How to Use Color in Your Home

Have you toured a show house or model home and thought, “How can I get my house to look like this?”. There are many elements that go into designing and decorating a beautiful home, but the balance of color is key. It’s the element that will make your home “flow” as you progress from one room to the next.

• The Rule of Three: When decorating your home, select a palette of three colors you would like to have as the primary colors in your home. These colors would be used for your paint, fabrics, area rugs and accessories. Neutrals, such as whites/beiges and blacks/soft grays, don’t technically count as colors, so you don’t need to consider them. The same applies to stained wood furniture and hardwood flooring.

• Proportion of Color: Individual rooms in your home can showcase all three colors in your palette, or just one or two of them. If you choose to use more than one color in a room, one of those colors should be the dominate color. For example, if your palette is red, blue and green, use a formula such as 60% green, 30% red and 10% blue. The idea is to have a tier of color, with a dominate, subordinate and accent. If you only use two colors, work with a 70% to 30% ratio. I designed the colors and fabrics in this guest bedroom room of a French Country style home. The dominate fabric was a blue & white toilé, and the entire room was purely blue & white ~ charming!

• Kid’s Rooms Don’t Count: This is one instance where you can break the rules of the color scheme. Children’s rooms are fun and unique to them, and most likely never match the rest of the home’s color palette. So, go ahead and let them express themselves!

Check back weekly for more decorating and home improvement tips, and until then remember ...

Everyone deserves a home they love ~ Inside and Out!