Decore Score

An architect listen to outside opinions? About interior design? All architects seem to remember how Frank Lloyd Wright dissed interior designers, calling them "inferior desecrators!"

Never mind. Designers' color opinions are not only worth heeding, they're backed by psychologists and scientists who agree that since a bedroom is for sleeping, it should be dark and restful (and cool and quiet). The idea is to lower your heart rate and stress levels and evoke Morpheus, the god of dreams.

Clodagh, the Irish born designer of top spas around the world, believes a bedroom should be dark as night itself. She once painted a Kips Bay show house bedroom deep blue with a bed niche that was almost black, "so it was like sleeping in a cave."

Look at the midnight magic designer Samuel Botero works in the bedroom we show here. Its deep colors and golden touches were inspired by the colors in the French needlepoint rug, writes Alix G. Perrachon, author of the informative new book, The Decorative Carpet.

Strategically lit from a variety of sources-floor lamp, wall sconces, picture lamps and candles-the bedroom is enveloping, comforting and quiet, definitely a sure cure for insomnia.

On the other hand, while you might sleep well in a pink bedroom, I'll bet it would keep your architect husband awake all night. It might help your cause if you don't use the "P" word. Instead, try calling it something like "Prairie-Style Rose" or "Postmodern Mauve," and see how far that gets you.

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style" and six other books on interior design.