Pick a color, any color.
If only choosing a color palette for your interiors were that easy. It may be, thanks to designer Mark McCauley. The author of Home Color Therapy:Real-Life Solutions to Add Color to Your Life , Offers eight tips to help you discover your color preferences and adopt white walls.
Tip #1. Choose a color scheme from the largest pattern in the space.
If you have patterned upholstery, an oriental rug, or a large piece of art, draw whatever colors you like from the drawing. For a neutral wall paint color, look at the whites and beiges in the pattern.
Tip #2. Start with the formal areas of the house.
Specifically, the living room, dining room and entrance. Pick a color scheme for those areas first, then pull a color from the scheme. For example, take the red sofa and tone it down (say, to burgundy) for an accent in more private spaces like the den, office, or bedroom.
Phyllis Harbinger mimics nature in this traditional living room:deep hardwood floors and rugs, followed by mid-tone beige walls and furniture, and finished off with a crisp white ceiling.
Tip #3. Decorate your space from dark to light, vertically.
A true "cookbook" way to make any space look good without too much risk, says Mark, is to use darker color values for the floor, medium color values for the walls, and light values for the ceiling.
"Any interior space replicates the outside world," he says. "The outdoor environment is generally darker below our feet (the earth itself), medium value when looking straight ahead (buildings/trees), and lighter values toward the sky."
Tip # 4. Study the color of your clothes..
Most people buy clothes in the colors they like to wear and think they look good. Likewise, you should decorate your rooms in the colors that you look good in. "If you don't wear yellow, don't get a yellow couch," Mark says. "You'll look sick."
Complementary colors, the opposites of each other in the ruffle, like red and green, provide more definition and tend to make rooms more formal and exciting like this dining nook by designer Sue Adams. (Photo by Sam Gray)
Tip #5. Use the color wheel.
In general, analogous color schemes (colors next to each other on the color wheel, like blue and green) are more casual and calming, and work best in casual or private spaces. This is a good strategy for a bedroom, where you want to rest and recover.
Whichever color scheme you choose, Mark recommends putting something black in every room. "Black lightens the rest of the colors in the room," he says. Try a black screen, a black vase, or a black picture frame.
Tip #6. Use the 60-30-10 rule.
"When decorating a space, break the colors in the space into components of 60 percent a dominant color, 30 percent a secondary color, and 10 percent an accent color," says Mark. The walls will most likely be the majority, the upholstery would represent the secondary color, and accessories such as a flower arrangement or pillows will make up the rest. "Works every time!" he says. "The colors are properly balanced and there is a color photo (10 percent color) for interest."
This vanity room, designed by Susan Fredman &Associates, Ltd., is dressed in recycled leather scraps and accented with bronze fixtures, a sexy color palette that makes the space intimate. (Photo by Nick Novelli of Novelli Photodesign)
Tip #7. Go with the architecture.
If you have a small room in your house, don't paint it white to make it look bigger. Instead, accommodate your architecture with a warm, rich color scheme. Let your large rooms expand with light, and your small rooms envelop and care for you.
Tip # 8. Follow your personal style.
If you decorate honestly, other people will appreciate it because it's you, even if they never decorated their own home the same way. That means if you want every room in your house to be red, white, and blue, go for it. You can make any color look good as long as it's to your liking.
