How to Pick a Color Scheme for your Home

color choices for your home


Traditionally people choose to decorate or color the interior of their home white. But as time passes people realize that monochromatic whiteness might not be the most wonderful thing in the world. For example, making the whole house white might remind people of a dystopian novel, like The Anthem by Ayn Rand, where everything is all white, everything and everyone is the same. A house, much like everything else in your life, should be, to a certain degree at least, a form of self-expression. That is why more and more people are looking to break the chains of monochromatic color scheme and bring more joy, wonder, and pleasure to every room that they have in their house.

If you are one of those people who has finally said: “Enough is enough, I need more color in my everyday surroundings”, this is the article for you. We will touch upon every idea every color scheme concept that will and should help you decide how and why you can brighten the interior of your home.

Knowing the Right Color or Colors

The vast majority of people struggle and overthink the color scheme of their house. Picking the right color can be an endless struggle, with countless back and forths on this color or that. So people try to stay away from picking many colors because they just think they will go through that endless struggle not with the whole house but with each room on its own. And we admit, that prospect might seem anxiety-inducing.

But let us start with the basics. First, we will look at the colors. There are three distinct ways that we can separate our everyday colors:

  1. Primarily colors- this first group includes red yellow and blue. Some people include white and black in this list, but art majors would disagree with that, as well as physicists since they are not colors per se. They would just tell you that white is pure light and that black is space devoid of any light, so technically not colors.
  2. Secondary colors – This group includes, green, purple, and orange. They are a combination of two primary colors. So green is a mix of yellow and blue. Purple is a mix of red and blue. Finally, orange is, you guessed it, a combination of yellow and red.
  3. Tertiary colors – an additional mix of the first group with the second group to create certain shades or hues that complement each other. For example, violet a mixture of blue and purple is one of the most popular tertiary colors, as well as magenta.

Color Scheme Index

There are four distinct ways in which we can categorize color schemes. Here they are:

  1. Monochromatic – translated into English monochromatic means one color. But that is not necessarily the case with a monochromatic way of arranging or coloring your house. In most cases, monochromatic means picking a base color like gray or blue. After that you experiment with various shades or hues of the first, founding color until you figure out what shade or hue fits what room in your house the best.
  2. Analogous – In other words, analogous means colors that follow each other on the color wheel. So for example a natural progression would be red, orange, to yellow. This could be a lot of fun if you have a lot of rooms that are connected not by doors but naturally glide one into another. So for example, you have a living room that is connected to your dining room. You can make your living room blue, which is a chill and relaxing color, and you can make your dining room, green or purple.
  3. Contrast – This type of color scheme is hit and miss with a lot of people. It is based on brightness and some would argue color shock when you walk from one room into the next. In general, a contrast color scheme will combine two colors that are thought of as progressions, so for example blue into green.
  4. Complementary – Out of the 4 different layouts of your potential color scheme this is by far the boldest. If you want to spark people with color and vigor you will pick this one. What it does is to propose that you combine colors that are thought of as complete opposites. So for example, you could color your living room blue but the room next to it orange.

Key Choices To Make

The foundation of your color scheme should be the color of your home walls. There are a lot of reasons for that. The first reason is that they are the least expensive thing. Wall paint is cheap, so if you don’t like the way your house is painted you can always redo it. And the second reason for making your walls the foundation of your scheme is the fact that it is easy to change. With a bit of experience and help from the internet, everyone can easily paint a room.

You must know your home inside and out. Imagine what it would feel like when you walk from one room to another and you see color X on the walls. This can be especially tricky for new homeowners. Light strikes your house and your walls differently throughout the year, so knowing the right shade of color for a certain room can be a lot to think about.

That is why you should start from the biggest room or most lived-in room in your house. In most cases that is your living room. Consider its location, how much color it has during each of the four seasons, etc. Besides, you have to think about how it connects with other rooms in the house. So for example, if you dread cooking, you might want to color your living room a bit more relaxing but your kitchen with a bit more brightness and color in hopes that it relives the dread of doing something that you dislike but have to do. The classic choices for the color of your living room walls are white and lighter shades of blue.

The second approach to this issue could be based on your will and feeling alone. If you have lived in your house for quite some time, you will notice that you have certain moods when you enter a certain room. Color helps to augment those feelings to your desire. With the help of color, you can amplify or decrease the effect of that feeling. This is especially great if that feeling is negative and has a stronghold over you. It is your home and your will. It doesn’t matter if you go very complimentary or contrasting. Let us say you have issues with your mother in law who comes over and stays in the guest room. You might want to paint the walls black or red.

The third approach to this could be recreation. If you moved to a snowy part of your country from somewhere warm you might want to make life easier on yourself with a bit of nostalgia that recaptures the way it was living in say Hawaii.

Matching Tones in Your Color Scheme with Items

Since furniture is a lot more expensive than wall paint you might have to consider what colors on your walls would go easily with your furniture or other expansive items that you might have around your house or on your walls. You can also amplify the effect of the wall paint with a little bit of help from accessories. For example, rugs are not the most expensive thing in the world, but they can add a bit of flair or be the additional spark that gives a room life.

Another way to do this is by adding artwork. For some people, painting the walls is the last phase of their home renovation or home reinvigoration. If the last sentence also applies to you we suggest that you keep your walls neutral for now. White is a classic and universal way to make your walls look good and it goes with almost everything on your walls. In addition to a white wall, you can also add a couple of pieces of artwork, like paintings with bright colors. Our choices would be paintings of still nature, with a lot of green or blue.

Different Approaches for Different Levels of the House

If you have a home that has two or more levels then we must suggest that you try and approach every single level as its own entity. You can pick a foundation color for every level and paint various rooms with different shades of said color. If you have indoor steps that connect your first floor to your second floor we suggest that you paint that area with a color that is between the one you use as the foundation on your first floor and the one you are planning to use on your second floor.

For example, you have chosen this color scheme, blue on the first floor and yellow on the second floor. This means that you will probably paint the area where your steps are green. But that is just one way of approaching a house that has more than one level to it.

Another way to approach the color scheme in a house with more levels is to paint the walls of the lower levels with a neutral color like white, or something quite easy on the eye like a gentle, welcoming shade of blue, azure comes to mind. If you have a layout of your house that has the living room, kitchen, and office space on the first floor and the bedrooms are located on the second floor, you might want to keep the second floor a lot more dynamic than what you have on the first floor. This is especially the case if you have children. Kids love and thrive when they have their very own space. This is where you throw all the rules out the window. When it comes to their rooms, let their little imagination sprout and take over. Color their rooms to their heart’s desire and don’t worry how it looks or combines with the rest of the house.

choosing a color palette

Additional Questions You Might Have About Color Scheme

What if I love patterns that are mostly checkered or stripes?

If this is the case then you should not worry too much, but you will need to make those beloved patterns stand out. The best way to do that is to let them be the standout thing, something that you notice right away as you enter the room. You can accomplish that by considering using colors that are softer and more neutral than those on your beloved pattern.

How can I maximize my love for color shading?

If you are really into monochromatic expression and your color scheme is just one color, yellow or blue, you will need to pay extra attention to the way light interacts with the rooms you want to paint or decorate. In most cases, designers take a from down to up approach to colors. In other words, you will go as dark as possible in the lower parts of your room. As you go towards the ceiling of your room you will look to bring in brighter and brighter tones of your desired color. Even a monochromatic color scheme can work wonders with imagination.

How Can I Be Sure What my Favorite Colors are?

Not everyone is always aware of what they like and dislike, but our subconscious mind is always active and does the work for us. If you are not sure what your favorite colors are, just look into your closet. This was suggested by a Chicago Painting Company and it works 99% of the time with their clients. Most people instinctively buy clothes that are in their favorite color. Take that as a clue and paint your home so it goes with your everyday outfits.

What is the Best Way To Balance Multiple Colors in a Single Room?

For those who love a color scheme with a lot of colors, it could be a struggle to balance it all out. That is why designers look at what Renaissance artists did and created a 60-30-10 rule. Pick three colors. The first color will be the dominant color and it will represent 60% of the color in that room, the second will get 30% and the third color gets the remaining 10%.