The feeling that it’s time for a change or time to the bare walls of a new home, nothing is as intimidating or as personal as picking the colour when choosing the look and feel of your home. Gathering your thoughts and picking a particular colour scheme can be one of the most daunting challenges. If you don’t get it right, you will be either stuck with something that hits you in the face each time you look at it, or you will just have to bear the costs associated with changing it.
Your personal preference dictates how you plan your colour scheme. “You can decide to colour the walls and purchase furniture that complements your colour scheme once you have bought a new home,” advises a manager from Luxury Serviced Apartments. You might have your fabrics and furniture and add colour for complementing these. The walls may lead the colour scheme or you could have neutral walls and leave the furniture to add dashes of colour.
Consider the Colour Scheme
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Monochromatic
A monochromatic colour scheme is one that uses tone on tone of similar colour with the addition of black or white to darken or lighten the colour. For instance, with greens, you can have a bottle green, a lime green, and a pale green that all combine for an effective colour scheme.
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Analogous
The analogous colour scheme is one that uses colours with shades close to each other. For instance, yellow to be used with orange or green while blue can be used with either purple or green. It creates a palette that’s colourful and often soothing.
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Contrast
A contrast colour scheme tends to be more dramatic. A triad of contrasting colours is typically used here, like a red-purple, green-blue, and yellow-orange. It helps to introduce more energy and colour into your home’s palette.
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Complementary
A complementary colour scheme uses two opposing colours, like orange and blue for the purpose of creating a colour scheme that’s bold, dramatic, and high energy.
Picking a Colour Scheme
After planning the colour scheme, you should not just rush off to buy the paints. Wall paints are relatively cheap and can be created in virtually any colour and hue that you prefer. It is advisable to start with the one-off or hard-to-find items like carpets, rugs, and furniture. Once you select the furnishings you are free to move to the wall colour.
When picking a colour palette, it is a good idea to start with contrasts by pairing something light with something dark. If you want to infuse some more energy and colour into your room, you should try adding something bright. What is your intended impact?
Use Furnishings to Add Colour
If you have no problem having pale walls, you can look to accessories, furnishings, and rugs for additional colour. When you are choosing colours, particularly the bolder ones or bright coloured furniture, ensure that they are crisp and that you have clean lines. If you prefer more subtle style, you should consider softer, subtler, neutral shades.
Getting a Good Flow
You should always test out colours using fabrics and paint swatches. Draw out your plans for the rooms and then sketch in the colours. If they do work on paper, you can try painting small sections of the walls. You can buy sample pots for this reason specifically.
Contrasting Colours
You may want a neutral or non-accent colour in an adjoining room or you may choose to work with contrasting tones too as long as there is some semblance of flow.
Finally, if the idea of infusing your space with some colour is something that you fancy, but are not quite ready to add it to the walls, you can use various strategies to add splashes of colour to your home. Keep the walls neutral i.e. whites, greys, ivories, sands, and pale beiges and then use lamps, furniture, throws, pillows, flowers, and artwork to bring colour in.