Tips on Choosing the Perfect Colour Palette for Any Room

One of the most exciting, and most challenging, parts of custom home interior design is nailing down a colour scheme to work with.  Many homeowners find choosing the right colours to be nearly impossible – like, how are there so many shades of white? But before you throw in the towel and decide to paint everything in Burrowing Owl Grey, here are some pro tips on choosing a unique colour palette that reflects your personality and style.

Take a Cue from Things You Already Own

Look around your home, open your closet, and flick through your Pinterest. Is there an underlying pattern appearing in the colour choices you have already made? If so, these colours should be the basis for your other colour selections in your home interior design. Even if you are starting from scratch, there is no sense in choosing an entirely blue palette for a living room because it’s in style, if you really prefer rustic reds and browns, or neutral beiges and greys.

Inspiration can also come from something you’ve seen that you must have for your new home. This could be as significant as a sofa or as small as a vase. Paint comes in just about every colour imaginable, but if you’ve fallen in love with a particular item, then it makes sense to use that as the starting point for making other colour selections.

Choosing Your Colour Scheme

Using blue from the previous example, assuming you like blue, you can move on to the colour wheel. This nifty little tool can make choosing a colour scheme a breeze. There are several types of colour schemes based on the colour wheel, some of the most popular in interior home design are:

• Monochromic colour schemes are comprised of different shades and tones of the same colour or hue.
• Analogous colours are located right next to each other on the colour wheel.
• Complementary colours are located opposite each other on the colour wheel.

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In a monochromatic blue scheme, for example, your palette could consist of a primary neutral, this could be a cool tone white, along with a light and darker shade of blue. In an analogous scheme, you could use a shade of blue as the primary colour with a blue-green as the secondary colour. The 60-30-10 design rule is very popular for home interior design; 60 percent of your colour scheme should be in the dominant colour, 30 in a secondary colour, and 10 percent in an accent colour.

Consider the Style of Your Home

This can be one of the most challenging parts of paint selection, particularly if you are choosing colours before construction on your home is finished. However, you are not truly starting from a blank canvas. Wait, what? By the time it comes to choosing paint colours, the layout of your home has been finalized, and major selections like flooring, cabinetry, and countertops have been ordered, and possibly even installed. If you have chosen warm woods for your floors or cabinetry, you’ll want to stick with warmer tones, whether you are looking for the right shade of white or a pop of colour. By sticking with the right tone, you’ve already narrowed down your options significantly.

And Remember That Every Room Doesn’t Have to Be the Same

When choosing your paint, you want to pick a palette that will complement what is already going into your home, as well as being mindful of how space flows. It’s easy to separate upstairs from downstairs and go with completely different colour schemes, however, if your main living space is quite open, you’ll want to consider how the spaces flow into each other. That doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun with colour though. For example, if you know you want a blue feature wall in your living room, consider carrying that over as a secondary colour or accent into your dining room and kitchen.

Also Read: How a Laneway Home Can Help Maximize Your Home’s Potential