What is the best color for a sewing room? It depends on what youโre looking for from your sewing studio, small or large as it may be.
Applying color psychology to sewing room paint color could help increase productivity, creativity, or relaxation. Whatโs more, paint color can help you fake the โperfectโ sewing room.
Keep reading this post if your sewing room:
- Needs a different energy or vibe
- Is too small or too dark
- Doesnโt work for Instagram pics of your me-made garments
Letโs roll up our sleeves, load up our paint rollers, and color your sewing world.
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RELATED: Bright Ideas: Lighting for Sewing Rooms
Paint Colors That Impact Your Mood
How do you want to feel in your sewing space? Focused? Inspired? At ease? Choose your mood and get painting.
Colors for Productivity
Let these colors bring out your inner busy bee.
Orange
Orange is a color of motivation and enthusiasm for life. Admittedly itโs probably not the easiest color to decorate with, but you canโt deny its โzingโ factor.
Green
The hue of the natural world supports concentration. I donโt know about you, but I need all the help I can get concentrating on certain sewing tasks (cough, topstitching, cough).
Warm Brown
Warm brown โcan help you stay serene and focused all day long,โ according to a paint brand ambassador from Farrow & Ball paint. I can see how the color of the earth could make you feel grounded.
Colors for Creativity
These sewing room paint color ideas may help your mind wander and make unusual connections.
Purple
Purple โsoothes, but also presents space for mystery and new ideas.โ Now, if that doesnโt describe the perfect environment for creativity, I donโt know what does.
Yellow
Yellow is the color of optimism, and it gives a jolt to your spirits and ego. This hue could encourage you to take creative risks.
High-Saturation Colors
High-saturation colors โ vs. low-saturation colors, less “pure” or “true” colors, that lean closer to gray โ are stimulating. Whatโs more, glossy paint finishes also pump more energy into a room.
Colors for Tranquility
Get that โzenโ feeling with colors that help you chill out.
Blue
Blue is calming, peaceful, and even spiritual. In far Eastern cultures, blue is associated with femininity, healing, and relaxation.
White
White represents happiness and purity. These feelings make me think of a blank slate for a sewing project!
Periwinkle
Periwinkle is somewhere between blue and purple but with more white in it. Periwinkle is good for quiet productivity and lightheartedness.
How to Fake the Perfect Sewing Room with Paint
Sometimes, the sewing space youโre dealt is less than optimal. How many of us have warehouse loft studios with floor-to-ceiling windows? Heck, many sewists donโt even have an entire room to dedicate to sewing.
Hereโs how you can use paint color (and more!) in a sewing room to fake the perfect stitching space.
How to Make a Sewing Room Look Bigger
Stuck in an itty-bitty space? Try these small sewing room paint color ideas for embiggening!
Paint It All
Pick your color, and paint EVERYTHING โ walls, ceiling, trim, doors โ your color. Your eyes will flow smoothly across all planes of the room.
Go Bold
Choose a wild hue, like purple, that youโd never paint a โmainโ room in your home. Suddenly your houseโs smallest room has the biggest attitude.
Adopt an Accent
Adopt an accent wall, that is! An accent wall creates a focal point, which may help distract the eye from a roomโs lack of square footage. To make a rectangular room feel bigger, paint the two long walls a darker shade than the two short walls. (Emphasize your assets!)
Best Paint Tricks for a Sewing Room with No Windows
When I first started sewing, my stitching space was in the basement. I know what itโs like to sew in gloom!
These paint ideas for a sewing room might have you looking at your studio in a new light (pun intended!).
Paint It Black
Painting a room with no natural light a soft black or charcoal gives the space an intimate feel. Paint the trim and ceiling black, too, for an added layer of luxe drama.
Go Glossy
A glossy paint finish will bounce more (artificial) light around your windowless/low-light room and make it look brighter. Be aware, though, that a high-gloss paint will highlight dings and dents in your drywall, plaster, or other wall material.
Let the Sun Shine
Try a light, buttery yellow in a windowless space. Yellow reflects artificial light in a diffused, sunny way and is less intense than a bolder shade. My aforementioned basement sewing space was painted yellow, and it made the room feel open and cheery.
How to Make a Sewing Room Instagram Friendly
Speaking of faking itโฆ LOL. Seriously, though โ for many sewists, sharing your me-made garments on social media is part of the fun of making them! Hereโs how you can create Instagorgeous pics in your sewing room.
Go Into the Light
As someone whoโs taken a ton of photos of herself, I can say with authority that natural, diffused light produces the best pics. If thereโs a window in your sewing room (you lucky kitten!) and you plan to take photos in front of it (of course!), think about the color of the wall BEHIND you as you shoot away. The wall probably will be in shadow in your photos; what does that mean for its paint color? To keep the focus on you and your clothes, consider keeping that wall a (light) neutral hue.
Background Players
Shooting social photos in a sewing space can be tricky, because sewing spaces often are MESSY. Along with posing against walls with favorable paint colors, you MUST think about what else you can see in the photo, primarily in terms of clutter and furniture. Move stuff out for a photo and bring it back in when youโre through; I do it all the time. Cool background objects, on the other hand, might include:
Donโt let background props clash with wall paint or your garment. And if the light is too good to pass up and the background too much of a PITA to rearrange, take a few steps forward to make the background as a whole smaller and (probably) less in focus.
Set Up a Mini Studio
If youโre dead set on taking photos in your sewing space, you *could* create a neutral, versatile backdrop for social photos by painting only a portion of your walls. The benefits would be a consistent look for all your social pics (which is good for brand building, should you be interested in that sort of thing), and it would make shooting them a breeze because your camera and lighting setup wouldnโt change (much) from shoot to shoot. I do not have an established place for taking pics, and, NGL, setting up the camera in a different way every time I want photos is time consuming.
Final Notes on Sewing Room Colors
Don’t Forget About Furniture, Etc.
As you apply color psychology and optical illusions to your sewing room, consider sewing supplies (including fabric), decor, and furniture in your desired hues as well. For example, a sewing table takes up a lot of visual space in a stitching studio; its color could contribute (or detract!) from what youโre trying to accomplish with your color scheme.
Paint Color Changes Light
Wall color changes the (natural AND artificial) light in a room. For example, if you paint your sewing room a saturated blue, the light will be slightly cold and blue. This is ESPECIALLY important to remember when you’re looking at fabric and making choices about coordinating thread, etc. Take your fabric and whatnot into natural light before you make any decisions. (I go to a window in fabric stores before I buy stuff to make sure I won’t be surprised later!)
All of these tips, obviously, are subject to your home, your tastes, your budget, and your hunger for home makeover projects. Do what makes you happy in your own sewing space!
Over to you: How did you choose the color of your sewing space? Where do you go for sewing room ideas? What’s the coolest sewing studio you’ve seen (IRL or otherwise)?