dusky teal plains, or go all-out with an oversized floral or a modern geometric, in pastel shades.
2. Use grey to accentuate original features
Image credit: Dulux
A strong grey – Dulux's Natural Slate – celebrates the eccentricities of this attic room. While the skirting, wall and a portion of the ceiling are painted in White Cotton, and the remainder has gone grey, accentuating its quirky architecture and cosying up what could have been a cold and awkward space. Vibrant orange bedding, softened by accents of blush pink, energise and soften things further.
3. Contrast grey with denim blues
Image credit: Future PLC/ Jo Henderson
Choose a blue-based grey for the walls and layer up using different shades of denim-blue in bed linen, upholstery, cushions and throws. Using additional pops of terracotta, in plant pots and pillowcases, will provide warmth and contrast to the scheme. Try painting the inside of shelving, or a clever fold down desk, for a further pop of blue.
4. Mimic hotel glamour with charcoal grey and taupe
Image credit: Future PLC/ Jo Henderson
Smarten up a bedroom with a charcoal velvet headboard and a matching grey cabinet. Layer the bed, three pillows deep, in various shades of caramel and toffee. Adding textural throws and cushions, in linens and silks, for a totally luxurious feel. Finish off with brass handles and a sleek brass lamp to bring a finishing touch of glamour to the look.
5. Accentuate grey walls with slate grey flooring
Image credit: Future PLC/ Brent Darby
Whether tiled or carpeted, a slate grey flooring can create a striking contrast to accentuate grey walls. This works particularly well with pale grey walls to offer more of a contrast. The floor can act as the fifth wall for decoration, in line to the four walls.
Regardless of wallpaper or painted grey walls a strong slate grey floor can anchor the whole scheme – without dominating entirely. A dark flooring helps to give purpose.
6. Mix your hues
Image credit: Future PLC/ James Merrell
Dark floorboards set against white walls could look harsh, but a grey wall makes the scheme easier on the eye. Black and white prints and monochrome bed linen unite the soft furnishings with the decor and give this master bedroom a contemporary look.
7. Pick the perfect backdrop
Image credit: Future PLC/ Jake Curtis
A light grey colour is a more welcoming and relaxed alternative to white bedroom ideas, and proves that going grey doesn't have to mean dark and moody. A brilliant option for bright and airy bedrooms, this shade prevents the space becoming stark and provides a soft backdrop for a mix of original arts, crafts and retro details.
8. Contrast dark grey with pops of bright colour
Image credit: Future PLC / Dominic Blackmore
If you're keen to embrace a darker shade of grey you might look to add brighter accent colours to balance the brooding ambience of the strong paint colour. Darker grey is perfectly pair with any bright accent colour, meaning you can make the look feel completely personal by using your favourite colour. The general rule, whichever shade you choose, is to make it bright – the brighter the better.
This slate grey bedroom feels bright thanks to a bold combination of a blue upholstered bed, colourful rugs and a pile of statement soft furnishings.
9. Pair warm grey with coral accents
Image credit: Future PLC/ Matt Antrobus
Vibrant coral tones are an ideal complimentary shade for grey, helping to lend warm tones. This can be especially important in a bedroom, to avoid the grey being too cold and uninviting – not a welcome effect in a bedroom space.
Another way to create a warming feel to a bedroom scheme is by incorporating layers of tactile faux fur textiles – from rugs beside the bed, to cushions and throws.
10. Incorporate doors into the paint scheme
Image credit: Future PLC / David Giles
To create an unbroken wall of colour paint the back of the doors within the room too, just be sure to choose a paint that can be used on woodwork. In this cool grey bedroom the door to the ensuite is painted into the colour scheme to ensure when the door is closed it seamlessly blends into the wall of grey.
This idea can work with the back of an entrance door, as well as any cupboard doors to unify all four walls.
11. Venture over to the dark side
Image credit: Future PLC/ James French
Grey is a cosy choice for a bedroom, especially in its darker tones. It also provides a fantastic contrast to bold, graphic patterns, such as the chevrons on this upholstered headboard.
Soften the look with pops of pink in your accessories and add extra glow with exposed squirrel cage lightbulbs on colourful cables – these will also make a neat alternative to bedside table lamps if you're short on space.
12. Add subtle tone on tone pattern
Image credit: Future PLC/ Claire Davies
This bedroom uses shades of grey to create a calming haven. The feature wallpapered wall, while covered in a busy pattern, uses the palette of grey and white, which softens it. The colour theme continues throughout the room, with grey walls complementing bedside furniture. Different tones appear in the soft furnishings to ensure the colour theme does not become monotonous.
13. Embrace nature with grey wood wallpaper
Image credit: Future PLC/ Richard Gadsey
Don't think by choosing a desired colour scheme you have to exclude any one trend. This birch wood bedroom wallpaper idea in a grey-scale colourway ticks all the box of on-trend print, while working perfectly in a grey bedroom decor. Paired with a grey upholstered headboard and occasional furniture helps to cement the grey scheme even further.
14. Paint a panelled wall in a sophisticated grey
Image credit: Future PLC/ Colin Poole
Wood panelling painted in a serene shade of grey provides the perfect backdrop for a sophisticated master bedroom. The wood panels helps to add a nod to coastal style, without being too OTT.
To add a further elegant touch two wall pendants in chrome provide a hotel-like lighting solution. Mounted either side of the bed they make ideal bedside lamps. Chrome is the ideal choice of metallic to keep the grey tones cool. Crisp white linens layered with soft grey cushions and throws adds to the well put-together look.
15. Choose warming grey tones for a feminine feel
Image credit: Future PLC/ Polly Eltes
A grey that airs on the side of lilac can instantly lend a softer edge to the overall look in a bedroom. In a feminine feel boudoir you're best to opt for warm shades that have an undertone of pink to ensure the grey feels warm, rather than cold. Team with rich golds, blush pinks and pretty florals to add further warmth.
16. Invite a cosy feel with warm greys
Image credit: Future PLC/ Dominic Blackmore
Make a room feel inviting with a warm grey that mixes well with other neutrals for a comfortable layered look. Tints of yellow can give these deeper greys a greenish hue, which touches of red can make them look brown through to purplish in some lights.
Add pops of black, khaki or olive to green-tinted hues, or nude beige. With red warmed tones, try lilac or rose. Warmer greys can be used anywhere you want to create a cosy, enveloping feel – perfect for a north-facing room that needs the chill taking out of it.
17. Choose a chic combo
Image credit: Future PLC/ Tim Young
Muted and mellow, this chic combo gives pink a whole new gender-neutral identity. Whether you're a fan of industrial chic, modern country, Scandi style or classic elegance, this colour pairing can be adapted to suit any taste.
Blush pink and grey is such a delicate combo. Add luxe with pops of polish with metallics like gold, brass or copper which work well with this pairing. The trick is to treat them as a finishing touch to help lift the scheme and prevent it looking flat.
18. Select the right shade of grey
Image credit: Future PLC/ Colin Poole
Picking a grey for your walls is rather like choosing the best white paint – there are far more to sift through than you might ever imagine. To get the best look for your space, try out plenty of samples on your walls and see how they work in different lights before committing. This soft grey sits beautifully with luxe cream furnishings and comforting textiles, creating a harmonious scheme.
19. Wow without vibrant colour
Image credit: Future PLC/ Oliver Gordon
Grey is ideal for the colour shy, and easily creates beautiful schemes full of wow factor. This sumptuous room has no brights in sight, but is none the less for it. In fact, with the leafy print wallpaper, Gustavian headboard and amazing sunburst mirror, it's a masterclass in decorating with grey.
20. Add zing with lime accents
Image credit: Future PLC/ Jonathan Gooch
Don't feel that you have to ban bright colours from a grey room, though. With its neutral look, grey is super versatile and works well with many a block colour, as you can see in this stylish room with lime-green accents. Choose tactile fabrics and opulent furniture designs to make your scheme feel special – this chaise longue is definitely on our wish lists.
21. Give grey a rustic feel
Image credit: Future PLC/ Brent Darby
Grey schemes can be totally sleek, but they can also be charmingly rustic. Immaculately painted walls don't need to be paired with glossy furniture – distressed finishes look amazing, too. This room has a beautifully Scandi-country feel, and the 'marshmallow'-like bedding and soft-coloured accessories keep the decor natural and relaxed.
22. Be inspired by hotel chic
Image credit: Future PLC/ Davide Lovatti
If you love a hotel getaway, why not welcome some of the magic and create a luxury hotel bedroom at home. Signature pieces such as textural wallpaper, framed black and white prints and an upholstered headboard will make you feel like you're on a city break every day of the week.
In this stylish room, a mixture of subtle patterns and block greys act as a neutral base for the standout monochrome bed, which keeps the scheme classic and totally contemporary.
23. Search for the blue tones within grey
Image credit: Future PLC/ Lizzie Orme
Can't decide between a grey or blue bedroom idea? Combine the two but choosing a grey with strong blue undertones. Accessories such as cushions have a massive role to play in adding hints of alternative colour, despite their compact size. In this room, their impact is felt as the block-coloured blues pick out the blue tones in the grey wall paint. Not bad for such small objects.
24. Paint a subtle feature wall
Image credit: Future PLC/ Rachael Smith
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In an eaves or attic bedroom idea, make decorative use of sloping walls and ceilings. In this room, a gentle grey has been used on the feature wall to offset the white paint used elsewhere. The contrast emphasises the lovely lines of the architecture, opening up what is quite a small space.
Darker grey touches are best kept limited to lighting and bedding to stop the small space from feeling overwhelmed. Exquisite touches of pattern on cushions and a primrose armchair helps warms up both shades of grey in this bedroom scheme.
25. Take a simple but effective – approach
Image credit: Future PLC/ Nikki Crisp
If deep grey is a bit scary in a small bedroom, accessorise with it rather than decorating with it. This grey bedroom is actually a completely white room, but the luxurious velvet bed throw, cushions and smart Roman blind dominate the space. An open shelving unit positioned behind a bed can function as headboard and bedside tables as well as storage.
26. Drape beautiful fabrics
Image credit: Future PLC/ Jan Baldwin
Pick mid grey for walls but keep ceiling and woodwork white for a sophisticated backdrop to a bedroom decorating scheme. Look for a modern take on the four poster bed – this darkwood version has something of the East about it. Soften the frame by draping with a silk or satin floral fabric – this one is in a pretty, toning pink.
27. Embrace a bygone era
Image credit: Future PLC/ Jon Day
If you are going all out for glamour, pay attention to your headboard. Choose an ornate scrolling design that will set the benchmark for the rest of the decorating scheme – this one sports a burnished silver finish. Look for a wallpaper print that can emulate its ornate detailing and bring in mirrors and polished chrome lighting. Silver finishes have a natural affinity with lilac so use it as your accent shade on bedding.
28. Make it metallic
Image credit: Future PLC/ Tom Leighton
Metallic materials and silver tones bring elegance and glamour to a grey scheme. This tile-effect wallpaper in distressed shades of pewter adds intensity to this striking bedroom scheme, which is finished with Prussian blue velvets and faux furs.
Different metallic touches can keep the overall grey scheme cool or add warmth – depending which finish you opt for.
29. Turn up the heat with pink
Image credit: Future PLC/ Adrian Briscoe
To avoid an overly masculine or dark look, flashes of bright colour can be used to break up the scheme and add a modern edge. Cerise pink highlights work brilliantly with the grey scheme in this stylish bedroom and immediately draw the eye to certain parts of the room. The spotty bed is a big attention grabber, too.
What colours go with grey in a bedroom?
'Equally beautiful in its own right or supporting brighter and bolder shades, grey paint has an unparalleled ability to create different moods depending on both the strength and warmth of the shade you choose' explains Farrow & Ball's Charlotte Cosby. 'Between the delicacy of pale grey and the drama of deep grey, you'll find mid greys such as shades like Lamp Room Gray and Manor House Gray. These middleweight tones add a bit more depth making for inviting rooms to relax in (like bedrooms)'.
'For this group, try layering different shades of grey to create a hushed, and calming feel. Such as Worsted walls with Cornforth White trims. They also pair well with pops of colour in accessories or furniture such as orange like Charlotte's Locks.'
'Dark Greys such as shades of lead, gunmetal and charcoal grey are wonderfully cocooning shades for a home, adding a contemporary twist and a grounding influence to a scheme. Down Pipe, is a deep and dramatic neutral.'
Love these grey bedroom ideas? Whatever look you want from your bedroom – from minimalist Scandi to dark and dramatic – grey has the potential to create a striking scheme. We hope you have fun with your decorating.
Source: https://www.idealhome.co.uk/bedroom/bedroom-ideas/grey-bedroom-ideas-35572
