Looking for a European influence to help brighten up your bedroom and make it cozy and warm feeling? The thick blankets, warm hues, rich textures, and bright details of Scandinavian countries are just the touch you need to help keep you comfortable all winter long.
Take a look at our compilation of Scandinavian inspired bedroom ideas to help you find the influences you have been searching for. These are all great ways to add simple and small touches to existing rooms, or to help you redecorate completely!
1. Gray and White
Bring a sense of the outdoor winter landscape in with soft whites and gentle hues of gray. Together you can easily mix and match them for bedding and accent pieces to provide the feeling of a winter landscape.
Photo credit: @_homeatno4 via Instagram
2. Touches of Blue
Add a touch of color to your winter landscape inspired room using blues to mimic the bright, clear, winter skies of the north. Dark blues are reminiscent of the feel of day long twilight when the sun never quite rises in the far north, while lighter blues hint at the rising or setting sun, and the brightness along the horizon.
3. Warm Hues
Warm wooden hues and deep, rich browns are a great way to hint at the heavily wooded, evergreen forests higher elevations, and northern climates boast of. Bring them in through the use of furniture and accent pieces, such as lamps, blankets, and decorative pillows.
4. Bold Accents
Create bold accents with clean, crisp lines, and deep colors or dark contrasts. Use these against lighter backdrops and light colored furniture to really make them pop.
5. Statement Pieces
Use fun wall hangings and unique lighting solutions to bring varying interest to your bedroom. This is also a great way to take advantage of your own personal decorating style and use one of a kind objects into a view that you enjoy having.
6. Soft Colors
Scandinavia isn’t all cold northern forests and snow! They have beautiful seasons and you can hint at the emerging spring and colorful sunrises with gentle pinks mixed into your neutral palette. Add in a few living, or faux, plants as a decorative touch, a few warm wooden based furniture pieces and you will pay homage to these seasons quite nicely.
7. Cream Colored Accents
Stick to warm white and cream colored decorating to truly give an airy feel to your bedroom. The great thing about this color scheme is that you can never really go wrong with the match, and won’t have to fight with subtle hues when you want to add to the effect.
8. Accent Walls
Many people avoid painting their walls bold colors for fear it will make their space look too small, but accent walls – where you only paint one or two walls in a room – often do the opposite. Deep, rich color, or even bold blacks can give depth to a space and create a truly unique are to sleep in.
9. Wooden Walls
Wooden planking doesn’t have to be for your floor only. Consider the use of wooden wall accents and whole wooden walls to create a warm, inviting space that offers flow and interest. Use plush rugs, complimentary colors, and simple furniture to round out the look.
10. Modern Influences
Even though the topic of Scandinavian inspired bedrooms may hint of folkish styled decor, that doesn’t mean it cannot influence more modern inspirations. Look for contrasting colors, clean, straight lines, and cool metals to help bring to life what you have in mind.
11. Natural Lighting Advantages
Always take advantage of the natural lighting windows offer, and take steps to maximize that lighting. Strategically placed mirrors and light colored walls can help reflect and brighten rooms to make them look larger. Plus, it offers some great details and a decorative touch.
Photo Credit: Chloe Rey
12. Platform Bed Choices
Platform beds are very popular as they offer a surface that can be used with any type of mattress. They also offer some unique stylistic designs that are simple, but tasteful. Look for material covered platforms in the neutral hues you desire for this type of bedroom effect.
13. Unique Lighting Solutions
Take advantage of unexpected and unique lighting solutions, such as decorative chandeliers, drop lamps, and wall lighting that provides the illumination you need where you need it. This drop lamp is perfect for bedside reading and provides a cool statement piece without being overwhelming in size.
14. Wallpapering Ideas
Don’t be afraid to wallpaper, but instead of wallpapering an entire room, look to use accent walls much like you would if you were painting with bold or bright colors. Also don’t be afraid to use contrasting colors and large, bold designs! This option can serve as the simple, yet effective decoration that you have been searching for.
15. Concrete Uses
Refurbishing old buildings and making them into living areas is a very popular trend; one that offers incredibly cool and one of a kind decorative styles. Embrace raw building materials, such as concrete walls and floor, or brick walls, and tie them into your design vision. Use light colored bedding and materials to open the space up and highlight the uniqueness of the space.
16. One Hue
Keep your color palette all of one hue and within the same range of the color wheel. For a more Scandinavian effect, this means taking advantage of white, black and gray, and maybe staying there for the most dramatic decor. This bedroom highlights this suggestion perfectly.
17. Art Deco
Add a few small conversation pieces, such as hanging wall art, lamps, and simple furniture to keep from overwhelming the space, but also ensuring a more modern decor is your intended effect. Work the contrast into more neutral tones, browns, blues, and creams.
Photo credit: deardesigner.co.uk
18. Room Conversions
Don’t be afraid to turn unconventional spaces into bedrooms when you need the extra space. Large storage areas, attic space, and even walk-in closets can be easily converted into cool sleeping areas. Embrace natural materials and add space saving options such as sliding doors and hanging light to save even more room.
19. Wall Space
Just because you have a lot of wall space doesn’t mean you have to put anything on it. Sometimes leaving a neutral painted wall open can provide you the light reflection and depth you need to open up a bedroom space. It also helps the architecture of the room stand out more – such as these large, wall length windows.
Photo credit: Stadshem
20. Picture Placement
If you have a lot of photos you would love to display, but hate the idea of an overcrowded and cluttered wall – consider not hanging them at all. Instead, gave them printed in various sizes, framed, and let along long, shallow wall shelves built just for display purposes. This is a great way to highlight a large amount of photos without it becoming overwhelming.
Photo credit: farmhouz.com
21. Spacial Advantages
When you have small square footage, take advantage of what’s above you for storage or even sleeping solutions. This small loft has an excellent place for clothing storage with a sleeping area below to help avoid clutter. Whitewashed walls and light colored decor help open up the space and give it a wintery look.
22. Bringing Nature In
Don’t spend a fortune on decor when you can easily take advantage of the influences of nature to make your own. A well dried branch, a bit of pressed and preserved leaves with glue and you have a wintery forest influenced detail that provides a main focus of the room.
Photo credit: Entrance
23. Taupe Palette
Taupe is such an overlooked color as a major color influence, but it works so well with this type of decor. Warm enough to work well with wooden hues, but cool enough to work with plain whites, it is an excellent choice as a wall backdrop for the rest of the room. It also is a soothing option and inspires relaxation.
24. Forest Warmth
Bring in the colors of a warm forest in summer or fall with rich browns and gold scattered against darker sheets, rugs, or even walls. Choose complimentary details, such as wall hangings, or bedside tables to complete the look.
25. Deep Blue Water
The Northern European countries are known for their prowess upon the water, and you can show those deep blue jewel tones off against warm grays and cool whites. Choose vibrant blues for bedspreads or even an accent wall.
26. Winter Whites
Very rarely will you find a pure white. Most are mixed with just a hint of color, both warm and cool tones, to better compliment the space you are using it in. Mix and match multiple tinted whites in one area to give a suggestion of color without ruining the palette.
Photo credit: Alvhem
27. Golden Accents
Whites, grays, and taupes are well highlighted and warmed by the use of gold metal furnishings, Many people lean towards silver to keep the cool effect in place, but gold provides a hint of sunrise just peaking over the horizon and makes a bedroom more inviting.
Photo credit: @yanasdecor via Instagram
28. Deep Gray Skies
Deep gray skies before a storm provide the perfect backdrop to this north country inspired bedroom. Used upon an accent wall, it looks almost as if it is billowing towards the room, emphasizing the rest of the details used here.
Photo credit: Alvhem
29. Golden Autumn Hues
The golden leaves of high country aspen and poplar, and the late golden twilights are all captured in this carefully designed room, decorated to bring out the warmth of the brick wall and provide maximization of natural lighting.
30. Wooden Accents
Simple, modern, unfinished wooden accents provide all the detail you need in small spaces. Simplify your room and let the colors of your bedding be the highlight of the area you sleep within. This room perfectly melds aspects of the cold winters, deep oceans, and evergreen forests on the north well.
31. Loft Spaces
Sleeping at the top of the house provides you the means to take advantage of skylights and the ability to watch over the night sky. Create good safety measures for the stairwell to keep from cluttering up the space and provide easy access and support.
32. Wintery Influences
Long mirrors, draping window coverings, and northern inspired hues all comes together in this bedroom to both take advantage of the natural lighting, and give off a feel of sleeping under the wintery night skies. Don’t be afraid to mix your solids and subtle patterns with splashes of colors.
33. Chandelier Lighting
Image SourceChandeliers belong in the bedroom just as much as they belong anywhere else in a household. Plus, with all the many designs they come in, you can pick and choose to find ones that look to be inspired by falling snow, or the dark winter night skies. They provide detail for both day and night.
34. Modern Mirrors
High ceilings always call to take advantage of mirrors, drapery, and even wall hangings that would otherwise be out of place in a smaller area. Doubling up on either side of a bed give the impression that your sleeping area is placed in the middle of a room, and offers depth and lighting effects.
35. Attic Eaves
Sleeping under the eaves offers you the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the night sky. Whether you already have skylights, or get them built in, they are well worth the effort of cleaning up, having a great view, and making sure your bed is within sight.
36. Modern Touches
The great thing about white inspired decor is that you can easily add both rustic, or modern touches and details to the space without making it seem overwhelming. This more contemporary painting stands out well against the lighter warm whites of the room.
37. Navy and Black
Navy and black may seem like an unlikely combination, but is actually a great choice. They are found together often in nature as dusk deepens to night, and the use of an accent wall of one color or the other, with touches of the opposing color found in throws, rugs, or pillows makes a stunning contrast.
38. Minimalist
Minimalist decorative styles are well supported by the color palette of Scandinavian countries. This approach calls for bold uses of basic color against a highly contrasting opposing hue. As seen here, the bedroom is inviting and welcome, but doesn’t have any more than what is necessary, allowing the furniture, small details, and color choices to be all that is needed for decor.
39. Golden Sunrise
Another golden room, this option looks like it is being lite from within as the sun rises and shines through forest branches. Warm and inviting, these golden tone whites and taupes is further supported by gold metal accent pieces.
Photo credit: @women via Instagram
40. Simple Patterns
Although we have avoided a lot of pattern mixing, this room pulls it off beautifully. Sticking to only a few colors on the same side of the color wheel, the deep aqua patterns offer a really pretty contrast against the whites and golds. The small touch of floral helps bring it all together.
Conclusion
These are all amazing inspirations to help make your room feel totally influenced by Northern countries that decorate with warm hues, inviting colors, and cozy decor! Take some of these ideas and weave them into your own style to create a totally unique Scandinavian bedroom idea you can call all your own.