Is red a bad color for a bedroom? (not completely red)

[kdownie]

We are putting in an offer on a house on Thursday, and if we get it, it will need a lot of updating, painting included.

I have always wanted to paint our DD's room (she is 2) partly in red (like brick red, or "old barn" red) because the theme will be a series of 12 Peter Rabbit cross-stitch pieces my mom and I did for her, that have lots of natural colors, including a dark red.

But I have read these various articles online about how red isn't a very good color for a bedroom because it is not a soothing color etc.

I was thinking of doing one wall in the dark red, one in cream, one cream with red stripes, and not sure about the fourth.

I actually got 2 gallons of "oopps" paint at Home Depot over the weekend in brick red, so I thought that was great, since they were only $5 each and were the nice Behr paint.

Anyway, is red a bad color to choose?

[jonjaktez]

I've alwasys painted a room the color I've wanted it. I've never went by the "rules". What about painting a red and cream stripes one one wall and cream on the her walls. The red and cream wall will stand out. You can do the cream stripes wider than the red stripes so the red does't over take the room. Or you can paint red on the top 1/2 of the walls and cream on the top 1/2 of the walls.

[kdownie]

I like the idea of the stiped wall and the solid walls, but what about if I did the fourth wall in cream but maybe with a stenciled small border at the top?

I love toile type things, and I have cream and red toile material that I plan to use to recover my glider and ottoman that will go in her room.

Would it be too cluttered if I did the fourth wall (after 1 striped wall and 2 solid cream ones) with a toile, brick red border, on a cream base?

This will be our first house, and we've only been allowed to paint in one rental (of 5 so far), so I have very litte experience with painting.

[mama22qts]

You know what? You can always paint over it if you hate it. It would be a lot of trouble, I know, but so what.

I'd go for it! JJK had some great ideas in the prev. post.

[kdownie]

That is what I figured, about painting over it. Plus, I got the red paint for $5 a gal., so it wouldn't be hardly any money wasted. Reps to both of you!

[derketchup]

If you have to paint over it, just use a couple of layers of Kilz. It should be fine!

[mama22qts]

I love that you are so creative and driven to do this, but I think you should start with a relatively tame idea, and go with that for now. There's nothing worse than dreaming really big and then it turning out completely different.

[kdownie]

I love that you are so creative and driven to do this, but I think you should start with a relatively tame idea, and go with that for now. There's nothing worse than dreaming really big and then it turning out completely different.

You are probably completely right! I can definitely dream big

[derketchup]

You could just paint the trim in red, that would be nice.

[wendypsaves]

Kind of taking off on jjk's ideas: You could paint the whole room with stripes, kind of a pin striped effect. Wide cream stripes (about a foot) and thinner red stripes (like 2 inches). If you want to make the pictures "pop," you could paint a square border for each picture that "frames" it by about 3 inches. You could do them around the room, or arrange them in a 3x4 or 4x3 grid on one wall. If you want, you could also paint a cream toile effect on those frames (something simple from the pattern - like a fern or a flower).

Or, you could paint the lower half of the room red - upper half cream - and paint a toile effect border like a chair rail around the room. Or do the lower half in the pinstripe - it would look kind of like bead board.

If I lived near you, I'd do it for you! I love painting rooms!