HGTV's Hilary Farr Loves This Calming Paint Shade For A Guest Room

A guest room isn't just a place for your visitors to get a good night's sleep, it's a place to introduce your loved ones to your impeccable interior design style and create a space for serenity and reprieve. More than simply a place to rest, a well-designed room creates an ambiance of hospitality to show your loved ones how much you care for their comfort during their stay.

For a perfectly designed guest room that's welcoming and conducive to rest after long days of travel and memory-making, you'll want to select a suitable color scheme and design style. Thankfully, HGTV's Hilary Farr has the perfect paint shade recommendation to get you started on your guest room's interior design. As the star of HGTV's "Love It or List It" and "Tough Love with Hilary Farr," Farr is an expert at transforming homes that are austere, chaotic, and mundane into functional havens. In an episode of "Love It or List It," Farr shares her favorite paint shade for a stylish guest room—Blue Hydrangea by Benjamin Moore. "Depending on the bedding you choose, this blue can be a crisp contrast to white or a softer complement to floral patterns," says Farr, per HGTV.  Below we're breaking down why Blue Hydrangea is the best color to paint your guest bedroom and explore Farr's designer-approved tips for creating a relaxing guest room that puts even a five-star resort to shame.

For a tranquil, visitor-ready guest room, Hilary Farr's favorite paint shade is a soft, serene shade of blue that captures the airy delicate nature of blue hydrangea blooms. A powdery, light, airy shade of baby blue—Blue Hydrangea evokes the first blooms of spring and creates relaxation and calmness for your visitors and guests. Exploring the psychology of color, Benjamin Moore explains that pale colors like sky blue are ideal for creating an atmosphere for relaxation, which is exactly what guests want to do after a travel day. The company's website goes on to note that blue bedrooms are "comfortable and easy to live with. They feel positive and encourage expression while enhancing other colors." 

The HGTV star's selection is also, according to The Sleep Foundation, one of the best colors for creating a sense of calm and encouraging a better night's sleep. "According to color psychology, soft blues can help calm the mind," says Dr. Michael Breus. "In a study of physical and emotional experiences in colored rooms, researchers found that a blue room was less likely to put the brain in an excited state." If the experts are right, Hilary Farr's Blue Hydrangea is more than just a design-forward paint shade for your guest room, it also has ideal positive associations like clear skies and calm waters—perfect for calming the nervous system and creating relaxation for your guests. Thankfully, it's also a breeze to design with.

Farr recommends pairing Blue Hydrangea with white, or floral patterns. Soft blue and white paint shades are the cornerstones of the coastal decor interior design trend, so incorporating white bedding, wood accents, woven textures, and elements from nature and the outdoors are great ways to turn your guest room into a sophisticated seaside-inspired space. On the other hand, it's the perfect shade to pair with floral patterns for a cottagecore aesthetic. The look can be perfected with floral bedding, cream and ivory vintage furniture, and organic rustic accents in a variety of shades.

In an interview for W Network, Hillary Farr demonstrated how Blue Hydrangea is a great backdrop for bright colors as well. "Start with a neutral paint color on the walls and very neutral bedding," she said. Farr showed how small accents like blankets and candles in bright colors could set the tone for different guests, like pink for girls. "It's very nice to change up the vibe in terms of whether it's going to be feminine or not," she said. For a masculine yet neutral environment, pair it with one of Benjamin Moore's suggested accompanying shades — Stardust, a neutral brown-beige with undertones of grey, green, and brown. No matter how you style it, Blue Hydrangea is as versatile as it is beautiful.