How To Create an Ocean-themed Bedroom - Ideas

Creating an Ocean-themed Bedroom

Our ocean-themed bedroom ideas range from tranquil shades of blue and green for adult rooms or an aquarium bedroom for sea-loving kids. Find inspiration with Dulux.

Make a splash in the bedroom with aquatic design magic.

There’s nothing like a sea-themed bedroom to help you sink into pure bliss. Serene shades of blue and green lull you into a sense of peace. The visual appeal refreshes the mind, just like a dip in the ocean. For children, an aquarium bedroom brings the magical underwater world to life with playful energy for seaside dreaming. Ready to dive in?

Take the plunge together

Designing your child’s bedroom is a great opportunity to take on a creative project together. Granted, they might envision a design that resembles the Little Mermaid’s fantastical kingdom, but there’s nothing you can’t do with a lick of paint, themed accessories and enchanting colour schemes. Ask your child to draw pictures of what an underwater world means to them and you might be surprised at what they can teach you about creative ideas!

Giving free rein to the imagination leads to much more than a room transformation, so take a journey together towards an ocean-themed bedroom. To see the positive results of letting your child help with decorating decisions, check out Frankie's story, here. To get you started, we’ve created a step-by-step guide to painting a backdrop that sets the watery scene of your choice.

Choose seascape shades

First of all, ask your child to help you choose a spectacular colour palette to depict the sea. To balance the look of blues and greens, add pale yellows, beiges and pinks to the mix. This faceted paint effect is designed to interpret the reflective qualities of water, with a graphic style for a modern edge and an exciting sense of movement.

To bring depth to the design, use rich, oceanic blues like Blue Diamond, Luna Landscape 1, Sapphire Salute and Lost Lake. Lighten it up with whimsical shades of Nordic Sky, Mint Macaroon and Mineral Mist. Add splashes of pale pink and beige to represent the sand and provide a refreshing contrast to the green/blue colour palette.

Your steps towards the sea

The first step towards an underwater bedroom is to gather a few supplies for the voyage. Along with paint and your trusty brush, you’ll need low-tack masking tape, string, chalk, a little bit of patience and a big sense of adventure.

Step 1

String is the key to creating perfectly straight lines for your design. Before you start, cut different sizes to suit the triangle shapes. Then, pull the chalk across a length of string to load it up for action.

Step 2

With masking tape, affix one end of the string to your wall. Pull the desired length tight and snap the string against the wall to create a straight chalk line. Repeat this process until you’ve covered the wall in triangular shapes. Chalk offers an easy way to play around with the design before you commit with paint, so keep making adjustments until it’s just right for you.

Step 3

When you’re happy with it, follow the chalk lines with masking tape to mask off your triangle pattern and get ready for painting.

Step 4

A little bit of preparation ensures crisp edges worthy of a professional painter. So, secure the edges of the tape by painting around them with a bit of white paint first. This seals them and stops the occurrence of bleeding under the tape. Wait for it to dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Step 5

Now it’s time to get creative with your colour choices for an ocean-themed bedroom. For authentic results, paint the top of the room with lighter shades and the darker hues at the bottom. This way, you’ll bring the feeling of the deep sea to life. However, there are no rules, so if you want to paint your triangles randomly - or your child does - go ahead and do so. Start painting in with colour, leaving every other triangle blank. Give each shape two coats of paint, but make sure you wait until the first one is fully dry before the second coat.

Step 6

When your first triangles are totally dry, start masking the next sections. Then, all you need to do is repeat steps four and five until you’ve filled in every triangle.

Step 7

After your walls are dry, peel off the masking tape and dive into your sea-themed bedroom!

Aquarium bedroom accessories

An underwater bedroom simply isn’t complete without some wonderful creatures to populate the world. Ask your mermaid or merman to choose plush toys like crabs, starfish, octopus and fish to join them on their oceanic adventures. Make the bed a focal point with an oyster-shaped headboard, a captain’s wheel or an anchor on the wall. Lighting provides the effect of sun sparkling on the sea, so introduce themed lamps or hang netting with fairy lights woven through the fabric.

If space is a problem, consider painting underwater friends on a section of your wall, using stencils of fish, dolphins, whales or mermaids in contrasting colours like bright orange and yellow. Then, all that’s left to do is watch the look of wonder cross your little deep sea diver's face, each and every time the door opens to a magical ocean-themed bedroom.