Article: Lisa Taylor from Natural Colour System
Image: Getty Images

Super heroes haven’t helped the case for the child’s room either but perhaps taking the needs of the room into consideration first may help create the perfect space.

It is said that we perceive colours even with our eyes closed so colour in the bedroom should be one of the most important colour choices in anyone’s décor scheme. Soft, muted shades are the most conducive to rest and relaxation.

Blue is said to be the most conducive to a good nights sleep as it creates a sensation of space and of things being slowed down, and because of this is said to be a cold colour. To bear this out, a paper presented at the Annual Colour Conference in Thailand in 2003 has subjects in a red and a blue room with the thermostat turned down in the same increments. All subjects found that they perceived the blue room to be colder sooner than the red room!

The best colour range for an adult bedroom would be R50B to B20G. Red 50 % Blue – giving both the romance of red and the insomnia solving qualities of blue. Blue also symbolises inspiration, devotion, peace and tranquillity and is therefore an excellent colour to use for sleep.

Without a good sleep pattern you don’t have the serotonin uptake which spirals your body into depression ask any Mom with a new baby! And without serotonin the love life takes a knock.

In his book Sleep Smart Dr Christiaan Geldenhuys says that bedrooms should be colder to allow the body to cool down. With blue being seen as a cold colour this would contribute to the body progressing to a Theta state of relaxation.

In addition, because blue creates a sensation of space it is good to use in rooms that are too small and because there are nuances of the same hue all having red 50% blue, you have a wide variety too choose from.

If however you have a problem waking up! Yellow (Y10R TO Y30R) would be the colour to use in your room to best simulate the happy feeling of the early morning sun.

Colours for Kids

Children’s bedrooms on the other hand, offer a more complex colour problem, as they are not only sleep areas but also often rooms where play and study take place. In a newborn baby colours should never be more than 5% blackness and 10 chromaticness, as illustrated by the top left hand corner of the NCS triangle as this is the soft pastel shade that is said to calm the child.

The old wives tale of painting the room in the colour of the sex of the infant is still valid today with blue being linked to the masculine Yin force of the sky and is a peaceful, tranquil colour for a boy. Pink is derived from the red of Mother Earth and is said to be grounding and earthing colour. As they progress into the teen years the child’s colour preference develops into the stronger more chromatic colours of 0540 onwards.

Children with learning problems should have a room with Blue 90% Green as this is said to calm the mind down and focus the child on the studies and task at hand – this is why machines in factories have this hue, it prevents accidents!.
Best colour all-round would be S0530-B90G. This shade of blue green has the power of bringing the negative and positive energies of a human into balance.