Immerse yourself in color!

So, what is a color scheme?

It’s a grouping of compatible colors that captures a mood and soothes the soul.

You can change your life with color. It has the power to calm, energize and, yes, depress you, but let’s not go there…….

It’s a journey, one you can take through a house, creating a dramatic impression in one room and flowing to a more soothing iteration in another. The best color scheme is one that flows and evolves from room to room depending on function and size.

As a home decorator, when I work on a wall paint color scheme, I first consider the personality of the client and, then, the function of the room. Is the room super-functional such as a kitchen or bathroom or is it a dining-room that gets less traffic than others? The “theme” comes next. This is a vital step to keep your color scheme on track, flowing easily from room to room instead of descending into a hodgepodge. This is the story you tell yourself and your guests through your home. The “theme” can be as simple as a painting you possess (or want to…), your favorite heirloom or an obsession with a dreamt-of travel destination. It can be three colors with complementary tones or 10 colors depending on your appetite for color and size of your home. The most fascinating schemes are ones that feature both dark and light colors and complementary accent colors, that flow from room to room with one color dominating in one room that continues as a unifying accent color in other rooms through paint, art, collectibles, fabric accessories or furniture…. Don’t be afraid to take a risk with colors inside the house – it’s worth it.

Imagine, you start with your foundation colors, Pure White and Clotted Cream, for example. I love using two almost “white” colors together in different textures such as matte, gloss and stucco for real depth….. then you add a controversial color such as Black as another “main” color and Tobacco for a very important secondary color. Then you layer in Light Turquoise and  Saddle Brown (be adventurous, try a metallic Bronze…) as accents……

Plan how you are going to use this interior color scheme….. walk through your house…do you have a small foyer or entryway that tends to get forgotten about? Try to remedy this with an intense dark color such as the Tobacco – with, for example, Turquoise trim. It might be a small room and not one you spend a lot of time in but will make a very memorable greeting area for your guests and an exciting “welcome home” for you.

Is your living area a large communal living/dining/kitchen space? It can be hard to decide on a color that will be so dominant….. try breaking up the room into distinct areas through color….. a Clotted Cream with accents of Light Turquoise and Tobacco in trim and window woodwork in a colorful living room area….. then transition into the dining area with Tobacco as your dominant color and the Clotted Cream with flashes of Turquoise as accents.

Don’t forget the Black. Try mixing a matte finish with Black high gloss or metallic for a highly sophisticated look. A black wall can also be a wonderful backdrop for an art collection……..

I encountered the same dilemma in my house….. a maize yellow room …… and couldn’t bear to take the safe route so I decided to break up my living, dining, kitchen and hallway into areas of complementary colors and took a risk…… my living area became an Amazonian beetle metallic green, my fireplace became a mix of metallic green and metallic mid blue.…… the balance of the dining area and the hallway became dark purple that appears black in some lighting conditions…….

The metallic provides a wonderful backdrop to my extensive, black-framed art collection of meat-eating birds and medical lithographs…. Looking like a glistening blend of hunter green and teal. The palette was a risk but one worth taking….

So, take a color risk – it’s well worth it!