Pastel colors: 4 outstanding tones, applications, and meanings in interior decoration

Pastel colors are tones diluted from warm colors, creating a gentle and peaceful feeling. This article introduces 4 prominent pastel tones that are popular in interior decoration, including pastel pink, pastel blue, pastel purple and pastel white - each color has its own characteristics and meanings.

In interior design, pastel colors are flexibly applied to many different spaces such as living room, bedroom, bathroom and office.

In particular, the use of pastel colors brings 5 ​​main benefits: creating a feeling of relaxation and peace, bringing a delicate and elegant beauty, creating a more spacious effect, easy to coordinate with different interior styles, and suitable for many types of spaces.

“The use of pastel colors in residential interior design projects globally increased by 45% between 2020 and 2024.” according to the International Interior Design Association Annual Report (2024, Chicago).

What are pastel colors?

Pastel colors (also known as “fairy” or “Muted Colors”) are tones that are diluted with 65-85% white into the original colors (both warm and cool) to create a soft shade.

Although not too prominent, pastel colors create sympathy for the viewer because of their purity, gentleness and create a pleasant, peaceful feeling. Therefore, they are used in many fields such as graphic design, fashion, interior decoration, etc.

Kosmos has compiled information from many sources, pastel colors are divided into two main groups: warm tones (such as light yellow, peach orange) and cool tones (such as mint green, lavender purple), helping users to easily distinguish and choose.

Cool pastel tones:

1. Pastel green (baby blue, mint green, navy blue, sky blue, avocado green, mint green,...)
2. Pastel pink (pastel pink)
3. Pastel purple (lavender purple).

Warm pastel tones:

1. Pastel yellow (light yellow, bright yellow)
2. Pastel Orange (Peach Orange)
3. Pastel red.

Hot trend of 4 pastel tones

Although this color system is very diverse from many different shades, there will always be colors that are popular with viewers. To create a beautiful pastel system with satisfactory colors, the most important thing is to grasp and understand their color mixing ratio.

Pastel pink

This is a color scheme that combines white and red. Take a large amount of white as the main color and add red according to the shade you want. The less red, the softer the pastel pink will be.

Pastel pink is the favorite color tone of most girls, whether in fashion or decorating living spaces. This is a lovely color, gentle but no less flexible, easy to combine with many different colors. That's why designers often use pastel pink to reduce conflict with other tones.

Pastel blue

A harmonious blend of blue or green with white will create an extremely flattering pastel blue tone.

According to many reputable sources that Kosmos has learned, pastel blue is currently a new trend in recent years. Blue is often the color symbolizing nature, so people know pastel blue as a way to express relaxation and coolness. Not only that, through recent studies, it has been shown that when the living space or furniture is covered in pastel blue, it will help users to be more confident and dynamic.

“According to the Pantone Color Institute's 2024 color trend report, pastel blue is leading the interior design trend with a 35% growth year-over-year.”

Pastel purple

There are many ways to create pastel purple such as combining Violet or Dioxazine Purple and Cadmium Yellow and many other combinations.

This color has a rather light shade so it will bring a softer and more comfortable feeling. In addition, this color tone is also favored by the nobility, royalty and the upper class.

Pastel purple is used in 68% of high-end interior design projects in 2023 (according to statistics from the International Association of Interior Design). This color creates a visual effect that increases the feeling of luxury space by 25%.

Pastel white color

As a simple color tone, pastel white, although not outstanding, is probably the most used color in many fields. Demonstrates lightness, clarity, purity and especially extremely high applicability. To increase prominence, designers often add other colors such as pink, blue, gray, etc. to create extremely eye-catching color bands or splashes of color.

5 meanings of pastel colors in interior decoration

Pastel colors in interior decoration bring 5 outstanding benefits:

1. Create a feeling of relaxation and peace: The soft, cool colors of pastel help the space become relaxing, comfortable, reducing stress and fatigue.
2. Brings elegance and sophistication: Pastel is not too prominent but still attracts with its sophistication and gentleness, creating an elegant and luxurious beauty for the space.
3. Create a more spacious effect: With high brightness, pastel colors have the ability to reflect light well, making the space brighter and more spacious.
4. Easy to coordinate with different interior styles: Pastel can blend harmoniously with many styles, from classic to modern, from minimalist to sophisticated.
5. Suitable for many types of spaces: Pastel can be used in many different spaces such as living room, bedroom, kitchen, office, etc.

4 applications of pastel colors in interior design

It can be said that pastel tones are being applied a lot in our daily lives. Besides the fashion industry, living space decoration is also catching up with the trend of using pastel colors to increase creativity.

Pastel colors for the living room

A survey of 500 Kosmos dealers showed that 78% recommended using pastel tones for living rooms because of their ability to create spacious spaces and ease of combination with other decorative elements.

Designers can also flexibly combine white tones with luxurious light yellow tones of wood from materials such as laminate flooring or wood-grain plastic panels, etc. to make the overall room become sophisticated and luxurious.

The dominant white tone combined with the elegance of light-colored wooden floors never goes out of style (Source: freepik.com)

Modern living room with pastel pink tones (Source: internet)

Fresh living room space with light blue color (Source: internet)

Pastel colors for the bedroom

The bedroom is a place to rest after a long day. Therefore, you should use soft pastel tones, cool colors or use dark colors. These colors will help you feel relaxed and fall asleep more easily. Limit hot colors because they will easily make you feel stuffy and uncomfortable when sleeping.

Modern bedroom with gentle beige white tones

Pastel white bedroom tones are easy to combine with many interior colors.

When pastel white tones combine with blue tones, it will create a harmonious whole

Pastel colors for the bathroom

Pastel colors will help your family's bathroom become softer and more relaxing. However, you need to choose a color tone that matches the style of the whole house. Below are 3 suggestions from Kosmos on how to use pastel colors for your home's bathroom.

1. White tone: This is the safest and most used color tone for the bathroom and is not picky about any style. Using white tones helps the bathroom feel bright, clean and helps highlight sanitary and bathroom accessories.
2. Blue tone: Most pastel green colors such as blue or mint green will help the bathroom space become fresher. Accompanied by this is the relaxing feeling of being immersed in nature that this color tone brings.
3. Gray tones: Gray is a common color in bathrooms. It is easy to combine with white and black tones to create luxury. If you are a person who likes minimalist bathroom space, this is the color for you.

White bathroom brings a refreshing, clean feeling (Source: istockphoto.com)

Freshness is expressed through the pastel blue tones of the modern bathroom (Source: istockphoto.com)

Pastel gray blends harmoniously with the white and black of the walls and accessories (Source: istockphoto.com)

Pastel colors for the office

The office is also a place that often uses pastel colors. For many different purposes, the office will be decorated with a variety of pastel colors such as blue, cream white, bright yellow, etc.

Pastel yellow makes the office more dynamic and increases creativity.

Pastel blue tones bring brightness and coolness to the working space

Pastel white color brings a sense of luxury and cleanliness

Related question

Why are pastel colors becoming more and more popular?

Pastel tones today are not only flexible in application but also clearly show the user's preferences and aesthetic taste, specifically:

1. Flexibility in application: Pastel colors are widely used in many different fields from interior design to fashion, beauty, advertising, etc.
2. Expressing interests and aesthetic tastes: Choosing and using pastel colors in living space, clothing or personal products helps users affirm their own style and personality.

Tips for combining pastel colors with laminate flooring?

Pastel colors are a trend that many people love because of their gentleness, sophistication and modernity. Below are 2 ways to combine pastel colors with laminate flooring for your reference:

1. Use laminate flooring that is 1-2 tones lighter than pastel colors to create harmony.
2. Choose laminate flooring with dark tones to create a striking, contrasting effect.

White Laminate Flooring – Modern Interior Design Trend

Whether in interior design, fashion or any other field, pastel colors always bring unique aesthetic values, captivating those who love gentle and elegant beauty. This is not only a temporary trend but also an endless source of inspiration for modern and unique living spaces.