Choosing Room Colors for Your Home

Choosing Room Colors for Your Home

One of the fastest ways to change up the feel of your home is by incorporating color. Trends come and go, but color can give you that emotional attachment to your home. Use your design clipboard to gather samples of colors and fabrics as this will help you to be able to put effective colorings together.

Picking the right color may seem daunting, but if you pull this off well, you’ll end up with a home that you can be proud of. The trick is to choose colors that will help you achieve that effect that you’re going for. There are different ways to pick out color but the best way is to choose colors that don’t just look good together, but also give you the right feel for your room.

The first thing that you need to understand about picking color is that you need to think of the psychological aspect of colors. You need to pick out colors that will not only appeal to you but also be appropriate for the room. Color is one of the best ways to achieve harmony in your overall home design so make sure to choose wisely.

As a rule of thumb, lighter shades of color can make a room look bigger, while darker shades give it that sophisticated feel. So aside from picking out a color you like, make sure to choose colors that would match the room’s purpose and the desired overall look. Here’s a list of colors and the effect they can have on your home.

Red
Red is a great choice if you want energy in a space. The warmness of red can draw people together and stimulate conversation. Although it may create a strong impression at first, you can offset this by incorporating neutrals in your color palette. Physically, red is known to raise blood pressure and heart rate so think twice before choosing this color for your bedroom. Red, however, would work perfectly for a living room or dining room space if you do a lot of entertaining.

If you examine the next photograph, you will note that the use of red was quite subtle and it added to the richness of the wood color of the furniture. This gives the room a traditional but well established classical look and that’s what many new homes lack. Red can do that if you choose the shade of red carefully.

In this room setting, the red chosen is subdued. What that does is give the home a richness without being overstated. It warms the room and makes it very welcoming and the homeowner has used the coloring of the wall to reflect into the picture frames on the wall of the opposing color. That’s clever incorporation of color. If you can’t afford the frames you want, you can always paint up old ones and use them. A simple coat of undercoat and topcoat and you will get great results.



Yellow
Yellow is fun, vibrant and happy - perfect for spaces that need brightness like the kitchen or bathroom. Yellow can be energizing and uplifting so if you have any odd spaces in your home that need a bit of life, then yellow is definitely the color. But be warned. Yellow may not have a calming effect on some people. Studies show that people are more likely to get into an argument and babies tend to cry more in a yellow room. So if you’re going to incorporate yellow into your color scheme, make sure that it isn’t overpowering or avoid the nursery altogether.

Yellow in a kitchen can look rather nice, though pale yellows are preferred. These open up space and make it look clean and crisp which is why pale yellow is often used for a wall coloring in a bathroom or kitchen


Blue
Blue gives off a relaxing and serene feel, making it perfect for your bedrooms or any room that you want to have a peaceful feel. The downside, however, is that a blue room can make it seem uninviting and chilly, especially if you’re going to use a dark blue shade. The results can be sad and depressing if you don’t offset it with some warmer colors. If you want blue to have a calming effect on your room, choose brighter or softer tones like periwinkle or cerulean as your main room color. Blues work best in rooms that receive lots of natural light.


For smart contrast between colors, white works well with blue and gives the whole area a very clean feel. Look at the image below and you will see how blue can be introduced without actually being the main shade in the room, although it still retains its dominance over the style of the room


Green
Green is the color that is considered to be the most restful for the eyes, making it perfect for your family room or living room. If you’re looking for a color that combines calming blue and cheery yellow, then this is perfect for you. Green gives that perfect balance of cool and happy so you can use it as a main color for decorating just about any room. This color helps relieve stress and gives your room a fresh feeling so it would definitely work well in a home office.

If you go back to the times of William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement, green was commonly used because of its links with nature. Some of the most stunning rooms use the arts and crafts paper to this day and still look wonderful. If you can’t afford to do a whole room, why not have a panel? You can make one by buying a plain frame and simply wallpapering on a piece of card large enough to be placed within that frame. Making panels to fit the walls of your home also gives you instant artwork at a fraction of the price, so you can make your home look stylish even on a stretched budget.




Purple
Purple is dramatic, rich and sophisticated, making it perfect for rooms that you want a lot of creativity in. The dark shades make great accent colors, while the lighter shades can bring a restful feel to the bedroom. Since purple isn’t actually a go to color for many designers, you can use it to add impact to an otherwise drab room.

In the style shown below, purple is used to give the room a very grown up look and although used in small quantities, actually adds an awful lot to the ambiance of the bathroom, with the colors softened by painted floorboards and white backdrop to match with the stylized bathtub. None of the decorative elements used need to be that expensive but they do create a very expensive look. Even if your perfume bottles or shampoo bottles are only used as decoration, having bottles with purple liquid in them helps to keep the whole look in harmony.



Orange
Orange is all about excitement and energy so you can use this color for the kitchen or the living room. It will also look great in the kids’ play area. Although it’s not a very good idea for the bedroom, it can do wonders in your exercise space. The cheery energetic color might just be the thing you need to get through the most tiring exercise routine. Imagine the richness of color in a Moroccan home and you will also be able to see that mixed with dark red, it can actually make the room look warm even on a winter’s day, but be sure that the furnishings that you use are not overly colorful as this will mean that you have too much color in the room and this can confuse the style.



Neutrals
To get the desired effect from your chosen colors, you also need to incorporate tried and tested neutrals into your palette. The great thing about choosing neutral colors is how flexible they can be. It allows you to use just about any color you want without coming off too overpowering. You can add black, gray, brown, or white accents to tone down a strong red room, or liven up a dark blue room. Adding neutral colors into the mix can give your room much needed depth.

Now that you’ve got colors sorted out, it’s time to start planning that room makeover. But before you go on a buying spree, learn how you can keep your interior design project within budget. The next chapter will teach you the budgeting tricks that interior designers are not telling you about.