Having the interior of your home repainted is a fast but highly effective way to update the look and style of your rooms. In the bedroom, it's also an opportunity to create a calm, soothing and soft space that's ideal for rest and relaxation. To maintain the warm and light ambiance, many people choose to stick to paint that is white or cream. While this is a lovely colour scheme, it may not suit you if you prefer something with a bit more colour and character.

Fortunately, with the right choice of palette, you can maintain a serene atmosphere while still embracing your choice of this year's most popular colours. Whether you opt for grey, orange or pink, here are two important aspects to successfully adding subtle yet stunning colour to your bedroom.

1. Use different shades of the same colour

One of the secrets to creating a beautiful paint scheme that isn't necessarily wild and bold but that still has a subtle variety of shades is to use variations of a single base colour. This colour can be darkened, lightened or used straight out of the tin on different features in the room.

Adding a small amount of your chosen colour to a white or cream base is a way to get a touch of colour on large areas such as walls. A darker mix is ideal for accents on window and door frames or skirting boards. The unadulterated colour can then be used on a feature wall, below a dado rail or above a picture rail for a beautiful mix of hues.

2. Choose a colour with warm undertones

Every colour of paint will have an underlying tone that dictates whether it's a warm or cool colour. This is even true of shades such as white, cream, grey and green, which don't seem likely colours to have a warm tone. Sometimes the tone is very subtle, but when you're using a single colour in a room, it can have a big impact on the atmosphere of the space.

Colours with a red, pink or orange undertone are considered warm colours. Those with blue or green undertones are considered cold tones and should be avoided in the bedroom. Cool tones can be effective and pleasant in some spaces, but they can give a bedroom a cold and clinical feel that isn't very appealing.

If you'd like to incorporate these ideas into your bedroom's new colour scheme, talk to your painters. They can help you to finalise colour choices, choose the variety of shades and decide on the best way to add them to your bedroom walls and trims.