When planning a room’s color scheme, it is best to start with less flexible elements like furniture, fabrics, tile, or wallpaper. Paint is inexpensive and can be matched to virtually any color, so it is best to start your color search with these elements first. This will help create a cohesive whole house color palette that includes the colors of the floor, furniture, fabrics, window coverings, wallpaper, and accessories.
To choose a color palette for your home, consider your surroundings, consider trends, pay attention to lighting, do a swatch test, and compare options. Consider existing elements, go on a pinning spree, and think about how you want the room to feel. Choose 3 to 5 colors from the largest pattern in the space and decorate from dark to light, starting with the formal areas of each room.
When choosing a color palette, consider your surroundings, shed some light on the situation, get to know your personal style, decide on foundation colors, and work from a color wheel. Out of the three to five main colors in your interior paint color scheme, at least one should be neutral, one should be white, and one should be a darker shade.
Take stock of the space, keep lighting top of mind, narrow down your style and aesthetic, and choose paint colors last. By following these tips, you can create a cohesive and cohesive interior that feels like a cohesive extension of you.
📹 How to Choose a Home Interior Color Palette
In this video, I’m teaching you what to consider when choosing a color palette for your home. we’ll look at some color theory …
How do I choose a color palette for my new home?
Choosing the right color scheme for your new home is a complex and rewarding process. It involves understanding color theory, considering the mood you want to create, and making practical decisions based on the use of each room. To begin, use a color wheel to understand how different colors relate to each other. This tool can help you choose complementary, analogous, or triadic colors to create a balanced and harmonious look.
In addition to considering the mood, use the 60-30-10 Rule to create a cohesive color scheme. Take inspiration from art or rugs, consider lighting, think about room transitions, and sample your colors. By following these tips, you can create a harmonious and balanced color scheme that complements your new home’s design. Remember, the joy of being a new home buyer is the ability to personalize your living space.
How do I find my color palette style?
To create a cohesive wardrobe, identify your undertone (cool or warm) and tone preference. Choose colors with blue or yellow undertones to match your own. This will help you narrow your color palette into complementary colors. While you may have some pieces that deviate from the group, it’s important to focus on selecting color groups to create a cohesive look. Keeping your color palette in mind when shopping is crucial for selecting prints and accent colors. This consistency will allow your wardrobe to translate into multiple outfits, making the days of feeling empty a distant memory.
What is the 60-30-10 rule?
The 60-30-10 Rule is a classic decor rule that suggests that the 60th color should be the dominant color, the 30th color should be the secondary color or texture, and the last 10th color should be an accent. The 60th color represents the overall color of the room, while the 30th color serves as a secondary color that supports the main color while adding interest. By following this rule, you can create a visually appealing and visually appealing space.
How to choose colors for house interior?
Colors can enhance the aesthetic appeal of a space. Lighter colors create an open feel in small spaces, while dark colors create a closer, intimate atmosphere. Bright, cool whites make spaces larger and more open, while warmer shades create a cozy atmosphere. Dark colors on shorter walls and lighter ones on longer ones can make a room appear wider. Using lighter or darker colors can also make a ceiling appear higher or lower.
It’s important to note that color choices can vary depending on the time of day and night, as incandescent lights can influence color differently. Understanding these factors can help adjust the room’s mood.
How do I find the perfect color palette?
The 60-30-10 rule is a color selection guideline that helps establish a brand’s identity by using a primary color 60 times, a secondary color 30 times, and an accent color 10 times. This rule is crucial for designing products between wireframing and prototyping, as the color palette is just as important as the design structure. Careful consideration is needed when choosing colors for UIs. Once the color palette is chosen, it is essential to create interactive prototypes using UXPin to improve the design process and ensure design consistency. Signing up for a trial can help ensure a successful color palette.
Should all rooms in a house be the same color?
A cohesive color scheme across rooms can give a home a more intentional look and encourage better flow between spaces separated by closing doors. In open floor plans or combined entry and living areas, the color relationship between rooms affects the harmony of the living spaces. Using unrelated colors in adjoining rooms can make the house feel disjointed, while colors that relate to each other draw the eye from one room to the next and create visual continuity.
To create a whole-house color scheme that blends seamlessly from one room to the next, follow these tips:
Create Flow with Color: In an open floor plan or one with wide openings, choose colors that relate to each other. Repeat similar colors or materials in small details, such as window treatments, fabrics, or wall decor, to form a subtle link between spaces.
Use a Thread of Color Between Rooms: To give each room its own color personality while ensuring a united look, choose a single hue as a theme that runs throughout. Consider using woodwork as the unifying element and repeating the same color or finish on baseboards, door frames, window frames, and molding at the ceiling.
How do I choose a good color palette?
The 60-30-10 rule is a color scheme that helps in choosing a color palette and maintaining it, establishing a brand’s identity. It involves using a primary color 60 times, a secondary color 30 times, and an accent color 10 times. This rule is particularly useful in website design, as it allows for a clean and simple design. The primary color can be used for headers, subheads, and other design elements, while the accent color adds a touch of panache to buttons or text.
How to pick a color scheme?
The 60-30-10 rule is a color selection guideline that helps establish a brand’s identity by using a primary color 60 times, a secondary color 30 times, and an accent color 10 times. This rule is crucial for designing products between wireframing and prototyping, as the color palette is just as important as the design structure. Careful consideration is needed when choosing colors for UIs. Once the color palette is chosen, it is essential to create interactive prototypes using UXPin to improve the design process and ensure design consistency. Signing up for a trial can help ensure a successful color palette.
How to pick an interior design color palette?
To create a personal color palette, first declare your favorite color, consider the overall vibe you want, determine your existing colors, start with an heirloom, rug, or art, consult a color wheel, account for the size and scale of the room, check the lighting and windows, and don’t forget the exterior. A color palette is a combination of colors that complement each other and can be used throughout a space, making the overall design more cohesive and unique to the individual. Creating a color palette can help pull the look of your home together, ensuring it looks cohesive and unique to the individual.
What is the 70 20 10 budget rule?
The recommended ratio for allocating financial resources is as follows: 70% for essential expenditures, 20% for savings, and 10% for discretionary purchases.
How do I find the color palette of my room?
In order to identify the optimal palette, it is recommended to procure paint samples and apply them to the wall. Alternatively, one may utilize stick-on paint swatches to observe their appearance under natural light conditions, both during the day and at night. A color generator can be an invaluable tool for identifying sources of inspiration and discovering complementary colors. This can be particularly useful when creating a color scheme for a specific room, such as a bedroom, or when selecting new accessories, such as throw pillows, that align with the existing color palette of a living room.
📹 How to Combine Colors in Your Home | Designing Your Home Interior Color Palette
In this video I got over some basics of color theory including tints, tones and shades of the different colors of the color wheel, I walk …
My grandmother told me to take into account which way the windows are facing. Our living room was facing north, she advised to pick a warm color because northern light is stark, (great for oil painting pictures she said) Now our living room is facing south and I kan chose a cool color without the room looking cold.
Nick!! You can get peel-and-stick paint samples now!! So you can move them to different parts of the room where there’s different lighting, or to different rooms, annnnd you don’t have to worry about unevenness when you pain over them. I was looking at a couple big names that have them, like Sherwin-Williams.
That sweater you’re wearing is GORGEOUS. OMG. And word to the wise, if you use an undertone of yellow in a white, it will “mellow” with age–it gets warmer, and just a lovely buttery shade. If you go with a “bright white” or something with grey undertones, it will age to a drab and depressing ick. Painting a room is a pain in the patootie, so getting something that will age nicely is the best way to go!
Wow! I’ve always thought I was cheating! For years now I’ve started with a painting or print that I love and want to use in the room. Then I use colors from the painting for the walls, furniture, accessories, etc. Super easy and I know the finished product will work because those same colors worked in the painting.
The other day, the contractor I hired to do a little repair on my house gave me one of those thick paint sample books with ALL of the colors in it. He had an extra one, and had caught me drooling over his. Biggest mistake ever was accepting that sample book. I had trouble deciding on colors before. Now I want ALL the colors.
One part of building a mood board that I have found super helpful is to begin with things you have that you love and want to keep in the space: a blanket, art, fixed elements, or anything else you love. I built a milanote mood board for my living room this way and was able to pick paint colors and source purchases confidently.
I moved to a coastal home, Southern California, from the Midwest and the light is different here so I went from jewel tones to white-white which was radical for me so I painted a sheet of plywood and put it in different places so I felt ok making the change. A nice creamy wall color looked frumpy. The white makes my home look modern even with my few walnut antique pieces. I had lived with landlord white and contractor white in my life, so I did not want one drop of yellow, not one drop of green, not one drop of gray. I used Behr Ultra Pure White. It looks fabulous.
This is a great article! Also, the clock is back, and I love the blue sweater. Your room needs more colour, I think! Years ago when I was renovating, the builders left behind a sheet of drywall, perhaps 1 m by 0.75 m. I primed it and used it to test paint colour samples and practice stencilling (hey, it was the 90s!). I could easily position it anywhere in the house at any time of day, and didn’t need to mess up the walls before I was ready to choose paint colours. I could paint it white and reuse it many times.
I enjoyed this Nick, when I was studying we were always reminded of our colour palettes.. Even though my house seems to be a huge splash of colour it really is varying shades of reds with a little purple and a few whites. I painted a large canvas of deep forest green and the same green mixed with a little black and hung it without a frame… only the stretched canvas, on the wall you see as you enter the room, I call it *angry night waves*, but I love that others have said it reminds them of different things. The greens in it work so well with the rest of the colours I have, it breaks them up, I love green but too much of it makes me nauseous. Great show Nick ❣❣❣
You did a good job explaining color to someone who has never really cared about different shades other than when I have painted my bathrooms (the previous owner had this horrible wallpaper up that made me think I was in a gaudy hotel..). I painted my bathroom a nice light green that gives me energy. I painted my hall bathroom a deep blue that reminded me of water.
The paint swatches thing really works. I was doing my home painting on a very much shoestring budget. So that meant Home Depot paint. But they have these little sample cans and I would get some of those and come home and paint a spots on the wall. It’s amazing how different it looks on the wall versus, the little card. Night and day difference. When I was finally done with the house, I donated all those to a school and the kids had a blast with all those different different colors.
Holding your nose and jumping is a great way of putting it. I chose Benjamin Moore white dove for my main with simply white trim/doors. Warm/neutral wood floors, muted greens for accents (Heather grey, forest floor, October mist), revere pewter, edgecomb grey, pale oak paint palette throughout the home walnut lower cabinets and revere pewter upper cabinet with light quartz subtle marble look for countertops/backsplash. Florenceourt stone wallpaper in accent room. Warm walnut, warm oak, light bronze and brass finishes.
Great article! I hope it helps people be more confident in picking color & creating spaces they love. The color picker tools & apps to help customers select paint colors are so much better now than they were 20+ years ago when I worked in the paint department of a big box store. I was the one that always took time to explain color theory & everything you covered in the article to customers, everyone was always so appreciative.
I would love to see you do something on finding colors that flatter your complexion. I am a makeup artist and occasional content creator and often focus on things like skincare, makeup application etc and naturally I prefer to film in the bathroom because it has the best lighting and when we moved in here, everything was painted in warm golden hues and I’m a deep winter. So all of the articles I was making, I looked like I needed to be in the hospital for renal failure. So I painted the background wall seafoam, which isn’t in my color palette but is MUCH BETTER than the color it was before as it isn’t in directly in the colors to avoid like the previous one 😂 but, now I’ve run into another problem… I picked a taupe-ish color leaning more cool for the rest of the bathroom and it looks almost purple. It looks kind of weird. The colors look great as a backdrop but now I have to switch everything up. I decided to go with succulents as my inspo and getting rid of all of my rustic/ethereal mermaids I’ve been collecting since I was 19. (I’m 42 and you’ve helped me let go😂) I’ve been working on this bathroom for 2 years just paralyzed by indecision.
Great advice (checking the color at different times of day). I had picked out a gray with a greenish tint to go in my house and it had to go with the honey oak cabinets in the kitchen. The bonus I got was that when the light shifted during the day it went from a rosey color to a gorgeous green that complemented the cabinets perfectly! I loved it so much I kept looking at it all throughout the day.
The sellers of our house painted every wall and ceiling throughout in SW Repose Gray. This is in the PNW (west side of Cascades). It is gray here a lot of the year. I would like to a lighter neutral for the main living area and banish the gray to the cloudy skies. I picked SW Creamy for the office that faces east. While I am a cool tone fan, I love that the walls never look stark due to the warm undertone. Now to tackle the rest of the house.
Oh yeah, whites can be extremely difficult. We renovated our master bathroom a couple of years ago and did a honed marble on the floor, tub surround and shower. For the walls I wanted a “creamy” white that didn’t have any yellow undertones. I picked out 27 swatches, narrowed it to 7, painted those on the walls and ended up going with Chantilly Lace. The bathroom also gets a ton of natural light. It worked out and I still love it. I also had friends that had to pick between almost 100 shades of white, so I considered my experience a little less painful.
…First ..I must say how apropos that beautiful Colbat like Colour is that you are wearing .. looks great on you, and makes a Statement in regards to the article! As a former Professional Painter…I agree, ..that no more than 3 to 4 paint swatches are needed,at a given time when ” trying on paint ” to not feel overwhelmed… snd I would do a large swatch, at least 2’x2′ to determine if the Client liked the Colour. This is so important, that I am glad you addressed it in reference to ALL kinds of Lighting in a room . ..what reads one way in daylight…might not be so great in certain lighting conditions. I also loved how you used examples of Building a Colour Palette, and to point out the ways to pull out the colours of an Inspiration piece that actually helps make the Room look a bit more curated and Authentic to the person living in that Home . And… CLOCK IS BACK ..! Whoops hooo ! 👌🏻😁😉
After a lifetime of painting homes and businesses, I’ve done everything and loved it all. From Art School rented digs (black and teal-yuk), lime washes, suede paint from RL, F&B home, stage set paint for a retail shop, rag, paper and brush for another retail, original stencil and murals. But for the last 20 years 99% whites and trims nearly always pained out same. I’m in a minimal stage of life now. LOL
Let’s start with, I love colour on my walls. Purple, green, blue. I usually use fairly saturated colours. I started trying to lighten up my bedroom that is in a basement and doesn’t really get great light. My walls looked like a patchwork quilt of various colours and shades I kept trying. Finally I bit the bullet and pulled some white shades. I felt like I was betraying my roots, lol. I ended up with a creamy white, painted all walls the same ( I thought I’d have a highlight wall, and I love it. I’ve added my colour back with accessories. This room is bright any time of day and the ceiling feels higher.
Here’s another thought for inspiration source: Have a look at fabrics. Go to a good fabric store and look at not just furniture/drapery fabrics, but dress fabrics and the entire wonderful range of quilting cottons. When you find something you love, buy a meter of it. It’s easy to carry round to hold up against furniture/rugs/paint/etc when shopping. When you are all done, take that meter and make it up into a couple of cushion covers that will help visually tie your colours together in your completed room.
I really did enjoy this article, it was the most validating article I have watched of yours to date. Why? Because I furnished my place last year after moving, it was the first time in my life I did that on my own, barely did any research on how to do it, but for some reason, by instinct, I decided to do exactly what you recommend: I found this gorgeous painting by Salvador Dali that I really loved and I bought a canvas print of it; then I used it as a jumping off point to pick the colours of everything else (couch cover, new armchair, coffee table, desk, rug, plant vases etc.) and I was really really pleased with the end result. Now I know why I was 😁
I get the keys to my new house tomorrow and this has got to be the mostly timely article ever. I’ve only been in the house in gloomy weather at midday. I love my current cream and cheery blue, big sunshine, bedroom that I have now. My new bedroom only has a tiny window on the north wall. Colour and lighting are going to be critical.
Would love to hear your take on the pro’s and cons of different color systems and which should be used when. Youtube is full of references to RGB, CMYK, RAL, paint color names from a specific brand etc. If I’m making a digital mood board maybe RGB or Pantone works great, but if I then go to my local hardware store in Sweden they want either an NCS code (Shade + Chromaticness + Hue) or the name of color in a brand of paint they carry. If I tell them to whip me up a can of Benjamin Moore’s “Pixie Bubblegum Frenzy” I’m out of luck unless I can give them the exact Shade/Chroma/Hue value which Benjamin Moore won’t divulge, I can’t really give them an RGB value either, since that is not how you mix paint. I find most propietary systems actively try and prevent people from translating them, Pantone even suing people who try to create translation tables for their colors. Would love tips on tools and tricks to navigate around this.
You’ve created a great set of physical and digital tools for people to get them going, it’s wonderful. I think when you work in color these ideas can become more intuitive for some than others and folks cannot, ‘start’. One tiny suggestion I would add is to look at the cohesion you are going for if you are in a cozier(small) home. For example, in my two bedroom up/down duplex, you enter a living room that leads to dining and then to the kitchen. You see everything, so take time to consider that first view a guest has when entering. This is where the big picture palette can guide you. You can pick up notes from other rooms to create, not carbon looks, but a harmony as someone enters. I hope that makes sense? And sometimes you know you choose wrong and get a color on the wall that felt incredible in midday light but registers as Band-Aid/ Kraft macaroni. Mistakes were made, it can get better. Love you Nick and you look incredible in that deep blue, just wow
I always (rightly or wrongly) associate warmer color schemes with sexiness and elegance and cooler ones (but not too white) with restfulness and peacefulness. Old, elegant hotels convey an entirely different mood than new, glitzy ones – and I like the old ones far more. The Palmer House in Chicago and the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City will always be timeless. A hotel with the name “Disney” in it will never match up.
My parent’s house had a lot of warm undertones, so the furniture and rugs I had looked great in their house. But when I moved into my apartment the paint and flooring all had a cool undertones, and all my rugs looked dingy and dirty even though it was just a change in the undertones surrounding the items
I have been using Pinterest a lot for inspiration. I knew I wanted a green paint for my living room, so I started scouring paint ideas. I settled on Dried Thyme from SW and Ethereal White from SW. It looks awesome, especially next to all the honey oak we have as well. My basement colors were inspired by various coffee houses and a mission style lamp my uncle gave me. So, blacks, dark blues, amber and copper tones, and dark wood. It’s a great place to hang out to watch tv.
Proud of baby 23yo me who took an enamelled (reproduction Mackintosh) mirror and picked out those colours for our soft furnishings. We still have that mirror, and now also have a matching commissioned painting and bespoke crochet throw, and rug and velvet curtains in the same glossy grey as the “leading” on the mirror. Nick, you’ve made me feel like less of a total novice, thank you!
All of this, Nick. Interior Design is first and foremost design. It takes knowledge, education, time, technique… A lot of time and effort goes into seamless, cohesive looks that suit the client(s). It can be scary for some people and some people just don’t have the inclination, the time, or the resources to hire a designer. Content like this makes this all so much less scary. Thank you for another great article.
I’m struggling to make any decisions on paint colors in my house because #1 our ceilings are SO HIGH in he main living spaces, if I even can paint it, I will probably never paint it again. #2 I painted one small space a nice moody blue color and my children have managed to make the wall look dirty and even peeled paint up in some spots. How did they managed to make a dark colored wall look just as bad as a white wall? It’s their talent. Just as with the furniture, I will wait until they are a little older to get nice things I actually like.
My partner and I are building pur first home together, and I am in thr the process of defining an interior color palette. Your article has been super useful in helping me understand how different colors relate to one another! Also gotta chime in and agree with everyone mentioning the blue sweater, it looks fantastic on you!
I loved the practical color scheme exploration, and it helps me a lot as someone who has never been good at colors when it comes to interior design. I’d love it if this were a series – take an image and draw out its palette, design a room around it (or just pick textiles like you did here). It could lead to a lot of different design styles that might be in or out of your comfort zone, from tasteful scandi stuff to bizarre meme-y maximalism.
Hey! I often find myself drawn to walls. I specifically love wallpapers with micro patterns. So would you say that picking a wallpaper as the foundation for my colour palette, and then using your tips to find the different constituent shades, tints and hues, and finding the rest of the pieces in accordance to that is a good idea?
Nick, I wish you had gone a bit more in depth about the color wheel itself. That would’ve been helpful for some people. For instance, the reason why blue and orange look good next to each other is because they are exact opposites on the color wheel. Colors next to each on the color wheel match. Colors opposite on the color wheel go together. There is a huge difference between match and go. The people who design the decor we buy definitely use this principle. I’m not saying I use this concept a whole lot….my house is where white, gray, camel, cream, and wood go to die. But I do pull in color through my artwork. When I need a big color change I just change the artwork.
I built during covid and there was NO ONE to make me samples, no show rooms open, nothing in stock. It was miserable. I had to use my imagination for all finishings, lighting, flooring, paint, and household products. The grays in my hair tripled, let me tell you. I picked colors by grabbing about 30 stacks of the slips and taping the paper slips to things I was putting inside the home. i had to mostly stay out of the construction site (peak covid restrictions and respect for the guys) so i could only go in before or after the guys were there. i saw mostly dawn and dusk lighting. honest to god- this was NOT on purpose because I only had the paint numbers for a lot of the colors after taping/ripping the paint slips — picking Kitty Whiskers, Mr. Kitty, and one other sort of cat-ish name. The painters and builder guys running around shouting “grab me the Mr. Kitty” “this is the kitty whiskers” “Mr Kitty here” 10/10 ps: I love my colors SOO MUCH In every lighting. It went better than I could have ever dreamed. I got really lucky!!!!
I like the idea of the mood based colour choice but I think another simple way to find a palette is understanding the age and style of the home you’re about to decorate. A Georgian house won’t really look great in Victorian colours and an Edwardian one won’t work too well with a 2024 palette of boring beiges. Immersing oneself to the history of the era you want to evolve, be it the decade your home was built or another era of its life having some historical grounding is a smart way to start choosing colours and finishes.
I did my main rooms Scalloped Grey about a year and a half ago. Its a true greige, no greens/blues, which was important to me because my furniture and accessories are earth tones. Took about a month of searching before I finally pulled the trigger. Been very happy with it. Very bright during the day, a little smokey at night with my lighting.
I after perusal one of your articles I flipped my usual script. I have a fairly traditional home- always bright white ceilings and painted walls with bright white trim. I just added a greenhouse/ lap pool room to the walk out part of my basement. Because I get SADD very badly in the long Vermont winter, I wanted the room BRIGHT. I painted the ceiling sky blue, so I can pretend I’m on a beach, and the walls a very stark white. The chairs and lamp shades are wild crazy blues and teals, with bronze and orange accents.
To me, “dusty” colors seem to have some warmth added to them, not just gray. I’m thinking of my mom’s late 80s/early 90s dusty blue, pink, orange. Taking what I feel is a nice happy airy blue and turning it into a color that’s cohesive with the beige/tan/honey oak/yellow backdrop. Can you tell I did not like her style?
I did the worst mistake anyone can do. Got those little paint papers, thought that would be enough to choose my white paint. Thought I was going with the most neutral white. Bought ALL of my paint for my entire huge house btw, 😭 and guess what? IT LOOKS FUCKING BLUE! I cried a few days already. My husband will NOT want to repaint in a year or so. It affects all of my furniture, even my damn floors look different 😭
If you don’t want to actually paint swatches on your wall — Use something like Samplize, which are big sheets/stickers that are painted with real paint. They’re around the same price as a sample pot of paint. Then you can move it around, see it in different rooms, see how it looks in different lighting, compare it to your furniture and fixtures, etc.
Hello Nick! Absolutely ADORE you and your pairing of slightly snarky wit and whiplash wisdom! It just creates such a unique space for those of us who view sarcasm as a love language. 😂 I love the home interior color, palette concept for this article and would like to ask you to consider continuing this by doing a series of articles on how to implement this throughout the house going room by room. Perhaps starting with a core color palette and then modifying that as you go room by room to create both visual interest and color variation. ???QUESTION??? In one of your past articles, you stated that you hated glass dining room tables. I would love to know your thoughts on dining room design – specifically when it comes to making a sizable investment in dining room furniture. Tables are such an opportunity to make a statement, but yet they typically serve many functions. What are your thoughts on solid wood tables that have been made to enhance the texture and features of the natural pattern. I’m reluctant to say that it’s distressing, because the finishes fully intact. I’d also like your take on how to mix and match tables with different dining chairs to create a unique look. Perhaps mixing a modern and rustic wood table with chairs that are fabric covered and either tailored or lean more towards French or English country style (upholstered parsons chairs in a beautiful fabric for example)
This is very timely and exactly what I need information about! But doesn’t actually address my true problem(s): 1) i have a fairly open layout in my home and having lived in it for four years thinking about a palette, I am still struggling because I don’t want to choose something that’s going to cause me to have to repaint the entire kitchen cabinets (there are a LOT) just because it isn’t quite compatible…..due to the expense and also because I like it. And 2) I paint myself plus I love buying from other artists and have a pan eclectic collection of art of all sorts of colours and styles (although have always had pretty neutral homes) — so how can I bring a little more colour into my home/walls ?I don’t know what to do about my art collection….? Most of it isn’t overly expensive but I like it and don’t want to get rid of it. Didn’t you just tell us in a previous article that we should be buying art that we LIKE and not the mass produced stuff anyway? At least the mass produced stuff matches……😔😔
When it comes to white I love a pure white like Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace, because I don’t like undertones myself ( While most whites and off-whites have subtle undertones of yellow, pink, or blue, Chantilly Lace is a bright white paint with almost no undertones, which makes it an extremely versatile and neutral paint color) ..But it’s your home, do whatever you love~ 😉
Heey Nick, what if you’re really in the brown/black moody kinda colours but want to balance that with some sort of ochre yellow-ish. What should I consider to balance the moody bit with something bright if I have sun all day? Maybe more important, how do I establish what mood I want to create? I mean, that would be different on a saturday eve when inviting friends or wanting to watch tele after a hard day at work.(Moody vs low sensory for example)
I am a nightmare for the poor paint people, lol. I’ll do as you suggest and get a few samples then decide none of them are quite right and start mixing them until I get something almost right and show up and say “can you color match this and then add X amount of Y pigment?” Then take that home and decide it actually needs X/3 more of that pigment and go back. If I worked there I’d turn Cloud White every time an artist walked in. 😂😅😭 EDIT: and yet with all that time invested I still watch these articles with rapt attention because I just love color theory so much and hey, maybe you’ll convince me that I need to change it up again! 😁. I’m definitely blaming you at the paint store! ❤ you, Nick!!!
This is the best description I’ve ever heard about this!! I’m a design hobbyist that always gets asked by friends how to get their homes to feel cohesive and “designed” Christopher Lowell talked about using fabric or photos for inspiration so many years ago so I could do it in my spaces but I couldn’t explain it well to others that wanted. Now I can just share this article (which I just did with my bestie) bc you truly made it easy to understand!! (Especially tints, shades, and undertones!) Thank you, Nick!
Those three greens in the middle are my favorite greens (or close to it) and used in 3 rooms in my home. I also have terracotta / salmon in 3 rooms (2 overlapping in the green rooms — the other green room has purple). I have black and the wheat/gold color. My background (wall, in the living room) is chocolate (and the dining is terracotta) and goes with the dark taupe sofa. That wallpaper would look great at a pattern in my living room… a great throw pillow. I have one neutral room with cushions that have some darker shades of the green / orange and it’s the only room where I’ve added blue (it works lol).
Something I’m struggling with is finding a 2 colours for a whole room. I’m moving into my first house soon and I’d like pale blue in the living room along with another lighter colour, but I can’t choose! Do I go with a white with blue undertones, or would that be too much blue? Or maybe a cream? But then would it look too busy? I may be overthinking it, but I’m really struggling. I don’t want much of the walls pale blue, so the rest would be all the lighter colour. I’m also considering painting the ceiling in it. I’m really not a fan of plain white
Here’s a thing. When I moved to Arizona 20+ years ago and was getting advice from new friends & neighbors, everyone said don’t use yellow on your walls or on large pieces of furniture, fabric, etc. The intense sun all year long with the sandy, bleached, reflective desert colors everywhere will make the yellow change color throughout the day and year. It will never look like it did on the sample. They are right. Yellow is a weird color in this environment.
For paint swatches on your wall… Paint up to the fixed elements like window and door trim. If you have wood floors, paint up to the floor. If you’re painting baseboards and casings, paint those with your swatch. Color will look different against a crisp white vs a dingy white painted a decade ago. Paint large swatches and in different spots. Paint in an area that gets good light and also a dark corner. Don’t paint samples lined up on one wall. The color with be influenced by the other options. One might be too dark, and one too light so you pick the middle, but on its own it’s still too dark. If you’re covering a color and need to prime, prime under your sample. It can definately change the color.
PSA for those grey wood floors- see if you can do an extra warm white on the walls to pull the warm tones out of the wood floors!! My friend did a remodel and her soon-to-be ex-husband (thank GOD) chose the awful grey wood floors. I got them to try warm white for the walls (so sorry can’t remember which) and it made the floors appear SO much warmer.
Paint on A4 paper and stick it to your wall, you can move it around and you don’t have the nuisance of having to cover over the tester patches on the wall! I’m not intending painting my walls anytime soon but I enjoy listening to Nick. 😂 I painted all my downstairs rooms white with white ceilings I’m going to change my cushions for the winter and add some candles instantly changing the mood. What colour white did I use? No idea. 😅😂
When I was trying to pick out colors, I learned pretty quickly that the LRV Rating really helped me narrow down paint colors or more specifically the brightness of the paint. Sorry, I don’t know the term but anyway, I figured out what a good range would be in my house and I kind of kept everything within a certain range. I knew if it was too low or too high of an LV it wasn’t gonna work.
Fantastic tips on how to select a color palette! Thanks so much. My home is a semi-open, large ranch design. It was impossible for me to select a palette.(I prefer color and didn’t want all white walls) I loved your wallpaper sample idea as a way to co-ordinate the colors I might use. I actually loved your wallpaper sample also!
Loved this article, very informative. So many aspects to consider when choosing a colour. Lighting, mood, tones. So interesting how you have picked the same coloured wall colour for your new home as the last. It looks more like cream than white in darker surroundings. Love that the clock is back. I hope you get batteries for it, so it can become a practical art piece.
So helpful 🙂 I would really love to paint my bathroom a deep moody colour but my concern is it looking random compared to the rest of my house. My house is all one colour, like a medium neutral tone. And is it just too dang random to have one room intentionally painted?? I’m not looking to paint everywhere else. What are your thoughts?
You are 100% correct. I brought in several paint samples into my house and because I have so much natural light it really affected how the paint appeared. Since I am one of those weird people who have to have all the walls the same color throughout the house, the color had to work in all the rooms with more and less light. Painting samples in each room definitely helped to narrow down to one color. And now I love having this color in all my rooms (softened green and dover white on trim from Sherwin Williams). Even my painter said those colors were gorgeous together! Also, I carry around my paint swatches and leather swatches from my couch and chairs so I could buy pieces that complimented those colors.
When a client tells me they HATE yellow, I start thinking about transferring them to a team member. I fear when one is adamant about their hate of yellow I think they have serial killer tendencies. A touch of yellow can make the other colors in the room feel more important. I can’t wear the color, but just to rule out a whole color in design is unfortunate and really is shortsighted. In my humble opinion of course All color comes from our 3 primary colors. Without yellow we can never get to greens.
Also the last section where you showed how to create a color palette, and specifically the bit where you brought in all of those samples together, is so great. I have a feeling you could make a whole article just doing a couples more examples like that. Would be a lot of work for you to go get all of those samples, but it’s so tangible and could likely help people with understanding.
i find it hard when i love both low contrast and high contrast palettes. i love a dreamy mood but i want some OOMPH. what i took away was maybe not intended, but it was pulling a shade from a low contrast palette to repeat around the room, but beefing the richness in it up a little (ie, the wheat colour in the flowers mixed with the somewhat deeper sheepskin or fuzzy thing lol) to create a new kind of contrast!!
I like to bring those little cards to my home to check against my drapes or upholstery to see if the undertones are fighting them. Then I buy the small cans and paint near the curtains so I can see how the colors relate. It’s a real process. But it has to be done. Nice work good sensible advice. 🥰👍🏻
Nick, your white walls, at least in the article, read yellowish pale green. It still looks good, but you really want them to read a warm white, you might have to opt for a very light salmon color. Maybe the day you decide to give your walls some of the love you advise us, like moldings and such you could give the color another shot.
Great info! How does one determine which ‘white’ to use in rooms facing different directions? I have a LR with south & west facing windows and a ‘den’ with only north facing windows. I love the white with green undertones in the LR but that color looks too ‘dark’ (? white) in the north facing room. I have a feeling I need a white with more yellow (?) to lighten up and perhaps general lighting changes? How do you all in the north deal with rooms with only north facing windows?
I’ve painted the public spaces in my house crushed oregano. My adult daughter likes to call it avocado just to bug me. It isn’t. It’s a color of green that tends to magically “feel” cool in the summer and warm in the winter. That’s important here in Arkansas, where both summers and winter both can be brutal due to the humidity. Because my house is fairly isolated, I don’t have window coverings, so natural light year round. I really, really want to paint my bedroom a dark, saturated color but having difficulty finding something that transitions well from the green.
Thanks. I understand now why interior designer pick a central piece for their mood board when they present the project to their customers 🙂 And why I don’t like some picture of interior design like the blue room (14:50) that you show wich is very monochrome and not inspiring. Picking only one color for a room is not so great in my opinion. That one of the reason I don’t like the “beige mom” movement : no depth.
Not sure this is the right way to approach choosing a colour palette for your home. 1 ) natural light coming in the room will restrict the colours you can use .With limited natural light using very dark colours doesnt work ( sorry even if its very trendy) 2) exposure of the room east, west, north, south again different exposures will drive your choice of colours 3) The use of the room kitchen, sitting room, bedroom…will require the use of certain colours . 4) How the colours work together in the house, how you move from one room to another seaminglessly 5) Finally the style of your house and natural environment .You dont decorate a normandie cottage, like a 18 century château or à modern flat in La Defense. You need to sort out those basics before you go out and choose your colour palette .It takes time and often exterior help to get this right .
the clock. the blinding chandelier. the SIX tiny chachkis (stavked coffee cups?) gathered bring my eye down a.d that miniscule lamp makes me want to scream! the SIX instead of FIVE chachkis under THE CLOCK! I LOATHE THE TALL DECANTER underneath THE CLOCK. but i love the scale of your didning table and i love the actual dining set. i wish i had a big space like that for dining.