Choosing a colour scheme for your home can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! With some planning and consideration, you can select a cohesive palette that brings together the look you want. Follow these tips to create a colour scheme that enhances your home’s style.
Determine Your Style
Before choosing any colours, decide what overall style or feel you want your home to have. Do you prefer traditional, modern, minimalist, cosy, elegant – or a mix?
This will guide your colour choices. For example, soft neutrals suit a classic style, while bold primaries work for contemporary spaces. If you’re unsure what style you want, look at interior design photos online or in magazines for inspiration.
Consider the Mood You Want to Create
Colours profoundly impact mood and emotions. Warm tones like reds, oranges and yellows evoke energy and excitement, while cool blues, greens and purples create a more relaxing vibe.
Neutrals like taupe, grey and beige promote tranquillity. Decide what mood you want key rooms to have, then pick colours that align.
The experts at Peter Staunton Design Studio believe a colour’s undertone also affects its mood – a blue with grey undertones is calming, while one with green is more lively.
Choose a Base Colour
Once you settle on a style and mood, select a key colour that will form the basis or backdrop of your scheme. This will likely be the colour for your walls.
You can choose a bold colour that makes a statement, like navy or emerald green, or opt for a versatile neutral like white, greige or tan. The base colour should work with your style and set the overall tone.
Add Accent Colours
Next, pick one or two accent colours that complement your base colour. Accent colours inject visual interest through accessories, furniture, rugs, pillows and artwork.
Contrasting hues pop against a neutral backdrop, while tones from the same colour family blend seamlessly. To keep the scheme cohesive, limit accent colours to two or three at most. Vary their saturation – lighter and darker versions of the same hue work well.
Consider Triadic Harmony
An easy way to combine colours is using the triadic colour scheme. This uses three hues spaced equally around the colour wheel, such as red, yellow and blue.
This creates a vibrant, energetic vibe. Rotate the triangle of colours to use different but harmonising hue combinations, like orange, green and purple.
Don’t Forget Neutrals
Natural, neutral tones like white, sand, grey and brown add balance to any vibrant scheme. They prevent brighter colours from becoming overwhelming and let accent colours shine.
Use neutral walls as a background, repeating the neutral on flooring, furniture pieces and textiles for cohesion. Incorporate black and metallic accents for extra elegance.
Test Your Colours
Once you’ve decided on potential colours, test them out. Paint large swatches on your walls, get free fabric samples from furniture stores, or buy inexpensive pillows and throw-in colour options.
See how the colours look together in your space at different times of day before fully committing. You may need to tweak your choices to get the look you envisioned.
Consult the Experts
If you struggle to put colours together, seek professional advice. An interior designer like Peter Staunton can help identify hues to suit your space, style and preferences through an in-home consultation. A professional’s expertise in colour theory, palettes and application makes the process easy.
Choosing a colour palette for your home may take some trial and error. But keeping your style, mood and colour harmony in mind will ensure you end up with a cohesive, welcoming space. Be bold, have fun with it and enlist help if you need it. With the right colour scheme, you can give your home a stylish makeover.
