Color Schemes and Color Ideas Selecting an interior color scheme can be fun and easy. The trick is to make your public spaces work together. Public spaces are defined as the areas in the home which you may have guests: main hallways, powder room, kitchen, family room , dining room ,TV room , great room, and other similar type rooms. Coordinating the public spaces in a home is a key to making a home comfortable and inviting. 1. Create from the big picture. See the area as whole, not completely separate pieces. Consider how one room connects, physically and intellectually with another. Interior spaces require a connection to each other. 2. The goal is to create harmony. Harmony makes us comfortable and happy. As colors change from room to room they need to flow naturally and be in balance with one another. A home where every room is a different color doesn't make sense and makes people feel uneasy. 3. Choose your roadmap. It may be a piece of fabric, artwork, or a rug. Some item of your choosing serves as the color key to the whole area. It is from this piece that colors can be selected. Each color needs to appear in or coordinate with this piece. 4. Have a color theme. A color theme is a group of colors that support the particular look or feel of a home. They can be soft, bright, eclectic or quiet. Themes can reflect the environment such as nautical or earthy. Themes can reflect the personality of the inhabitants, whimsical and creative or traditional. There are hundreds of possibilities. Hotel lobbies are great examples of this. The lobby introduces the identity of the property. The lobby area of a well designed hotel sets the theme of the property and gives clues of what is to be expected elsewhere. This creates familiarity which makes us comfortable. A popular model home color theme in the last few years for has been beige and taupe. Why? Because it says absolutely nothing about the inhabitants personality which is why they put it in model homes. Unfortunately because people see it in a model they think it belongs in their home. No, no no. 5. Repetition is the secret weapon. Use the same color or alternative hue more than once in a different form. What is a wall color in one room may appear in another as the sofa color and reincarnated yet again in another room as the fringe on a pillow. It can be the exact same color or a hue darker or lighter depending on the theme.
Colors are should be easy and play well off each other. They must make sense. Some fabric, rug or artwork is used to bring the colors together. Balance, flow, connection, roadmap and theme are the fundamental words to keep in mind when planning the color scheme for the public spaces of an interior. The interior spaces need to be considered as a whole. The color scheme creates generates flow. Establishing a roadmap and theme give a color scheme purpose. Colors which make sense to the viewer, coordinate and work together create very comfortable environments people want to be in. This makes a successful interior. |