Color is one of the most powerful tools you have when it comes to interior decorating. A well-chosen and well-used color palette will make your home feel intentional and create a sense of harmony that ties every room together.
But when you’re standing in front of a sea of paint samples at Home Depot and trying to decide which shade of beige is the *right* shade of beige, color can start to feel like more of a hindrance than a helper.
You may even decide to just say !@#$ it and paint everything white.
So how do you go get past the eff it moment and choose a deliberate color palette that makes your home sing?
In this post, we’ll discuss some tips and tricks to help you get started, and walk you through two fool-proof methods for choosing a color palette.
Decide How You Want to Feel in the Space
Color, and the absence of color, have the power to invoke intense emotion and will impact the way you feel in a space.
Before you choose any colors for your palette, think about how you want to feel in the space you’re decorating.
Let’s say the house you're decorating is an old colonial on the New England coast. You probably want it to feel open, breezy, and relaxed.
But if you’re decorating a city apartment for a twenty-something who loves to host the pregame, you probably want to create a stimulating, upbeat environment.
Color can help you create these feelings (and a million others).
Warm colors (yellow, reds, and oranges) are stimulating and exciting. A warm color palette will lend itself to a vigorous, energetic environment.
Cool colors (blues and greens) are calm and serene. They tend to make a space feel soothing and peaceful.
You don’t have to choose just warm colors or just cool colors for your home, but it can be helpful to lean in one direction or the other, especially if you’re just getting into interior decorating.
Choose One Overarching Tone, Tint, or Shade—and Stick to It
Color isn’t the only factor to consider when choosing a color palette—you also have to think about tone, tint, and shade.
When we say color, we’re talking about hue. Hues are pure colors that don’t have any white, gray, or black added to them. They look exactly the same as they do on the color wheel.
We don’t usually pull colors right off the wheel when we’re decorating, though. We choose varying tones, tints, and shades.
- Tone: Tones are created when gray is added to a hue and may be lighter or darker than the original hue.
- Tint: Tints are created when white is added to a hue. Tints are lighter and more desaturated than the original hue.
- Shade: Shades are created when black is added to a hue. Shades are darker and more intense than the original hue.
You want most of the colors in your palette to be the same tone, tint, or shade. This will create a sense of harmony in your space and make it feel cohesive. With too much variation, your space can start to look disjointed and chaotic.
Pick a Jumping Off Point
Sometimes it’s best to let a specific piece dictate your color scheme. We call this a jumping-off point.
Your jumping-off point could be a dominant piece of furniture that you absolutely love and want to build the space around, like a bright pink sofa. It could also be something smaller, like a piece of art or a quilt.
Area rugs make excellent jumping-off points. You can easily pull colors out of an area rug and use them throughout the space.
Once you have a jumping-off point (or jumping-off color, if you will) you can build out the rest of your color scheme by choosing accent colors that complement it.
Two Fool-Proof Methods for Choosing a Color Palette for Your Home
There are a lot of ways to choose a color palette—some of them strategic, others a little mystical. As you get more comfortable experimenting with color, you’ll start to develop your own methods.
But when you’re just getting started, it can be helpful to have a guide.
We’ve found these two methods most helpful when creating color palettes for everything from a vignette to a room to an entire home.
1. Use Complementary Colors
Complementary colors are direct opposites on the color wheel. Think blue and orange, red and green, and purple and yellow. (Complementary colors vary depending on what color model you’re using. For simplicity’s sake, we’re using the traditional color model here.)
Complementary colors look good together because they enhance each other’s intensity. This can create strong, powerful rooms.
To use what we have creatively dubbed the “Complementary Colors Method,” choose one color that fits the mood of the space. This is going to be the primary color in your palette. In this example, we’re going to use blue.
Now, grab its complement. In this case, orange. This will be your accent color.
That’s only two colors, though. Not exactly a palette.
To add to it, choose a color that is directly next to either one on the wheel.
Finally, choose a tone, tint, or shade, and apply it to all your chosen colors. Imagine you’re putting a filter on your color palette to create a cohesive home, the same way you might use a preset to make your Instagram feed look cohesive.
2. Use Analogous Colors
Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. Choosing three analogous colors is an easy and effective way to create a color palette. The effect tends to be calming and very aesthetically pleasing.
For example, blue, blue-green, and green. Or, orange, red, and pink.
When using analogous colors, you want one to act as your primary color, a second to support, and a third to act as an accent color.
As with the complementary colors method, you want to choose an overarching tone, tint, or shade, and apply it to all the colors in your palette when creating an analogous color scheme.
We hope this guide has been a helpful resource in your decorating journey. We’d love to see what you’re working on! Send us an email at hellodesignbaby@gmail.com.
