How To Darken Your Bedroom Windows
Cherry wood furniture tends to take on a dark, reddish-brown color that deepens with age in response to sunlight and natural oxidation through the air.
So you might be wondering which colors you should use in your bedroom decor to go with the typically darker palette that cherry wood tends to offer.
Lighter colors like off-white, ivory, pale yellow, and cream go with cherry wood bedroom furniture when used as a dominant color on the walls and ceiling – providing an earthy backdrop that allows the cherry wood to subtly stand out. Bolder browns, greens, and blues can be used as secondary and accent colors to add depth and style.
Below, you'll find 6 individual colors (complete with names and hex values) that you can use in your bedroom decor to go with your cherry wood bedroom furniture and create different ambiances.
I've also included a full walk-through that explains how to decorate around your cherry wood bedroom furniture by following the rules of the color wheel, the 5 basic color schemes, and enhancing aesthetics using the 60-30-10 rule.
You'll also find 3 cherry wood bedroom furniture decor ideas at the end of the article for some visual inspiration.
Related: How to Design a Master Bedroom With Ensuite from Scratch in 9 Steps.
6 Decor Colors That Go With Cherry Wood Bedroom Furniture
Cherry wood furniture may have a light golden pink tone but this wood is more commonly found in bedrooms in the form of a rich, dark reddish-brown color.
This can be due to personal preference or due to the tendency for cherry wood to darken over time in response to UV rays from sunlight and natural oxidation that occurs due to exposure to the air [1].
Assuming the darker tone pictured above, here are 6 colors that you can use in your bedroom decor that go with your cherry wood bedroom furniture.
I've included the hex values so that you can paste them into this tool to generate your own color palettes.
1: Jewel (Complementary)
Jewel is a complementary color relative to darker and mid-tone cherry wood bedroom furniture.
This means that you can use jewel to provide a striking contrast as an accent color – such as jewel throw pillows, a comforter, or even an accent wall.
You can use lighter tints to diffuse the contrast and create a less overpowering effect if you so desire.
2: Lotus (Monochromatic)
Lotus is a monochromatic color relative to the above base color that's a touch lighter than mid-tone cherry wood.
This means that you can use lotus as a selective supporting color in order to bring down the impact that your cherry wood furniture has in your bedroom.
For example, you may like to use lotus to color your upholstery or curtains.
However, you should be aware that using a color like lotus that closely matches your cherry wood furniture as a dominant color (taking up 60% of the room) may cause your furniture to blend in too heavily and create an overpowering ambiance.
3: Sepia (Analogous)
Sepia can work as an analogous color that can harmonize with mid and dark-tone cherry wood furniture and sit well in a neutral or earthy palette.
This means that you can use sepia as a more dominant color in your bedroom to add variation without being too overpowering – such as using it in the carpet, in the rug, or accent furniture.
When using sepia to color or paper your walls, you will typically find that going for a much lighter hue works well as a dominant background color.
Whilst choosing delicate pastels over strong contrasting colors in the rest of the room can avoid gaudiness and maintain harmony with your cherry wood furniture.
4: Claret (Analogous)
Claret is an analogous color relative to darker cherry wood furniture and is best used as an accent color in your accessories in order to avoid an overwhelming feeling.
Think candle holders, pillows, and lamps – rather than the walls, ceiling, and carpet.
5: Eastern Blue (Triadic)
Eastern blue is a triadic color relative to dark/mid-tone cherry wood that works very well with dark, mid, and light tones of cherry wood – especially when applied as a dominant background color in lighter hues and as a slightly darker secondary color.
For example, if you're looking to create a cooling and relaxing ambiance in your bedroom, then a pastel eastern blue can work well on the walls and ceiling, with darker tones being used for emphasis.
Lighter, earthy carpets and bedding can add a crispness that works well with the cooler palette and allows your cherry wood furniture to stand out without being too overpowering.
6: Fern Frond (Triadic)
Fern frond is a triadic color relative to mid and dark tone cherry wood furniture that works well as an accent color when eastern blue is the dominant color.
For example, with lighter eastern blue taking charge of the walls and ceiling, fern frond colored pillows, a rug, or comforter can sit well amongst a fawn carpet and crisp white bedding for a cool and earthy feel.
Lighter and Earthy Colors Work Well
Lighter, off-white colors such as ivory and light yellow tend to work well as the dominant color (walls, ceiling, floor) with all types of cherry wood furniture because they allow for subtle contrast without making the room too rich.
Overall, an earthy palette with muted tones and lighter tints can provide a great backdrop for your cherry wood furniture in your bedroom.
How to Decorate With Cherry Wood Bedroom Furniture
To decorate your bedroom around your cherry wood bedroom furniture, you need to first choose your desired color scheme, finalize your palette, and then balance their application using the 60-30-10 rule.
Typically, you'll find that your cherry wood furniture has a rich reddish-brown color and falls into the 30% category (making it a supporting color) – meaning that you might be best using lighter/off-white colors as the dominant color (60% of the room) to create a subtle contrast without being too overpowering.
See below for a full walk-through on how to decorate around your cherry wood bedroom furniture.
Choose Your Decor Color Combinations
Choosing the right palette for your bedroom decor can be achieved by choosing a color scheme that follows specific arrangements based on the color wheel.
The color wheel visualizes the relationships between the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors that can then be used to choose color combinations for your bedroom decor.
The primary, secondary, and tertiary colors are defined as follows:
- Primary colors: red, yellow, blue.
- Secondary colors: orange, green, violet.
- Tertiary colors: yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green.
The Warm Colors
The warm colors on the color wheel are red, yellow, orange, red-violet, red-orange, and yellow-orange.
Warm colors are thought to increase your adrenaline, blood pressure, and heart rate to warm you up whilst providing echoes of sunlight, fire, sand, and heat that can invigorate an otherwise bland room and give it a rich personality.
Muted warm colors compliment cherry wood furniture very well.
If you have a large room that feels spacious and lonely, then you can use warming colors to make the room feel cozier and more homely.
However, given their energizing nature, you may not want to use a warm color with a high saturation for the dominant color in your bedroom (say for the walls) – especially if you're using a lot of rich cherry wood furniture – because you may feel overstimulated.
But if you have a big and bold personality, then you might feel right at home in a vivid, warm-dominant colored bedroom.
The Cool Colors
The cool colors on the color wheel are blue, green, violet, blue-violet, blue-green, and yellow-green.
Cool colors are very popular as the dominant color in a bedroom because they tend to be relaxing and often remind people of still water, an enchanting forest, or even the embrace of a dusk sky.
However, cool colors tend to make a room feel larger, so you might want to throw in some warmer accents if you have a spacious bedroom.
If you have an introverted personality then you'll likely enjoy a cooler feel because you won't feel overstimulated.
The 5 Basic Color Schemes
A color scheme and a color palette are NOT the same things – a color scheme is the framework of colors derived from the color wheel based on color theory, whilst the palette is the actual colors that you have chosen specifically by name (or potentially even the hex value when choosing online) to use in your decor [2].
To come up with a color palette, you can begin by choosing from the complementary, monochromatic, analogous, triadic, and tetradic color schemes (there are more but these are the basic starting palettes that have a wide application) to establish a base relationship that you can then alter to suit your own personal taste and style.
Here's a brief explanation of each color combination and how they can impact your decor.
The color palette images were generated with this free tool from Adobe – type in the hex value of your base color beneath the middle tile and select the color harmony rule from the left-hand menu to generate various palettes.
1: Complementary
Complementary colors are two colors exactly opposite each other on the color wheel and provide a high level of contrast (such as red and green).
When picking complementary colors, one color will be warm and the other will be cool – which can result in an atmospheric balance.
At maximum saturation, complementary colors can be powerful and create a strong impact so care needs to be taken not to create a gaudy effect – using lighter tints can prevent this.
2: Monochromatic
Monochromatic colors are three shades/tones/tints of one base color – such as blue, dark blue, and light blue.
A monochromatic color scheme looks subtle, sophisticated, professional, and avoids the high contrast associated with picking complementary colors.
When picking a monochromatic palette, pick one base color, one darker shade, and one lighter tint as a starting point.
3: Analogous
Analogous colors are three colors next to each other on the color wheel and promote harmony by sticking to one color family.
Start by picking your favorite color and then adding in the color to the immediate right and left – such as yellow with yellow-orange and yellow-green.
Typically, the middle color is the dominant color and you can select lighter tints to reduce the impact if required for a more calming feel.
4: Triadic
Triadic colors are three colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.
Going for a triadic color palette creates a high contrast but isn't quite as bold as the complementary palette because the third color adds versatility.
Use high saturation to create a bold ambiance, or use lighter tints combined with neutrals to create a softer feel.
5: Tetradic
Tetradic colors are four colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel (two sets of complementary colors) that can provide a rich and busy color scheme.
But with so many colors vying for attention, it's typically best to allow one color to dominate with the other three acting as accents to create emphasis as required for optimal harmony.
Alternatively, you can use muted tones of the four colors for a more relaxed feel in your bedroom.
The 60-30-10 Rule – Balance Your Palette
The 60-30-10 rule is a decorating rule that allows you to put your color scheme together by following a visually appealing ratio.
More specifically, the dominant color takes up 60% of the room, the secondary color takes up 30% of the room (half of the dominant color), and the accent color takes up the remaining 10% (typically used for emphasis and personal style).
However, the 60-30-10 rule does NOT mean that you're restricted to 3 colors because as visualized in the video below, each section can comprise of several colors/shades/tints:
How to Use the 60-30-10 Rule for Your Bedroom Decor
Here's how you can use the 60-30-10 rule to decorate your bedroom:
60% – The Dominant Color
60% of your bedroom should be the dominant 'background' color that serves to anchor the space.
Meaning that you would refer to your bedroom as being blue, gray, or whatever main color you chose from the color wheel (but it can also include shades, tints, and tones).
To achieve this, you should typically use your dominant color in the following places:
- The walls.
- The ceiling.
- The floor.
- Rugs.
30% – The Supporting Color
The supporting color (and its sub-tones/tints/shades) takes up 30% of the room (half of the dominant color) serves to support the dominant color.
You can use your supporting color in the following places:
- Upholstery.
- The windows (shutters, blinds).
- Curtains.
- Painted furniture.
- Chairs.
- Tables.
- Drawers.
- Wardrobes.
- Bed sheets.
- Nightstands.
- Headboards.
10% – Signature Style
The accent color takes up just 10% of the room but it offers the opportunity to add your own signature style by using it in the following places:
- Throw pillows.
- Lamps.
- Art work.
- Candle holders.
- Accent wall.
- Throw blankets.
- Comforters.
- Accent furniture.
How to Pair Your Bedroom Decor With Cherry Wood Furniture
Ratio wise, cherry wood bedroom furniture tends to fall mainly into the 30% category in the form of chairs, tables, drawers, headboards, nightstands, and other woodwork.
And given that cherry wood tends to be quite dark (but with lighter variations possible), this means that your bedroom has the capability to have a fairly dark supporting color scheme.
So here are some ideas on how you can work your bedroom decor around this type of secondary color relative to the ratio of the room that your cherry wood furniture occupies.
Walls
Medium and dark tone cherry wood furniture tends to work well with light wall colors like off-white, light yellow, light gray, and ivory because it provides a pleasing contrast that increases as the cherry wood gets darker with age – with lighter cherry wood combining with this color palette to create a warm and summery feel (even in winter).
But if you're going for a more striking look then you might want to paint or paper an accent wall using a muted sage green (in line with the complementary color scheme).
However, caution is advised when pairing your wall color with the same color as the cherry wood because this can feel overpowering and cause the furniture to feel lost in the room.
Ceiling
The ceiling is typically part of the 60% area so you should consider it in relation to your dominant color – with off-white colors typically working well.
Floor
Again, the floor is a dominant part of the room, so having it fall under the 60% category means that you'll be working from the same color palette as that used for the walls and ceiling – so lighter/neutral colors could be a great option if you want to play it safe.
Other Furniture/Woodwork
With much of the woodwork in your bedroom falling into the 30% category, you might like to keep a continuous color/stain/grain if you like a consistent feel but you can also mix in other woods if you find this approach too boring.
Curtains/Window Shades
If it fits with the rest of your bedroom decor, you might like to extrapolate the earthy feel of the cherry wood with window shades made from woods, grasses, or other natural fibers.
Earthy tones and neutral colors such as brown, cream, white, gray, and slate can work well for the curtains, with white sheers offering the opportunity to contrast with the rich color of the cherry wood and to add layered depth to your bedroom.
Bedding
Light-colored bedding (white, gray, or beige) goes well with cherry wood but you can also add selective contrast with complimentary green pillows or even a comforter to create a strong focal point.
Alternatively, you can use a similar bedding color like raspberry red or merlot to tone down the contrast that the cherry wood has on the ambiance of your bedroom.
Headboard
You may choose to match your headboard with the rest of your cherry wood furniture or mix things up with a spacious metal frame for a touch of elegance.
The larger and more domineering your headboard, the more it's going to play into the role of supporting the dominant color of your room – in which case a dark metal frame can contrast nicely if you're using a lighter dominant color.
3 Cherry Wood Bedroom Furniture Decor Ideas
Below are 3 cherry wood bedroom furniture decor ideas that you can use to get some inspiration.
1: Lighter Tones – Bright and Breezy
Going for a lighter palette allows the darker cherry wood to stand out but in a complementary manner.
This cherry wood bedroom decor idea could be ideal for brightening up a room that doesn't get much sunlight during the day.
2: Pale Pastels – Cooling Contrast
Dark cherry wood can take the central role in your bedroom amongst a cooler ambiance when paired with pastel green walls, pale orange bedding, cream shutters, white bedding, and orange accent lamps.
Complementary colors like darker green can be used for pillows and other accessories to add your own signature style.
3: Darker Walls – Modern Elegance
If your cherry wood furniture is on the lighter side then you might like to use a darker color for the walls to allow for a contrast that brings with it a modern feel when a darker gray takes charge.
Conclusion: Consider Starting With an Earthy Palette
Earthy tones and lighter hues tend to be a great starting point for developing a palette that works well with all types of cherry wood bedroom furniture – from very dark to much lighter wood.
You can then add in bolder colors that provide more contrast to create depth and apply lighter and darker accent colors to craft your own unique style.
Which colors do you think go well with cherry wood bedroom furniture?
Let me know in the comments section below.
Related: how to warm up a north facing bedroom in 7 steps.
Sources and References
[1] Vermont Woods Studios – Cherry Wood. Accessed 4/9/20.
[2] The Spruce – Choosing a Color Scheme From the Color Wheel. Accessed 5/9/20.
Image Attribution and Licencing
Color samples taken from the Adobe Color Wheel, all other images used with permission under the terms of Canva's One Design Use License Agreement.
Dan is the founder and head content creator at Bedroom Style Reviews.
He has been working as a professional online product reviewer since 2015 and was inspired to start this website when he ended up sleeping on a memory foam mattress that was too soft and gave him backache.
Through in-depth research and analysis, Dan's goal with this website is to help others avoid such pitfalls by creating the best online resource for helping you find your ideal mattress, bedding, and bedroom furniture.
Dan is a qualified NVQ Level 2 Fitness Instructor with 6 years' experience helping clients improve their health through diet, exercise, and proper sleep hygiene.
He also holds several college and university-level qualifications in health sciences, psychology, mathematics, art, and digital media creation – which helps him to publish well researched and informative product reviews as well as articles on sleep, health, wellbeing, and home decor.
Dan also has direct personal experience with insomnia, anxiety, misophonia (hypersensitivity to sounds), and pain from both acute and long-standing sporting injuries – he enjoys writing insightful articles around these subjects to help fellow sufferers of such conditions.
Learn more about Dan here.
How To Darken Your Bedroom Windows
Source: https://bedroomstylereviews.com/colors-that-go-with-cherry-wood-bedroom-furniture/
