Tips for Choosing a Color Scheme for a Room
The colors that surround us directly influence our moods in a powerful way. Color palettes have the ability to make us feel welcomed and comfortable or disconnected. Picking a color scheme for a room can be overwhelming. How can you know if they will work together? Where should you even begin? Before starting to choose a color palette, check out our tips to help take the anxiety out of choosing colors for your home.
1. Pull colors from a dominant furnishing in the room.
If you have patterned upholstery, a bold area rug, or prominent curtains, choose colors embedded in the design. If you are looking for neutral wall color, use the pattern’s shade of white or beige.
2. Take inspiration from a prominent formal area
Start with a room like the living room, dining room or entryway. Once you’ve chosen a scheme for this area, you can carry the colors and tones to other areas of your home. Pull a color from the scheme for, say, the living room, For example, if you have red window panels in the dining room, tone it down to a burgundy color as an accent color in other spaces like an office or bedroom.
3. Replicate the Outside World.
A simple way to make any space look good is by decorating from dark to light, vertically. For example, use darker colors for the floor, medium hues for the walls and lighter values for the ceiling. Decorating from dark to light replicates the outside world because it’s darker below your feet and gets lighter as you look skyward.
4. Use the Color Wheel
A color wheel is a great tool for determining what colors work best together. It may surprise you how many color combinations work together beautifully. For example, colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, known as analogous colors, tend to work well together. This is a good strategy for deciding on a color for a bedroom.
5. Use the 60-30-10 Rule
When decorating a room, an easy rule of thumb is to the divide the colors into components of 60% dominant color, 30% percent secondary color, and 10% accent color. If you use this rule of thumb, the wall will most likely be the dominant color; your panels, drapery or upholstery would be the secondary color, while accessories like throw pillows will be the accent color.
6. Dress Up Your Windows
It’s easy to start choosing your color theme by first deciding on your drapery. Once you fall in love with a fabric the rest of the job becomes easy as you can pull all your room colors right from your selection. Innuwindow has thousands of fabrics to help inspire you. Take a look at our options of ready made and custom made window treatments.
Most importantly don’t be afraid to incorporate color into your home. Although choosing a color palette for any space can be challenging, once you start looking your own style and personality will become apparent. Contact our designers today, so we can start you on the road to choosing your color palette.