ThinKinG Design: Get Your Design Questions Answered!

Q: How do I make the colors in the various rooms of my home work together and complement each other?

Ahh … color! A fresh coat of paint can change the whole mood of a room. It can make you feel productive or lazy, lively or relaxed, happy or melancholy. And the best thing about paint – it's relatively inexpensive and can be easily redone when tastes change.

START WITH YOUR FURNITURE
The first step in choosing color for your home is to assess your furniture. Determine which pieces are here to stay for another 5+ years – a reasonable lifespan for a paint job. Especially relevant are rugs, large upholstered pieces, draperies, and bedroom linens. Also, take this opportunity to think about shifting furniture around in your home, pairing pieces in different ways, and reinventing your interior for a fresh look.

ASSESS YOUR FLOOR PLAN
Next, look at your house plan. Take note of adjacent rooms, how your trim runs through spaces, whether doorways are framed or unframed, and architectural features like niches, stairwells, chimneys, and wainscoting. These elements will determine where color starts and stops. Also consider which areas of your home are public (entry, kitchen, dining, living room) and which are private (bedrooms, study,
bathroom).

DEVELOP YOUR PALETTE
I like to develop a palette based on floor plan divisions. So for example, I'll choose a three-color palette for the adjacent public rooms of entry, kitchen, and living room. Then I'll use those three colors in different combinations. The entry will be all Color A, walls and ceiling. The kitchen will have Color A on the ceiling and Color B on the walls. The living room will have Color B on the ceiling and Color C on the walls. In this way, the adjoining rooms weave and flow together. You can also play with the tonal value of colors. Maybe the darkest shade of a color is on the walls and the lighter shade of the same color is on the ceiling.

If you like intense colors, use them selectively and wisely. Mix these vibrant choices with more muted tones in your palette so as not to engulf and overwhelm your space. For the wood trim in any defined area of the house, choose one color and use that consistently.

"WHITE IS NEVER JUST WHITE"
If you like white, be sure to choose the "white" that works with your color palette, whether pure white, creamy, grayish, oyster, or peachy. Most paint companies offer "whites" paint cards so you can compare and choose the one that is right for your color palette.

DON'T RUSH COLOR
Once you've selected your preliminary palette, paint 3'x3' swatches and study them over the course of several days and nights. Note the change in the color based on natural and artificial light conditions in your home from sunrise to sunset. Consider seasonal variations like daylight savings time, deciduous trees, and blooming vegetation. Also note how your swatches of the same color can look very different on different walls of the same room.

If you don't like what you see, adjust your palette and swatch again before making your final decision. My best advice: don't rush color! And don't ever trust that a color you like in your friend's home will look the same in yours. Swatch and learn.