How to Choose a Color Scheme
Discover your color preferences with eight tips for picking perfect color palettes.
Pick a color, any color.
If only choosing a color palette for your interiors was that easy. It can be, thanks to designer Mark McCauley. The author of
Color Therapy at Home: Real Life Solutions for Adding Color to Your Life, he offers eight tips to help you discover your color preferences and take on white walls.
Tip #1. Choose a color scheme from the largest pattern in the space.If
you've got patterned upholstery, an Oriental rug or large piece of
artwork, pluck colors you like from the pattern. For a neutral wall
paint color, look to the pattern's whites and beiges.
Tip #2. Start with the formal areas of the house.Specifically,
the living room, dining room and entry way. Choose a color scheme for
those areas first, then pull one color from the scheme. For example,
take the red sofa and tone it down (say, to burgundy) for an accent in
more private spaces such as the den, office or bedroom.
Tip #3. Decorate your space from dark to light, vertically. A
real "cookbook" way to make any space look good without much risk,
McCauley says, is to use darker color values for the floor, medium color
values for the walls and light values for the ceiling.
"Any interior
space replicates the outside world," he says. "The exterior environment
is generally darker below our feet (the earth itself), medium-valued as
you look straight ahead (buildings/trees) and lighter values skyward."
Tip #4. Study the color of your clothes.Most
people buy clothes in colors they like to wear and think they look good
in. Similarly, you should decorate your rooms in colors you look good
in. "If you don't wear yellow, don't get a yellow sofa," McCauley says.
"You're going to look sickly on it."
Tip #5. Use the color wheel.In general, analogous color
schemes — colors next to each other on the color wheel, such as blue and
green — are more casual and relaxing, and work best in informal or
private spaces. This is a good strategy for a bedroom, where you want to
rest and recover.
Whatever color scheme you choose, McCauley advises
to put something black in every room. "The black clarifies all the rest
of the colors in the room," he says. Try a black lampshade, a black vase
or a black picture frame.
Tip #6. Use the rule of 60-30-10."When
decorating a space, divide the colors in the space into components of
60 percent of a dominant color, 30 percent of a secondary color and 10
percent of an accent color," McCauley says. The walls will most likely
be the majority, the upholstery would represent the secondary color and
accessories such as a floral arrangement or throw pillows would make up
the rest. "Works every time!" he says. "The colors are properly balanced
and there is a shot of color (the 10 percent color) for interest."
Tip #7. Go with the architecture.If you have a small room in
your house, don't paint it white to make it seem bigger. Instead, cozy
up to its architecture with a rich, warm color scheme. Let your big
rooms expand with light, and your small rooms wrap you up and nurture
you.
Tip #8. Follow your personal style.If you decorate
honestly, other people will appreciate it because it's you, even if
they'd never decorate their own house in the same way. That means if you
want to make every room in your house red, white and blue, go for it.
You can make any color look good as long as it's your taste.
