How To Choose A Colour Scheme For Your Home
Choosing a color scheme for your home can be both daunting and exciting at the same time.
But don’t fret, that’s just the initial impression. Once you get started, you’ll see that choosing the right color scheme can be a powerful tool for transforming any place.
Here, we will give you a couple of tips on how to choose a color scheme for your home.
So, let’s get started!
Things to consider before choosing a whole home color scheme
The first tip you’ll get from most interior designers is not to get overly worried about following design theories or the color wheel to find the right colors.
The most important thing is to have fun and to decorate your home according to what feels right to you.
With that said, the first thing you should do is pick 2-3 favorite colors. And if you’re not sure about those colors, search for colors with room elements that are less flexible, such as furniture, fabrics, tile, or wallpaper.
For example, you can use the fabric that you love as a cue for your room’s color scheme. Or maybe, take an inspiration from your favorite rug? This means that you can base your paint colors on those elements.
The next thing to consider is the type of mood you want to convey throughout your home. Do you want it to feel calm and relaxing? Or maybe, dramatic and lively? Lot’s of contrast or romantic? Perhaps you want it to be modern and minimalistic?
Only after you have taken into consideration all of these tips and finally made a decision, you can start choosing the color scheme!
Types of color schemes
Before getting into this color choosing business, you should be aware of the existence of 4 types of color schemes:
Monochromatic Scheme
This scheme would be ideal for you, if you want your home to have that modern feel or if, for some reason, you are afraid of adding color to your living space. Monochromatic means that you’d be using different shades of the same color. For example, if you choose blue, your colors will range from pale blue to navy.
Analogous Scheme
Analogous color scheme equals a harmonious color scheme. This means that you want your home to feel calm and relaxing. If decide on this type of color scheme you would use colors that fall next to each other on the color wheel. For example, green and blue or orange and yellow – basically colors that are made from each other.
Complementary Scheme
If you decide to go with bold, bright and lively colors then complementary color scheme is what you should go with. Complementary hues are opposite from each other on the color wheel - colors such as blue and orange.
Contrast
Finally, we have a contrast color scheme also know as triad. Triadic color scheme uses three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel. In order to use a triadic harmony successfully, you should let one color dominate and use the two others for accent – this way you will achieve the desired balance. For example, red and violet, or blue and green.
Choosing Color Schemes for Your Whole Home
When decorating and painting your whole home, the biggest mistake you can make is to paint every room a different color. One room will be green, other yellow, and you’ll probably have, at least, one room painted pink! Are you cringing already? That’s what we thought!
Neutrals
Our first tip is to keep your wall color neutral. This way, if you love to change décor often, the color of your walls won’t be a problem! And additionally, the change of accent colors will be easily noticeable.
What does ‘neutral’ really mean? It doesn’t necessarily mean beige or tan, if that’s what your first thought was. Neutral colors can be divided into two categories: warm neutrals and cool neutrals.
Warm neutrals are, in fact, beige, sand, ivory, blush, etc. And cool neutrals are white, blue and gray.
Saturated color
After you have chosen your neutral, it’s now time to choose one saturated color that will give your rooms the pop of color. Now, don’t worry. This color doesn’t have to be bold, saturated colors can come in lighter shades as well. Also, keep in mind that this color doesn’t have to be the color of the walls, but the color of the accents you decorate your room with.
Another color from your color scheme
Next color you should go for, depends on the color scheme you chose. If you chose a monochromatic color scheme this color will be a lighter shade of color 3.
If you chose a harmonious color scheme this will be a color that is next to color 3 on the color wheel. However, this color doesn’t have to be the same intensity.
And if, for example, you went for a complementary color scheme, go to the color wheel and find color 3 - then move directly across the wheel and choose that color or one up or down from it.
Accent color
The last color tip is for an accent color. This color could be the accent color in one room, and the main color in other. Since you’re using one color scheme throughout your whole home, you can use it differently in each room.
So, to sum this up:
- First you choose a neutral color that will act as your go-to color for walls that connect rooms – basically, halls, and open living spaces
- Number two on our list is one saturated color that will give your rooms the pop of color – this color doesn’t necessarily have to be the color of the walls
- Select another colour that depends on what color scheme you chose
- The last but not least is the accent color – which can be used as the main color in another room
Once you have all this planned out, you can start painting. The point of your palette is to serve as a guide – this means that you don’t have to stick to it completely. You can change the shade of a certain color if that’s what works better for your space.
Also, since we talked about using one color scheme for the whole home, this doesn’t mean that all rooms have to be painted in the same way. Play with the palette you chose – the main color in one room can be the accent color in another and vice versa.
If you’re afraid to use bright and bold colors, start by painting your walls neutral. Only later, start playing with accent colors in order to find which pop of color works best for you and your home – don’t be afraid to use color to paint an accent wall or a piece of furniture.
The only important thing is to have the same colors or shades of those colors popping up throughout your home, this way you’ll achieve a continuous and cohesive look.