The color palette that you use inside your home affects many things. It can change the mood of the house, affect the way that all the rooms flow together, or create a feeling of energy and passion. If you are in the middle of redesigning your home or are building a new home, one of the first big decisions that you will be asked to make is the choice of a color palette for the project.
The first thing that you need to remember is that you will likely need to make your color choices for the rest of the house match with the other elements of your home that you have already chosen. Learn more here about the kinds of countertops that you should select for your home.
Once you have picked out your counters, you are ready to pick your interior paint colors! Feeling a bit stumped? Here are some tips for choosing the perfect palette for your home.
What Colors do You Love?
This may seem too simple but think about this a little. You will live inside your home, hopefully for quite a long time. If you don’t pick from the colors that you love, you will be faced with walls and counters and drapes that you don’t like for years! Sit down and make a list of your favorite colors, then start looking online for images of design choices in those colors. You may realize that magenta doesn’t look right for a living room after all, or you may realize that it is your new favorite color!
Use Color Theory to Help you Out
The study of color is an important part of cohesive final projects in any medium. Do a little research about color theory and how it can affect your final room’s design scheme. Consider investing in a color wheel so you play with complementary colors and see how they blend together. There is a certain amount of painter’s magic that can be had from picking the right furniture with the right wall paint, so a color wheel can help you out a lot at this stage of the process!
Neutrals Are Not Always Boring
Remember that not every room needs to be high-energy. You may be struggling with a color choice in space because its function does not meet up well with the bright paint that you have chosen for other parts of the house. Bedrooms and offices, in particular, can often benefit from well-matched neutral paints and neutral design touches. There is something peaceful about soft tones, and neutrals can make your house comforting and peaceful just like a soft paint color can.
Have Custom Paint Made
Do you have a bright blue sofa that you are trying to make fit in a room? Maybe you have a set of drapes that just doesn’t want to get along with the other colors in a space. You can actually have paint made to match these items! Use that paint to create an accent wall that ties in your favorite furniture or draperies, and you will have a pulled-together room complemented by your favorite bright color!
Bring the Outside Inside
If you love a soft, natural paint scheme, you can look right out your windows for inspiration to guide your choice. Earth tones and soft pastels often match up with exterior scenery around your home and you can choose these colors to help make a forest room. Light greens and woodsy browns are a great choice for this palette. Add a bamboo mat or rug, and some indoor plants, and you will feel like you are in a garden that is inside your home!
Pick From History
If you love an art deco look, or if you are a fan of old-world charm, select some images that display your favorite traditional or historical décor choices and then base your color selections off of these images. If you love the Edwardian period, you may just have to get a chaise for your sofa and some long draperies. If you want to work that 70’s theme that you love, you might need some colorful flooring and a bright yellow counter. History can be a fun and a fantastic source of inspiration for a color scheme.
Play with Shades of Colors
Maybe you’ve picked out your favorite color but for some reason, it just doesn’t look right in the room that you picked it for. Don’t give up on it too soon! You can often get paint colors that are just one or two shades darker or lighter than the shade that is fighting with you. Sometimes just switching to a slightly lighter or slightly darker shade will make that color perfect for your needs! The paint store near your home can help you with this selection process and there are usually many paint chips and sample slips that you can bring home from a home improvement store to help you to see what the different shades look like.
Undertones can Highlight Everything
People often forget about the undertones in a color palette. If you were painting a portrait, these tones would be used for shadows and to bring light into the painting. In your home, these colors are the accents that tie the whole color palette together. This is another place to use your color palette to figure out what the low and high tones are for your color scheme. These colors can be brought into a room with pillows, throw rugs, and furniture.
The Perfect Palette Makes all the Difference
Picking the right interior paint colors can make your home feel truly complete. Pick out your counters and your flooring and then get busy choosing your favorite colors! With the help of some color theory and some planning, you should be able to find the perfect paint scheme to make your house a home. The right color scheme will take your home from blah to wow in one easy step!