Design Diva is tired of all of the white and monochromatic designs out there. I’ve had a white kitchen. I’ve done the white walls with the lovely textured silk duvet cover on my bed. I’ve lived with cream, beige, and brown, and I have to say that I’m done with them. And so are a lot of other people, because I see more color come into design this year.
Color can be tricky, especially when you are working with patterns, but it adds so much dimension to a room. Here are a few simple steps to put a punch of color into your home without feeling overwhelmed by it.
1. Think about your style. Are you traditional? Do you love farmhouse? Have some fabulous mid-century furniture you want to use? Want to focus on a collection of modern art? Think people have too much stuff and want to go minimalist? Memories of an old beach house make you smile?
Pull pictures of rooms that you love out of magazines and off the internet. Create a mood board on Pinterest.
I do believe that you need to place your mood board in your home to see if it works because your style does have to work with your physical space. I saw a famous designer try to do farmhouse in a mid-century modern home, and it just didn’t work. Make sure your decor and your home’s style work together.
2. Start with neutral floors, walls and ceilings. These are the backbone of the look and feel of your home. Just like the foundation of your house, your room needs a foundation and floors, walls, and ceilings provide that for your rooms.
More traditional homes are going to have darker wood floors, while walls can have more intense muted colors. Some of the Colors of the Year that work with traditional styles are Ace Hardware’s Pineapple Cream Granita, Sherwin-Williams’ Cavern Clay, and Pantone’s Living Coral.
For those who want a more modern look, lighter wood floors in large plank styles are great. I worked with a client who had a large collection of modern art, like Red Groom and pieces similar to those of Boro Art Crawl artist, Diane Marsella. Cream walls and a pine floor set a perfect stage for artwork that is a sea of colors and shapes.
3. Work from floor to ceiling, dark to light. Some designers choose colors other than white for a ceiling, especially in the south where a light shade of blue can frequently be seen on screened in porches and bedrooms.
Pair colored ceilings with darker floors, and walls. Or use darker furniture, like a statement couch in dark blue velvet. Heavier wood antiques are another option, as are area rugs.
4. Stick to three colors. A home should have three main colors running throughout that tie the rooms together. There should be a dominant color, a secondary color, and an accent color. Then you can experiment with variations of these colors.
Play with the color wheel when choosing your colors. Colors next to each other on the wheel are analogous and using them together makes design easy as they work well together. Colors across from one another on the wheel are complementary and provide contrast. If you are adventurous, you can use a triad, colors that are evenly spaced from each other on the wheel, however, this can be trickier.
5. Keep it simple. If we have learned nothing else from Marie Kondo, we have learned that we have too much stuff and that less is more. However, my less and your less may be very different and less doesn’t mean minimalistic.
What less does mean is having more awareness of the amount of color in a room, from the jacket on a book, to the flower in a vase. Make sure that it all works together and creates the style, feel, and mood that you want.
It Really is All About Love
Design is about balance of style, color, feel, usage, and most of all, love. Make sure you choose colors that enhance the way you want to live and choose colors that you love.
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